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ACS News

ACS staff, Information Age

15/02/2007 14:31:07

ACS Foundation scholarship gives springboard to IBM

When University of Newcastle student Echelle Royston was awarded an ACS Foundation Work Integrated Learning Scholarship in 2006, she had no idea how much her work placement would change her, both professionally and personally.

She had completed a Bachelor of Management majoring in marketing and HR at the university's Central Coast campus and was half-way through her Honours year when she began a six-month placement with IBM's Application Management Services (AMS) Department. She was selected for the scholarship on her academic results, interview and motivation. The area of work experience and the skills she gained during her scholarship were relevant to her academic studies.

"After four years of full-time study, IBM was a real wake-up call," she said. "Before then, I was in uni mode, knew how to work the system and was pretty laid back about my studies.

"However, from the first day of my scholarship with IBM, I had to step up. They treated me as one of the team and expected me to perform and deliver results. I worked on real projects, providing communications and sales support to companies across a wide range of sectors. There was a number of situations where my manager really threw me in the deep end and I had to sink or swim. I'm proud to say that I swam!"

When she looks back at her first two months with IBM, Royston says the words "extremely challenging" come to mind. However she believes this steep learning curve was the best move she could have made for her career.

"I can honestly say that I learned more in that six months with IBM than the entire four years I spent as a university student. IBM exceeded my expectations in every way. The guidance and mentoring I received was invaluable to my presence as a business professional and I was never treated as a student."

Working at IBM made a dramatic change in her attitude towards work and study: "Not only have I become really motivated to get things done quickly and deliver results, but I also conduct myself in a much more professional manner. I know that if I had completed the scholarship earlier in my degree, I would've been much more focused and driven when I returned to uni."

Although working at IBM was a long-held dream, she knew that her chance of gaining a position fresh from university was quite low, considering the competition. The scholarship allowed her to work with and learn from some highly talented and intelligent people, as well as enabling her to experience first-hand the different departments and the prospects for graduates.

"This opportunity has proven to be invaluable both in terms of my personal and professional development. Working in AMS gave me ready access to some very senior people within IBM and I took the opportunity to learn as much as I could and start building my own professional network. This gave me valuable resources and ensured that the right people were aware that I was performing well."

Shortly before the end of her six-month placement last December, IBM offered her a permanent role in resource management which she eagerly accepted. While she knows that she earned the position on the strength of her own performance and merits, she is extremely grateful for the opportunity her scholarship afforded.

"My scholarship allowed me to answer all those lingering questions that popped up throughout my university degree. Was the corporate world really for me? Did I choose the right degree? Is the business world really all that different from the theory we studied at uni?

"My work experience also made the transition to a permanent role much easier since I already knew so much about the organisation and how it operated."

Now a full-time member of the workforce, she still plans to complete her Honours thesis this year, fitting her studies around her IBM commitments.

She was the guest speaker at a recent networking event put on by the University of Newcastle, which allowed local employers to come in and check out some of the talent coming through the pipeline.

"I detailed my experiences as a student at IBM, highlighting the benefits of the scholarship program and how it has enhanced my career," she said. "I really encouraged all the students present to apply for scholarships and add that practical, real-world dimension to their education.

"When it comes to getting that first job, you have to do whatever you can to get your foot in the door. I highly recommend scholarships, not only for the invaluable experience, but because they provide the opportunity to build your network with key personnel, which is vital in snagging that dream job.

"I can't thank IBM and the ACS Foundation enough for providing me with the opportunity to realise my own dream," she said.

________

Global professional recognition for ICT closer

Peak ICT bodies convene to advance practitioner, industry status

A high-level task force representing computer societies from four countries will add impetus to the drive for world recognition of professional status for individual ICT practitioners, IT systems users and suppliers.

Held in Cape Town in January, the meeting was held under the aegis of the International Federation for Information Processing, IFIP, and comprised senior representatives of societies from Australia (ACS), Canada (CIPS), South Africa (CSSA) and UK (BCS).

The task force is led by Charles Hughes, Immediate Past President of the BCS.

The meeting addressed key issues facing the IT industry including lack of clarity of international professional skills and qualifications and worldwide mobility of IT professionals.

