Our digital technology infrastructure in the United States has dramatically altered the way we do business in just the last decade.
Collaboration is real-time, with teams able to share ideas and develop new strategies on the fly. We collect unfathomable quantities of data, and we are training information specialists to take this data, work with the people and ideas it represents, and build opportunity from it.
Even this, the new issue of Impact, is the work of people and data. Our documents were shared between myself, editors, designers, faculty, and others, saved and stored on remote servers around the world. Fingers at keyboards in Michigan, Wisconsin, Oregon, Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio all had a hand in producing the volume now in your hands.
"Information is the oxygen of the modern age."
As we prepare students to initiate their careers, we know they are wading into a sea of information. Less-prepared minds can be washed away with data, but the savvy professional is ready for the opportunities these bits and bytes collect. These are opportunities shown by the stories in this issue of Impact. Stories about our students working with a lobster company in Massachusetts, our faculty examining issues around Big Data, and new programs in the School of Business and Economics to stay current and help our students get ahead and stay there.
Knowledge is power, but information is empowering. I hope the information in your hands right now shows you where our students and alumni are going. On the cutting edge, staying ahead of the curve: that’s how information, and those who master it, make an impact.
Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
