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MTSU’s Petryshak named among nation’s top CIOs

February 18, 2013 By

Bruce Petryshak, MTSU’s vice president for information technology and chief information officer, has been named one of the top CIOs in the country, according to ExecRank’s “Top CIO Rankings” for 2012.

Bruce Petryshak

Bruce Petryshak

According to the California-based executive ranking service, there are over 38,000 CIOs in the United States and “only the very best are awarded the distinction” of inclusion in ExecRank’s listings, which can be found at www.execrank.com.

Petryshak, who leads MTSU’s Information Technology Division, was ranked No. 83 out of 213 CIOs listed in the category of “Top Private Company CIOs.” You can read the complete list here.

The rankings are the result of two years of research and feedback from evaluation committees and top chief information officers that yielded an algorithm for how to rank CIOs based on their performance in 24 key areas.

Petryshak came to MTSU in August 2010. Before that, he was chief information officer at Bowling Green State University in Ohio for nine years.

Petryshak also served in the Information Technology Division at Kent State University where he was executive director of University Information Systems. He has held positions in all areas of information technology.

“Mr. Petryshak has a long record of success in leading the information technology departments at many of the nation’s finest educational institutions,” said Adam Navrozally, analyst for the rankings division of ExecRank.

“He has had a variety of roles in IT in the past, and his experience gives him a unique perspective in bringing higher education into the digital age. He is highly regarded in his industry, and amongst other chief information officers.”

ExecRank logo webPetryshak holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration, computer sciences and a Master of Business Administration from Kent State University.

ExecRank screened more than 15,000 private company CIOs in the United States to compile the ranking.

“The number one area of focus for CIOs in 2012 has been their success in advising their CEO and CFO on leveraging technology to drive business performance,” Navrozally said. “ExecRank weighed heavily the recommendations provided by CEOs of our finalists.”

MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee said he was pleased, but not surprised, by the honor for Petryshak.

“Bruce has consistently demonstrated innovative thinking and a can-do spirit as our chief information officer,” McPhee said.

“He firmly believes in the power of information and how its proper application and use can transform organizations. But he also never forgets that everything we do at MTSU begins with a devotion to student success — and he contributes to that vision and mission through his work.”

— Jimmy Hart (jimmy.hart@mtsu.edu)

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Nitti, Capone replace FRANK as MTSU academic computer servers

December 19, 2012 By

On Jan. 3, 2013, Nitti and Capone will replace FRANK as respective application and web servers at MTSU.

If you think there is a connection to “The Untouchables” and gangsters, it is in name only.

Brian Holley

Information Technology Division project manager Brian Holley said “computer geeks” traditionally have a thing for naming systems and servers after classic and science fiction movies and television shows such as “Star Wars,” “Star Trek” and “Lord of the Rings.”

In this case, the names refer to notorious American gangsters Frank “The Enforcer” Nitti and Al Capone.

“Back in the day, from a security standpoint because of computer hackers, (system) names had no direct bearing on their function. They had generic names,” Holley said. “It’s a cultural thing that’s sort of going away, but operations folks carry on tradition.”

After nearly 20 years and parts of three decades of service, FRANK will retire as the academic server that has housed thousands of websites and hundreds of thousands of student and faculty accounts, Holley said.

“FRANK was the end-all, be-all for years,” added Jeff McMahan, ITD systems administrator. It housed email and websites for everybody, as well as applications. It did everything. Frank.mtsu.edu was around in the ’90s when I was a student here.” He adds that it was a different hardware platform, and the name “FRANK has applied to different systems, the first appearing in 1993 and the latest taking up that name and its functions in 2006.”

Jeff McMahan

McMahan said because of a growing university (enrollment increased from 21,163 in fall 2002 to 26,442 in fall 2011) and aging equipment, “it was time for it (FRANK) to go. Maintenance gets expensive the older they get. This has been a good system, with no issues per se.”

“We work hard to maximize the use of our resources,” Holley added. “We will run hardware as long as we can. Once it becomes cost prohibitive to maintain, that’s the time to change.”

Nitti and Capone — “young, strong and ready to carry on the traditions of outstanding service to the university for years to come,” Holley wrote in a campus-wide email — will shoulder the load. Both came onto the scene about a year ago.

Holley, McMahan, systems programmer Paul Collette and Dr. Albert Whittenberg, a director in Academic and Instructional Technology Services, oversaw the implementation of Nitti and Capone.

