Monthly Archives: September 2008

Alien Invasion at Grand Central Station?

Leave a reply

There was a nice article in the Sept. 12, 2008 Wall Street Journal.  I think the reason I liked it is because it had nothing to do with subprime mortgages or AIG, or any investment bank.  What caught my eye was the light-heartedness described in “The New Pranksters” article by Ellen Gamerman.  The article described seemingly random acts of silliness by groups of young people.  These grassroots campaigns seem to be spreading across the county (think of fight club, but without the fight).   Of the several examples presented, my two favorite were “Frozen Grand Central” and “No Shirts.”   Video clips of the pranks, and crowd reactions, on Youtube reminded me of the original Candid Camera episodes hosted by Allen Funt.

Frozen Grand Central reminded me of the Nicole Kidman movie “Invasion” (which happened to be on TV when I was reading the article).  The premise is how will folks react if suddenly surrounded by everyone acting strangely? Several hundred people froze for 5 minutes in the middle of whatever they were doing in New York’s busy Grand Central Station.  I loved the worker on the cart who became stuck in the middle of the crowd, for example.

In “No Shirts,“ over 100 shirtless men (mimicking the bare-chested men in the store’s ads) pretended to shop in a New York City Abercrombie & Fitch.  In light of the store’s apparent celebration of “no-shirtedness,” the reaction by A&F security was interesting,

Actually, all of the examples were interesting.  Follow the WSJ links to see the others. 

The Wall Street Journal article was also posted at pranks.com.

Smeal Junior Stephanie Goldberg in Businessweek

Leave a reply

Businessweek features Stephanie Goldberg in a September 15, 2008 Careers article titled “The New Corporate  Fast Track for Young Talent.”

Stephanie was picked from over 1,000 students to attend a three-day seminar at the Miami University of Ohio by Ernst & Young. 

Stephanie_NYC.JPG

I am absolutely not surprised that Stephanie stood out.  I first blogged about Stephanie last year (click here).  She is currently a junior at Smeal majoring in accounting.  She is also completing the Information Systems Management minor offered by Smeal’s Supply Chain & Information Systems department. 

Stephanie has a wonderful personality and eagerness to learn.  Already she has completed two summer internships in the Corporate Finance for IT section at Morgan Stanley, New York City! 

Student Spotlight: Andrew Morris and SAP

Leave a reply

Andrew Morris is currently a senior Supply Chain & Information Systems student with an Information Systems Management minor.  I was his MIS 390 professor last spring, and asked him to write about his summer internship at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Plainsboro, New Jersey where he was able to put into practice some of the course concepts.

inventory.gif

 Andrew worked in the Global Product Planners department that is responsible for planning the inventory for the company’s products.  Andrew worked with the enterprise resource planning software SAP.  He found this to be most interesting after hearing so much about it.  He primarily dealt with the Bill of Materials and how it is costed.  Andrew’s key responsibility was tracing the manufacturing cycle of key internally manufactured and actively managed products

 Andrew also used Microsoft’s Excel and Access daily.  He says he “got to meet a lot of great people and I learned a lot and I definitely think I will benefit from this in the future.”  

Student Spotlight: Paul Seitz “Manages” an MRP Project

Leave a reply

Paul Seitz is a Smeal finance major with a minor in economics. Paul spent an exciting summer in Santa Ana, California, working as an intern at Pioneer Circuits.  This company makes circuitry for the military, NASA/ JPL and others. 

satellite.gif

As an intern, he managed four different projects.  He needed to make sure the projects were not only correct, but also delivered on-time to the appropriate managers.  Analysis included a technologically advanced line of machinery, labor costs, purchasing costs, and supply chains. 

Paul emailed me regarding a project he was working on to identify an appropriate MRP system.  MRP (material resource planning) systems help manufacturers plan and track manufacturing projects, including the necessary resources.  Currently the term ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is more commonly used to describe a broader MRP initiative.  Microsoft elaborates on ERP at their website. 

PaulSeitz.PNG

Among other suggestions, I also advised Paul to visit a tradeshow or schedule meetings with value added resellers (VAR) in the area.  The latter was a successful strategy that I used in business when I was managing similar projects.  Be advised, though, that VARs can be a great source of information and even help guide questions that need to be answered, but at least some can be a bit deceptive and aggressive.  I usually met with three to five VARs before I felt I had a good start of what I was looking for (and what I was not).

My First Faculty Senate Meeting!

Leave a reply

My first University Senate meetings were Tuesday, September 9th.  The curricular affairs (SCCA) committee met for approximately 1-1/2 hours in the morning, led by Chair John Hannan (Computer Science & Engineering).  The full Senate met for approximately 3 hours in the afternoon, led by Senate Chair Ingrid Blood (Healthy & Human Development). 

It was good to see Ingrid again – we first met when I began at University Park in the late 1990’s.  Both John and Ingrid are very capable chairs for their respective groups.  It is great to see such passion and enthusiasm from faculty for their work here at PSU.

reading.jpg

All PSU faculty should be interested in at least two somewhat “contentious” topics under discussion – hence the Microsoft clipart “reading” image (follow Senate Minutes link below).  The first involves plans to scan and encrypt university computers.  The second has to do with intellectual property rights in a digital world. 

Links

Dr. Glantz – 2008-2009 University Faculty Senator

Leave a reply

Smeal faculty elected Dr. Glantz to serve as 2008-2009 faculty senator.  The University Faculty Senate is the representative body of Penn State’s 5,500 full-time faculty at 23 Penn State campuses.  Legislative authority pertains to the educational interests of the University and all educational matters that concern the faculties of more than one college.  The Senate is also recognized by the University as an advisory and consultative body to the President matters that affect the attainment of the University’s educational objectives.

It is interesting to note that the Penn State University Faculty Senate met for the first time as a “representative legislative” body in 1921, replacing the prior general assembly approach to governance.

columns_copy.jpg

As a senator, Dr. Glantz will also serve on the Senate Committee on Curricular Affairs (SCCA).  The SCCA reviews, evaluates, and approves (or rejects) all course and curriculum proposals including proposals to limit program enrollment submitted by the various departments and colleges. 

Dr. Glantz joins other Smeal Senators including Norm Aggon, Jim Miles, Barbara Gray, Bin Ke, and Orie Barron.

(“Columns of Old Main” photo credit:  Greg Grieco, 2002, http://imagearchive.psu.edu)

Dr. Glantz – Smeal’s 2008 Brand-Paiste Teaching Award Winner

Leave a reply

It was very exciting to receive the Smeal College of Business 2008 Brand-Paiste Teaching award at a ceremony July 2, 2008, in the presence of students, faculty and family.  The award was presented by Supply Chain & Information Systems department head, Dr. Gene Tyworth (pictured below).  Each year, Smeal  recognizes and rewards outstanding faculty, graduate assistants, and advisers through the Fred Brand Jr. and Dillwyn P. Paiste, III Awards.

Glantz_Tyworth.jpgI am very grateful for the support and recognition from the wonderful students here at Smeal – the same students that make Smeal one of the best business schools in the world!