Turner Business

Recently promoted TSYS School professor of computer science, Lydia Ray , is scheduled to speak during the third Rite of Passage Lectures for 2023. These events serve to recognize CSU faculty who were promoted to the rank of full professor during the prior academic year. This third event, featuring Ray and Houbin Fang from CSU's Department of Mathematics, is being held tomorrow in the  Schwob Library Forum on CSU's main campus.  Lunch and fellowship start at 12:00 noon, while the lectures begin at 12:30 pm.

TSYS School professor of computer science Yesem Kurt-Peker has been nominated by the Turner College's Awards & Scholarships Committee for the 2024 CSU Chappell Graduate Faculty Award.  The purpose of this award is to recognize those full-time members of the Columbus State University Graduate Faculty who, in the tradition established by William Chappell, have demonstrated excellence in teaching CSU's graduate students and have contributed outstanding professional service to the Graduate School, the University and the community. Kurt-Peker has demonstrated success in teaching graduate courses while a member of the TSYS School.  Since 2018 she has taught sections of CPSC 6126 - Introduction to Cybersecurity and CPSC 6555 - Selected Topics in Computer Science.  Over the past five years, her teaching evaluations scores for these two courses have averaged a remarkable 4.78 and 4.91 (both out of 5), respectively.  In addition, Kurt-Peker supervised a graduate thesis in...

To reduce the likelihood of detection, modern-day hackers usually send attacking commands to a target system through several stepping-stone hosts. Such  stepping-stone intrusion conceals the intruder’s identity behind a long interactive connection chain of hosts.  An effective approach for  stepping-stone intrusion  detection is to determine how many connections are contained in a connection chain.  This type of defense is called network-based  stepping-stone intrusion  detection .  A new study by TSYS School faculty Lixin Wang ,  Jianhua Yang , and their student Jae Kim , along with Peng-Jun Wan of the Illinois Institute of Technology, explains that most existing network-based  stepping-stone intrusion  detection  approaches work only for network traffic without intruders’ session manipulation. As they explain,  the known  network-based  stepping-stone intrusion  detection  algorithms are either too we...

After working as a physical education teacher at Westminster Christian School in Columbus for five years,  Jacy Williams  earned a paralegal certificate from the University of Georgia and made the move to a public sector position with Columbus Consolidated Government. Near the end of her three-year tenure at this post, she earned a BBA in marketing from CSU's Turner College. That degree jumpstarted what has since been a very successful marketing career as shortly thereafter Williams moved to LEAD Digital,  a professional digital marketing agency based in Columbus where she worked as a multimedia marketing consultant. After two years with LEAD Digital, Williams became the Director of Marketing and Development for the Boys and Girls Club of the Chattahoochee Valley. While in this position, she began graduate business studies at CSU, eventually earning an MBA from the Turner College in 2022.  By this time Williams was, and still is, a marketing account executive with Mc...

       

In combination with October being Econ Ed Month and the arrival of Halloween 2023 in just a few days, Turner Business decided to produce a couple of blogs dealing with Halloween-related research affiliated with the Turner College's Center for Economic Education, which is led by Turner College economist Frank Mixon . Both of these studies involve the trick-or-treating tradition that characterizes the last day of October each year, with the first focusing on how the decay of social norms has impacted societal rules governing trick-or-treating activities.  The second relates to the choice made by some neighborhood residents to avoid the hassle of trick-or-treating activities by leaving home (or turning off all of the lights) after placing a bowl of candy on the porch that is distributed to trick-or-treaters on an honor system basis. This choice typically involves placement of a sign like that above.      In a 2018 article appearing in the Journal for Economics Educato...

It's difficult to imagine that there could be a better ambassador of the TSYS School's cybersecurity education (and other TSYS School and Turner College) endeavors than Patrick Aiken , the Director of the Turner College's TSYS Center for Cybersecurity.  Just last month, Aiken was part of a team (including Turner College Dean Deb Kidder ) that spoke to a delegation of Georgia leaders, including Governor Brian Kemp, USG Chancellor Sonny Perdue, and several others, about the TSYS School's Nexus cybersecurity programs. Aiken described the visit as "a   once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for [TSYS School] students, instructors, and industry partners to tell the impressive success story of [its] cybersecurity Nexus program."        Since then, he attended newly-appointed CSU President Stuart Rayfield's Investiture Luncheon, which he described as an honor, and made an appearance at Threat Level Midnight ,  Columbus' first-ever cybersecurity conference tha...

