The Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) student chapter at MSU has made several recent organization changes—the most prominent one being its name.
Moving forward, the group will be known as the Association for Business Information Technology Students (A-BITS).
New name, new mission
Along with a new name, A-BITS created a new mission—Bringing You Technology Education—to more accurately describe the services it offers to members.
“We want to emphasize the fact that the organization exists for the growth and communion of students and not simply made up of professionals in industry,” said Hayden Hollingsworth, A-BITS member and information technology and cybersecurity major.
The new name also brings independence from the national chapter of AITP, providing more freedom for the MSU student chapter. Other notable changes include creating more recurring opportunities for members, adding a student run point system and establishing more local competitions.
Student opportunities
A-BITS continues to provide student opportunities to compete in competitions based on real case studies.
In fall 2020, A-BITS partnered with ConocoPhillips for a competition centered around data analytics and with Koch Industries for a competition focused on application development.
A-BITS also established special interest groups that coincide with specific department areas of study such as cybersecurity, business analytics and development.
The special interest groups will provide additional opportunities for students learn about some topics more extensively. For example, the cybersecurity special interest group will meet once a month for a student presentation over topics like hacking or protecting devices.
A-BITS also created more partnerships within the community.
In the past academic year, A-BITS students have worked on to troubleshoot network issues for public schools, presented to kids interested in IT, developed websites for small businesses and more.
“A-BITS is creating an organizational experience that parallels a student’s curriculum,” said Hollingsworth. “We believe a professional organization should allow members to define their own success while supplementing the material in their degree program.”