CIS Student Named SUNY Student Fellow
State University of New York Chancellor Nancy Zimpher announced this week that SUNY Buffalo State student Terrance Wilson has been named to SUNY’s first class of student fellows—a group of eight students who will work with SUNY leadership over the next year to shape the system’s use of data and transform the student experience.
The announcement was made at SUNY’s third annual “Critical Issues in Higher Education” conference in New York City this week, Building a Smarter University: Big Data, Innovation, and Ingenuity.
“The ability to manage and accurately analyze data is a skill that is increasingly important in today’s marketplace,” said Chancellor Zimpher. “Learning from experts from across the globe at this week’s conference, the SUNY student fellows will play a critical role in helping SUNY to educate and prepare future generations of students for this challenge. Selected by their campus provosts for this designation, our student fellows have each shown an interest in and capacity for using big data to enhance their academic and professional pursuits, and we are proud to partner with them as we determine the best uses for Big Data in the future of higher education.”
The conference brought together international experts and thought leaders to examine how the emergence of big data can help higher education improve the student learning experience, enhance research, maximize resources, support effective community outreach, strengthen the education pipeline, and advance university infrastructure.
Wilson is a computer information systems (CIS) student at Buffalo State. He is slated to obtain his bachelor’s degree in the fall of 2014, and hopes to go on to pursue a master’s in business administration or management information systems. Wilson fine-tunes his understanding of the C++ language through educating others. He is currently a teaching assistant for the intro to C++ programming course and tutors in the subject.
He sharpens his technical and interpersonal skills as a student technician for computing services at the college. Wilson also serves as the academic excellence chair of the National Society of Black Engineers’ chapter executive board at Buffalo State. His current academic and professional interests include systems analysis, project management, and computer programming.
“The complexity of Information systems is continuously increasing, calling for leaders with advanced analytical and management skills,” said William Lin, chair and associate professor of CIS. “One of Terrance’s career objectives is to learn how to harness and manipulate large amounts of data, and apply them to society’s benefit. We are proud to have Terrance represent Buffalo State and the CIS Department as a SUNY Student Fellow.”
The interests of the eight fellows span the disciplines of healthcare, computer science, communication, finance, math, and education.