Each of the societies has a national scheme to provide public recognition to qualified members. However, these schemes lack visibility outside their own countries.

Charles Hughes said: "Global industries need global professions to promote high professional standards worldwide and to give public recognition to qualified practitioners".

"In the modern world, the IT industry is a global business with many international organisations requiring increasing mobility among individual members of the IT workforce. Hence employers face growing uncertainty when recruiting staff from outside their own countries."

Basie von Solms, IFIP President-Elect, commented: "To achieve recognition, IT professionals will require an accredited combination of education and experience, as well as undertaking continuing professional development and committing themselves to a code of ethics."

The meeting agreed to report its findings to the IFIP Council at the end of February and seek agreement to develop more detailed proposals to establish the scheme as well as agreeing to a governance structure.

After acceptance of the report, leading IT organisations will be invited to participate in the development and launch of the program.

"The Computer Professional (CP) Program that the ACS has launched last year will become a pivotal step towards this global initiative as it provides ICT professionals in Australia who are taking up this CP Program a distinctive advantage to have their professional practice and conduct recognised both local and globally" said Bob Hart, ACS Professional Standards and Development Manager.

IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) has around 50 member societies with an aggregate membership of over 500,000 individuals. Contact details on www.ifip.org _________

Consensus Awards honour IT professionals

Some of Australia's most respected ICT practitioners were recognised with Consensus Awards last December. They were presented jointly by ACS CEO Dennis Furini and Senator Ursula Stephens, Senator for NSW and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Science and Water.

IT Professional of the Year The highest award went to Stephen McWhirter, the VP of Hewlett-Packard Software for Asia Pacific and Japan. A 21-year veteran of the ICT industry, Mr McWhirter was honoured for consistently over achieving in roles at Red Hat, IBM and Olivetti.

IT Professional Lifetime Achievement The IT Professional Lifetime Achievement Award recognised two individuals for their long-term contributions: Pam Morris and Ted Smillie.

Pam Morris has long played an important role in the international software metrics industry, promoting the importance and application of software measurement for business and IT professionals.

Ted Smillie is a founding member of the Software Quality Association (SQA) and its predecessor, and has spent many hours helping to drive understanding and adoption of quality techniques and methodologies in the software industry.

IT Professional Major Project This award, which recognises professionals who have applied ICT to solve a major business problem, was also shared between two outstanding performers:

Richard Deck was honoured for his role in integrating eight disparate billing engines supporting three million customers at AGL, while Cecilia Gagarin helped Financial Network Services's BANCS Benchmark Project 2006 to set a new world record for banking systems performance.

IT Professional Community Award Simon Malian was recognised in this category for his work with the Malian Foundation, a global network of volunteers which provides ICT services to charities and not for profit organisations around the world.

IT Professional Service to the Industry Award ACS Fellow Bhuvan Unhelkar received the Service to Industry Award for his work as a researcher, academic, writer and presenter. He has been a major contributor to ACS and SQA seminars and workshops, is a prolific author and is highly regarded for his robust research and analysis. _______

Invest in your people - Professional Partner Program

The Professional Partner Program (PPP) highlights the importance for companies to recognise their most valuable resource - their people. Led by Membership Development Manager Laurie Carmichael, the program has been a success in supporting companies to adopt a greater level of professionalism in their business.

With emphasis on staff retention and development, factors that are critical to the success of ICT organisations, the program is rapidly gaining respect within the industry.

According to Mark Jackson, Managing Director of Multipro, "our relationship with ACS gives our clients' assurance our consultants are technically qualified and have significant experience and knowledge in ICT".

In the current environment of skills shortages, the significance of development and recognition cannot be overlooked. In partnering with the ACS under PPP, it assures companies have the resources to address their staff needs, while attaining the benefits underpinned by ACS membership.

A key initiative of the program is pushing regular technical training courses, e-learning and professional development courses to be available to staff members, tailored specifically to meet the needs and goals of an organisation.

By working in partnership with organisations, the PPP aims to advance the interests of the organisation, while managing and nurturing the development of their ICT staff as well as offering tailored professional indemnity insurance.