The TSYS School is hosting a Mock Interview Event for its Nexus cybersecurity students on Friday, November 3, from 9:00 am until 12:00 pm in the TSYS Center for Cybersecurity, which is located on the first floor of the Synovus Center on CSU's main campus. During the event, cybersecurity, technology and HR/recruiting professionals will spend five to 10 minutes meeting with each student to help in preparing them for career-related activities they will encounter in the future. After the event, lunch will be provided to all participants.  Patrick Aiken , the Director of the TSYS Center for Cybersecurity, tells Turner Business that there is still a need for additional professionals to join in helping these impressive Nexus students. If interested, Aiken asks that you contact one of the Nexus instructors, Armando Fernandez or Elke Brumbaugh , or one of the student assistants, Lizzy Grant or Justin Owens . "The support of local professionals means the world to us, and it plays a p...

In combination with October being Econ Ed Month and the arrival of Halloween 2023 in just a few days, Turner Business  decided to produce a couple of blogs dealing with Halloween-related research affiliated with the Turner College's Center for Economic Education, which is led by Turner College economist Frank Mixon . Both of these studies involve the trick-or-treating tradition that characterizes the last day of October each year. The first extends a  1996 book titled  Accounting for Tastes by 1992 Nobel Prize–winning economist Gary Becker (1930-2014) that discusses the usefulness of societal norms, which are those common values of a group that influence an individual’s behavior in ways that reduce the need to spend both public and private resources on the protection of property. Until Becker’s book there was no generally accepted approach to the growth and decay of societal norms.       Mixon and his coauthors Tessa Pousson of Loyola University - New...

CSU Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, Margie Yates, recently announced that CSU's Faculty Research Celebration will be held following the Faculty Research Conference on Wednesday, November 8, 2023, from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm in the Cunningham Center on CSU's main campus. The event will feature the most recent scholarly articles and books by CSU faculty from all four individual colleges. The event will also include a Faculty Rapid-Fire Research Race, wherein each of five CSU faculty will have four minutes to describe their research, after which a panel session will commence. Turner College faculty will be represented in this race by Lydia Ray , a professor of computer science in the TSYS School. " We hope to see [everyone] there . . . It will be a lot of fun," Yates stated in her announcement.

The TSYS School is currently recruiting for Cohort 10 of its Nexus cybersecurity program, which is set to start in January 2024. The next information session is scheduled for Thursday, November 2nd at 5:30 pm ET in the TSYS Center for Cybersecurity, which is located on the first floor of the Synovus Center on CSU's main campus. If you're ready to start your journey into a rewarding cybersecurity career, the Nexus program offers a one-of-a-kind mix of great training, hands-on technical skill development, and frequent visits with cybersecurity professionals who mentor our students (and might even hire them). A good example of alumni mentoring is provided by a recent surprise visit by Benjamin Knox (pictured above), a Cohort 2 graduate who is now a valued member of the Security Engineering team at Synovus. Ben stopped by to share his insight and expertise about Identity and Access Management (IAM) and inspire the students. For more information about the Nexus program, check here ...

To the students, alumni, employees and supporters in Frank G. Lumpkin Jr. Center last Friday, Columbus State University’s newest president, Stuart Rayfield, celebrated the legacy of servant leadership and community partnerships that have permeated the institution’s 65-year history. As she outlined in her Presidential Investiture Ceremony remarks, both will play significant roles in her vision for the university’s future. “Our work is critical, and it will not be easy,” Rayfield explained as she spoke of that vision. “But this institution has punched above its weight class time and time again. We stand on the shoulders of all who have come before us.” Univer sity System of Georgia Board of Regents Chair Harold Reynolds, in his greetings, focused on Rayfield’s homecoming and how she values servant leadership.  “We are welcoming [Stuart Rayfield] home. This is the place … where she learned along with her students and took up the challenge of servant leadership,” he said. “Wh...