Collette began “working application by application,” McMahan said.

“And Albert has done the same thing with websites, working with faculty and staff to make sure there is no interruption,” Holley added. “Our long-term goal is getting all websites into OmniUpdate, the content management system used for websites.”

Paul Collette

Albert Whittenberg

Holley said everything on the web is moving to OmniUpdate, which is overseen by Barbara Draude, ITD assistant vice president in the Faculty Instructional Technology Center.

Holley and McMahan said ITD personnel are striving to make this a seamless transition for the approximately 30,000 combined students, faculty, staff and administrators.

“The customer comes first,” Holley said. “We look to make this as painless as we can for customers. That’s why we’ve been working on this one project for over a year. … Hundreds of hours of work have gone into this. The easier it is for the customer, the more hours we have spent working on it.”

McMahan added that this is why we have been “migrating individually, not in mass, to help them be satisfied with their (computer’s) functionality.

An early December email informed all students and personnel of the looming changes, and that any departmental, group and individual websites that have not been actively updated for five years or more were not scheduled to be transferred.

Departments and groups with questions should call Whittenberg at 615-898-5062 or email Albert.Whittenberg@mtsu.edu. Individual website owners should call McMahan at 615-898-7737 or email Jeff.McMahan@mtsu.edu with questions.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)

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From websites to Wi-Fi, ITD forums provide hint of future changes

October 16, 2012 By

MTSU’s Information Technology Division recently concluded a series of three open forums as ITD administrators shared information about a variety of upcoming changes while gathering feedback from employees.

In the one-hour presentations, which were held Oct. 2, 4 and 10 in the James E. Walker Library conference room, ITD administrators touched on the new university policy vetting process, streamlining the university’s www.mtsu.edu website, an upcoming Mobility App Summit during fall break, a wireless update and more.

Bruce Petryshak, left, vice president for information technology and chief information officer, jokes with Dr. Warner Cribb, far right, chair of the geosciences department, before a recent IT Open Forum. (MTSU photos by News and Media Relations)

About half of the Oct. 2 forum touched on preliminary plans to revitalize the university website. Phase 1 will focus on providing prospective students with informative highlights of the academic programs available to them.

In collaboration with departments, faculty and the marketing and communications office, changing the university’s main home page will be a web “revitalization project,” said Barbara Draude, assistant vice president for academic and instructional technology services.

Draude said the current site’s growth has become difficult to manage. “It’s so hard to find things. It’s hard to navigate. We need to separate things out,” she said.

Implementing the more user-friendly OmniUpdate OU Campus content management system laid a foundation to make changes to the site, she continued.

Draude said ITD is working closely with the Department of Marketing and Communications to coordinate web content with “printed materials and billboards, so we’re all saying the same thing.”

Arthur Reed, center, of Campus Planning makes a comment during the question-and-answer portion of the Oct. 2 IT Open Forum in the Walker Library conference room. Listening are Dale Cockrell, left, director of the Center for Popular Music, and other MTSU employees.

“This whole revitalization project is going to improve the entire MTSU website,” she added. “We’re currently working on prototypes and you’ll hear much more about it in the future.”

Eventually, two other phases will be produced.

Bruce Petryshak, vice president for information technology and MTSU’s chief information officer, reported that the vice presidents are working with ITD and the University Counsel’s Office on a process that will allow the campus community to comment on proposed university policies before they are submitted to MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee for his final approval.

Petryshak added that ITD is currently reviewing university information-security policies and any changes to those policies will be among the first to use the new review process.

In the forums, ITD’s Lisa Rogers, assistant vice president for enterprise resource planning systems, discussed ID photos on the university’s Banner internal server network and changing passwords. A phase currently under development will provide faculty with a RaiderNet class roster that contains their students’ photos, she said.

Brian Holley, an IT assistant vice president, provided an update on wireless technologies across the campus. While Wi-Fi wireless connectivity is in virtually every building on campus,he noted that it does need improvement because of the volume of wireless devices used by students, faculty and staff.

Holley said ITD anticipates that the average user will bring at least three wireless devices on campus daily, so the division is working to support at least five devices per person. IT personnel are also working to upgrade both Wi-Fi and cellular coverage outside almost all campus buildings.

“Eventually, we will have good Wi-Fi in every building,” he said. “On the exterior, we will be full in areas of buildings.”