The program also gives organisations access to graduates under the ACS Foundation Scholarship scheme.

Open to all businesses, government and local government departments which employ ICT staff, the PPP is certain to advance an organisation's business while encouraging a culture of technical and professional excellence.

For more information visit www.acs.org.au/ppp. ________

ICT summer school grows in stature, curriculum

The 2007 National Computer Science School draws the cream of high school students and teachers. Course director Dr James Curran reports:

The School of Information Technologies at the University of Sydney hosted 69 senior high school students and four teachers for the 12th National Computer Science School (NCSS) held from January 80 14.

The ACS, the ACS Foundation and National ICT Australia (NICTA) are major supporters of the NCSS program.

The participants came from around Australia to learn Python programming and Web site development while completing a real project -- developing a search engine and Web site for a charity. The week began with a client briefing from the charity "Hands of Help"'.

Each group was supervised by four tutors, ranging from undergraduates to academic staff. The army of tutors allow participants with no previous programming experience to build a search engine in just a week.

The lectures and tutorials give a taste of university life.

Philip Argy, ACS President and ACS Foundation Vice Chairman addressed the formal dinner on January 10, telling students of the bright future of a true ICT professional.

Dennis Furini, ACS CEO, spoke on the last day before the students presented their work to the parents, university staff and sponsors, encouraging students to understand more about a career in ICT.

A highlight was the programming competition, sponsored by IBM, when 23 industry professionals from IBM, Atlassian and Accenture mentored small groups of students in solving challenging programming, Web development and logic problems. Afterwards they discussed careers in IT over supper while the scores we collated.

To get a taste of commercial IT, participants went on two industry visits, to IBM at St Leonards and to Microsoft at Epping. As well as careers talks and a tour of the server room at IBM, they got to play the new XBox 360s, which was very popular.

A new addition to the program this year was the chance to create and edit their own music videos, thanks to a loan of 16 Powerbooks from the Apple University Consortium. This was not only fun, but also a great introduction to multimedia and video editing.

NCSS ended with a pizza-fuelled all-nighter sponsored by Google, who sent three of their engineers to offer expert search engine advice, and also provided a much needed supply of junk food and Coca-cola. _______

ACS to award CP Program scholarships

The ACS will award 32 scholarships to members seeking to enrol in its Computer Professional (CP) Program this year.

The scholarships, which will cover half the cost of completing the program, are designed to make the CP Program more accessible to members and contribute to the development of a body of people who have completed this qualification.

The program is a world class curriculum of professional development and training set within the context of an individual's work environment. It seeks to grow professionals into leaders and provide a key point of differentiation in the competitive ICT market.

The program comprises three core subjects and one elective:

Core Business, Legal and Ethical Issues New Technology Alignment Business, Strategy and IT

Elective Project Management Managing Technology and Operations Software Quality Improvement (coming in 2007)

The material is post graduate level; however it differs from traditional university courses through a strong vocational focus and the application of learned theory to practical workplace situations.

Content is delivered online in a structured semester format with students grouped into classes to maximise opportunities for collaboration and cross-pollination of information and ideas via e-mail and bulletin-boards.

ACS Manager, Professional Standards and Development, Bob Hart said the ACS will offer 16 scholarships each semester, two in each state or territory. Each scholarship will be worth $1350, which covers half the cost of completing the CP program.

"Each branch will award two scholarships for the March study intake with another two scholarships available in July. Those wishing to be considered must be Australian-based ACS members of at least provisional member standard, who have been working in an ICT role for 18 months or more and who meet the entry requirements of the CP Program," he said.

"Applicants should send a letter detailing their case for a scholarship to the local branch chair, along with any supporting documents such as employer references and so on. The Branch Executive Committee in each state or territory will consider each case on its merits and their decision will be final."

The CP Program runs over four semesters, with the scholarship reducing the cost of study to les than $340 per semester. Applications for the March intake must be received by the end of February 2007. For more information, see the Members Only section of the ACS Web site, e-mail to cpprogram@acs.org.au or call the CP Program on 1800 671 003. ______

ACS awards ANCCAC Medal for outstanding DDoS research paper

Prof Sidney Morris, editor of ACS Journal of Research and Practice in Information Technology (JRPIT), has announced that Manish Parashar and Guangsen Zhang were awarded the 2006 Australian National Committee on Computation and Automatic Control (ANCCAC) Medal for their paper titled "Cooperative Defense Against DDoS Attacks".

