What makes the IST program different from the others?
Both baccalaureate and associate degree programs include team projects in most courses, a required internship, and a senior capstone experience to provide additional opportunities to involve students in the cutting-edge issues and technologies in the field. The knowledge that students gain from these experiences have a positive impact on their success in the corporate world.
Team Projects
In most courses students have the opportunity to work on team projects, to share ideas, learn new concepts, expose different points of view, present and defend ideas, and experience the satisfaction and challenges of working with others, while remaining in an academic setting.
Internships
The required internship is a mentored work experience where the student is employed in an information sciences and technology position in industry, government, or academia. Each student is required to complete at least one internship and may take as many as three. A 300-hour internship is required for the baccalaureate degree and a 150-hour internship is required for the associate degree.
Senior Capstone Experience
A problem-based approach to technology integration by focusing on real-life problems faced by an organization. Each student team meets with real-world clients to gather data and analyze a problem, understand the organizational and social contexts in which that technology functions, and then proposes potential solutions with prototypes/applications, when applicable.
Because the capstone course is a writing intensive course within the curriculum, documentation is a very important deliverable for all projects.
Our students have successfully worked with numerous local and national organizations exploring a variety of areas including security, web design, application development, RFID, encryption, portal design, network and storage solutions, and business process analysis and design.
IST Scholars Program
The IST Scholars Program consists of professionals from the Penn State Scranton IST Advisory Board and local Information Technology (IT) community who share their knowledge and experiences about different areas of Information Technology, how it is used within their corporations, has an impact on their business, or helps the local/global community. Presentations take place during the lunch hour or in the evening and are open to IST students, the campus, and the local community.
The Marcos Family IST Program
The Macros Family endowment supports the IST Scholars Program, undergraduate research, corporate field trips, and other career networking opportunities that provide corporate exposure to our students.