Pioneering data and information management masters program advances

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) has approved Radford University's Master of Science program in Data and Information Management (DAIM).

Set to begin enrollment in fall 2016, the program will be the first in Virginia and the first STEM-H graduate program offered by the College of Science and Technology. The program will combine traditional classroom learning with practical experience. DAIM is founded upon the department's highly successful database concentration, the only undergraduate database program in Virginia.

The program, through Radford University's Department of IT, will produce and certify professionals who can design, develop and manage large-scale information infrastructure and scalable systems and the processes that convert data into valuable information assets.

"Radford University will be a leader in helping make Virginia more competitive and attractive to businesses who need the unique skills and talent to collect, process, store and protect data," said Professor of Computer Science and Chairman Jeff Pittges. "The insights gained from analytics are only as good as the data being mined. This program will prepare IT professionals to build information systems that deliver high quality data to the next generation of intelligent applications."

DAIM students will engage faculty and industry partners in state-of-the-art facilities, such as the newly opened ARTIS Lab – an advanced, high-tech collaborative workspace and develop projects proposed by members of the Applied Research Center, a consortium of corporate partners.  Graduates of the DAIM program will gain the knowledge and real-world experience to become database engineers and administrators, data architects, and information managers capable of designing and developing high performance systems to process and manage a variety of data.

According to Pittges, the market is clamoring for information technology (IT) professionals who can get the right data to the right people at the right time. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the demand for data management professionals will grow by 28.5 percent over the next decade. The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) predicts a "bright outlook nationally" for database administrators, database architects and data warehouse specialists.