Parashar and Zhang are from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University, New Jersey.

The medal recognises and encourages excellence in ICT research and publishing. The paper is judged to be the best paper published in JRPIT or any other of the Society's national or branch publications in the year.

It is awarded on the basis of the practical relevance of the research and the quality of work.

"Cooperative Defense Against DDoS Attacks" examines distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on the Internet and suggests an approach to provide reliable, rapid and widespread dissemination of attack information with a system built as a peer to peer overlay network on top of the Internet.

It was published in Vol 38 No. 1 2006 of JRPIT and can be viewed at http://www.jrpit.acs.org.au/jrpit/JRPITVolumes/JRPIT38/JRPIT38.1.69.pdf ________

Young IT sets its sights on professionalism in 2007 program

The Young IT Professional conference will be a stand out event on the calendar of seminars, workshops, educational and social events for those who will advance ICT's professional standing.

Newly elected Director, Yohan Ramasundara is keen to continue the momentum gained by predecessor Ana Govan by helping to shape and influence the direction of younger ACS members' careers.

The board will soon launch its new Student Ambassador program aimed at strengthening the presence of the ACS among ICT students. Student ambassadors will act as the official representative of the society at university campuses and TAFE colleges across Australia.

By becoming involved as an ambassador, student members will increase their involvement in the ICT industry, gain better communication and leadership skills, and make valuable contacts with fellow students and ICT professionals.

The program coincides with the expansion of the successful Mock Interview program which puts final year students and recent graduates into a role-play interview with real companies to hone personal presentation skills.

The 2007 Young IT Professional Conference will be held on April 19 and 20 at the Melbourne Novotel, offering a number of high-profile speakers and the opportunity to expand participants' personal networks and skills among peers and industry leaders.

For more information about any of the above initiatives, contact your local Young IT branch representative or go to http://www.acs.org.au/youngit/ _________

Meet a director: Anita Prabhu, ACS-Women Appointed a director at the start of the year, Anita Prabhu is also a member of the ACS NSW Branch Executive Committee. She is also convener of the Project Management SIG at the ACS.

She is also learning and development consultant with the Australian Institute of Management, based in North Sydney. With more than 20 years' experience in ICT including applications training, change management, systems and business analysis, and project management for organisations including ANZ Bank, her focus is on harnessing technology to deliver superior business performance gains and enhancing the individual's IT skills.

"There are a significant number of issues on our agenda for this year, and we will be striving to advance the interests and opportunities of women in IT," she says.

International Women's Day - Sydney Jackie Taranto, managing director of Hannover Fairs Australia, will share insights on the international challenges and opportunities available to our ICT industry on Monday, March 5.

The event is to mark IWD (March 8); ACS-W would like to pay tribute to all the women in IT who have contributed so successfully to enhancing our profession.

Hannover Fairs Australia is a subsidiary of Deutsche Messe which runs CeBIT Hannover, the world's largest ICT tradeshow. Held in Germany each March, the event attracts more than 3300 exhibitors and 450,000 visitors who come to find business solutions.

Jackie Taranto travels extensively promoting Australian business and our ICT market internationally. Through CeBIT's network of 73 subsidiary offices worldwide, including a few run by women, such as Taiwan and Australia, Hannover Fairs helps Australian companies to break into global markets by taking them to international trade fairs.

This networking event (cocktails and finger food) will be held on the first floor of 280 Pitt Street, Sydney (above the ACS NSW branch offices), from 6.15 to 8.00.

It costs $20, non-members $30. Further information at acs.org.au/nsw

and in Melbourne

ACS-W and Vic ICT for Women Network will jointly host an IWD breakfast on March 8 between7.30 and 9.00 with guest speakers at a Melbourne CBD venue to be announced

Details at the ACS calendar of events for Victoria or contact Linda Batson on linda.batson@acslink.net.au.