Tom Wallace, ITD associate vice president, discussed the Oct. 15-16 statewide Mobility App Summit at MTSU, which has drawn 300 people to campus.

“It should be a really good thing,” Wallace said. “It’s people working in the classroom and what they’re doing with mobile apps.”

Wallace also discussed mobile computing on campus.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)

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Holley joins Information Technology Division

July 2, 2012 By

Brian Holley is settling in as assistant vice president for infrastructure within MTSU’s Information Technology Division.

Brian Holley

In his new role, Holley manages the networking, security and telecommunications operations within ITD.

“That’s basically the computer infrastructure … the wiring, the networks, the backbone of the system, versus the applications and the things that the users see,” he said. “The users don’t see what we do.”

Holley, who started in late March, came to MTSU from Jackson Energy Authority in Jackson, Tenn., where he oversaw IT operations at the municipal utility.

Holley reports to Bruce Petryshak, MTSU’s chief information officer and vice president for information technology.

“My first day here was better than the best day at any other job,” Holley said. “This is a phenomenal place.”

Holley said the size of the university—2,000-plus employees, 26,000 students and a campus of 500 acres—has been eye-opening.

“The scope of what we do here, particularly in networking and security, is huge. … I had no idea the scope was as large as it really is.”

From maintaining 24/7 emergency-communications capability for the MTSU Police Department to supporting special events such as the Congressional field hearing held on campus earlier this month, Holley said he and his colleagues must work together to keep the university connected.

“Our job is to help people work better in all ways,” he said. “We are a service organization. ITD exists to serve the university.”

Holley’s wife, Sharon, teaches in the Nurse-Midwifery Program at Vanderbilt School of Nursing. She is the clinical practice leader for Franklin Road Women’s Health Center and works as a certified nurse-midwife for patients through that clinic. The couple has two adult children.

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Student team creates mobile app for campus

October 17, 2011 By

MTSU Mobile, an Android application developed by students for students at MTSU, is now available in beta form for anyone to test and use.

“We hope the new app will help students do things like look up class and schedule information, map classrooms and offices, get times and dates of sporting events and check the latest dining specials,” said Craig Murphy of Cordova, Tenn., a senior computer-science major at MTSU and a member of the student team of developers.

“As of this week, 170 students have downloaded the beta version and provided us with very helpful information on how to make it better.”

Murphy is one of five senior computer-science majors who have been working since March 2011 to develop MTSU Mobile. Others working on the project are Jason Bandy of Murfreesboro, Chris Johnson of Smyrna, Chelsea Rath of Franklin and Brandon Beard of Nashville.

The app started as a class project for Dr. Sung Kun Yoo, who later received a grant that provided funding for the five students to do development work this past summer. The team also received support from MTSU’s Information Technology Division.

“Earlier this year, Bruce (Petryshak, MTSU vice president for information technology and chief information officer) and I wanted to seek out ways for our division to assist students in real-world learning experiences,” said Tom Wallace, ITD associate vice president. “We heard about this project and wanted to help by assisting the students and providing financial support. They are a hard-working bunch, and their initiative and expertise has been great.”

Student developers of the MTSU Mobile application work in their lab to prepare the app for its full-fledged launch next semester. Seated from left are Craig Murphy, Jason Bandy and Brandon Beard. Standing are Chris Johnson and Chelsea Rath. (MTSU photo by J. Intintoli)

The Android beta version currently provides maps to classrooms, offices and other points of interest on campus. Students can also access academic information through their Pipeline account, check calendars and find contact information for their professors.

The beta version can be downloaded at bit.ly/MTMobileApp.

“The plan is to have version 1.0 of both Android and Apple applications by early January,” said Murphy, who also works part-time for the ITD Help Desk. “We are working to add sports schedules, dining information and other functions for students to download by the spring semester.”

The MTSU Mobile team has lab space in the Parking Services Building and meets with ITD staff every Monday. Students already have worked more than 500 hours building the MTSU Mobile app from the ground up, said team member Bandy.

“It’s been a pretty steady job,” he said. “I have learned a great deal, not only the programming but what it takes working with a client, and actually have learned a lot more about MTSU. This has provided me with experiences that I would have never gotten in the classroom.”

After MTSU Mobile 1.0 is finished, Wallace said, there are plans to continue the student app team. Spots for new members will open up soon as the seniors leave, he added, so interested students can email mobile.dev@mtsu.edu to obtain more information.

– Doug Williams (Doug.Williams@mtsu.edu)

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