The Turner College prides itself in playing an important role in the advancement of the professional careers of its graduates. A good example of this work is  Garrett Hix , who, since 2018, has worked as a senior staff accountant for Kickr Design, which is a fast-growing product design and engineering consultancy headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The company delivers end-to-end product development and engineering services by providing expertise across the entire development process. From conceptualization through design, engineering, prototyping and manufacturing, Kickr Design transforms ideas into fully manufactured products. Garrett graduated with a BBA in accounting from the Turner College in 2014. He also earned a BS in mathematics from CSU that same year. While a student at CSU, Garrett was a member of Kappa Sigma, the Order of Omega, the Turner College accounting club, the ROAR orientation team, all while working as a student assistant to the CSU president. After graduating ...

Recent posts here at Turner Business have explained that t he Turner College is seeking re-accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) after the end of this calendar year. This process requires submission by the Turner College of a progress report, which is due near the middle of December of 2023. After that, an AACSB visitation team will visit the Turner College for three days in early March of 2024. A few weeks after that visit the Turner College Dean, Deb Kidder , will be notified of the results of the review by AACSB. A substantial part of this process involves judgment of the quality of instruction provided by Turner College faculty. There are many ways to demonstrate this, one of which is recognition of Turner College faculty through the annual CSU faculty awards ceremonies.  An example of this is the recent success of  professor of finance  Brett Cotten , who won the 2023 CSU Teaching Excellence Award.  According to the ...

Columbus State University, in conjunction with the Muscogee County School District, will be hosting a Lego robotics competition in December of 2023 and January of 2024. The competition is structured in two separate stages, with the regional competition set for December 16, 2023, followed by a super-regional competition on January 20, 2024. Although this is a multi-college partnership within CSU, the Turner College and the Coca Cola Space Science Center will each play large roles. Computer science faculty in the TSYS School will assist in judging the robotics portion of the competition, while faculty on the business education side of the Turner College will assist in judging the team presentation portion of the competition. Students participating in the competition will be on CSU's main campus all day for each stage of the competition, and the Turner College will be hosting them and their parents as they engage in various activities. For more information on the competition, please c...

The tagline on Class of '22 Turner College accounting graduate, Jordyn Denard 's, LinkedIn page states, "don't stop until you're proud. " Scheduled to graduate with a master's degree in accounting from Auburn University in May of 2024, and having just lined up a position with Taylor CPA & Associates of Atlanta, Georgia, it doesn't appear as though Jordyn has any plans to "stop" any time soon. The Phenix City, Alabama, native notes that her current career goals include becoming a Certified Public Accountant and working as a tax planner/advisor for small business owners, with the longer-term aim of expanding her expertise on various tax-related matters.       Jordyn credits her values for much of her prior successes, which include induction into the Beta Gamma Sigma business honorary during her accounting studies in the Turner College. These relate to her family, an optimal work-life balance, attention to her mental health, community, integ...

Nexus cybersecurity student Arianna Burden-Force has been selected to represent other Nexus students as Student Ambassador for the Turner College. " I would like to thank Armando Fernandez [, a lecturer in the cybersecurity program,]  for recommending me and constantly encouraging me to greatness. I am hopeful to encourage and educate as many individuals as possible about our excellent program to transcend in the near future," Burden-Force stated. Arianna earned a BBA in general business in 2021, and an MBA in in May of 2023, both from the Turner College. As a member of Cohort 9, she is on track to earn a practitioner certificate in cybersecurity from the TSYS School in July of 2024.

The Turner College is seeking re-accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) after the end of this calendar year. This process requires submission by the Turner College of a progress report, which is due near the middle of December of 2023. After that, an AACSB visitation team will visit the Turner College for three days in early March of 2024. A few weeks after that visit the Turner College Dean,   Deb Kidder , will be notified of the results of the review by AACSB. A substantial part of this process involves judgment of the scholarly activity of the Turner College faculty. This activity includes the quantity and quality of the journal publications across the College's faculty.    Turner Business  has previously reported on the College's A-level and B-level journal publications portfolio. This blog entry previews the bulk of the remainder of the Turner College's robust research portfolio, which consists of the 22 C-level jour...