Unlocking
The most severely impacted patients with spinal cord injury or brain disease are said to be “locked in.” Completely paralyzed, they can neither speak nor move, not even to shake their head. PhD Project Professor Dr. Adriane Randolph uses her technology expertise to unlock them. Through trailblazing research into brain-computer interfacing, she develops systems that enable these patients to communicate with their loved ones and…
Read MoreRobots & Bingo
For 15 years, Dr. Laura Trevino, an Hispanic-American charter participant in The PhD Project, has exemplified paying it forward by taking her Information Systems students back—back to elementary school settings like those they once experienced. There, Dr. Trevino’s University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) students use fun and games to introduce children as young as pre-K…
Read MoreAn Unusual Promise
It is a challenging extra-curricular assignment that the University of Tennessee hands Professor Randy Bradley on Saturday mornings each spring. He is asked to stand up and face a room full of anxious high school seniors from underrepresented minority groups, most with uncertain parents at their side. These teenagers, many of whom will be first…
Read MoreFulbright Scholar
The trail to one of the first Fulbright Scholarships awarded to a PhD Project participant* traces back to Toronto, Canada and the 2008 meeting of the Project’s Information Systems Doctoral Students Association, and leads to a lecture hall at Germany’s famed University of Potsdam. “Renée, when are we going to write our first paper together?” Dr.…
Read MoreA Secret Mover of the Needle
Tenured professor Dr. Jorge Pérez didn’t fully appreciate his decision to branch into senior administration at Kennesaw State University until one morning several months into his term on the university Cabinet, reporting directly to the president. Around 11:00 that day, he proposed a major new initiative to the president. By 2 P.M. the president had…
Read MoreFollowing His Heart
In 1983, Dr. J. Alberto Espinosa decided to get his Ph.D. in finance from Texas Tech University. After a year in the program, he realized that he was more interested in information systems than in finance. Because Ph.D. studies require such a strong time commitment, he decided to enter the work force to gain more…
Read More“Dr. Double”
As early as age sixteen in her hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, Alisha Malloy knew she wanted to get her Ph. D. She discovered her desire to teach when she taught a computer class at her high school. She attended the U.S. Naval Academy and then served as a Naval Officer, holding positions in naval…
Read More“The Landlord”
Ricardo Valerdi was the only doctoral student in his program—and probably the state—who spent evenings repairing broken plumbing pipes and fixing faulty electrical wiring. The unusual nocturnal activities were the result of a creative, if occasionally nerve-racking strategy he devised to pay the bills during his doctoral studies. Having chosen to trade a lucrative paycheck…
Read MoreHis Own Path
In eight years as an operations and finance manager in Fortune 500 companies, Ronald Ramirez saw his employers invest vast sums of money in new information technologies. Despite the benefits generated from using the technology, it was often unclear how to measure the actual return on these large investments. Ramirez grew eager to look deeper…
Read MorePostcard from Nowhere
Graduation Day loomed at the University of Maryland business school, but unfortunately for new MBA Pamela Carter, employment did not. With a brilliant track record in her studies, she had performed admirably in a co-op work engagement with the Federal Reserve Board, and was anticipating a permanent job offer at a respectable salary. She had…
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