The School of Information Technology (IT) welcomed four new full-time faculty this fall. They are most welcome in part because undergraduate enrollment increased by just over 10 percent this year.
Assistant Professor Abdelmounaam Rezgui
Abdelmounaam Rezgui is an assistant professor in network, telecommunications and Management. He earned his master’s in computer science at Purdue University and his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. He was previously on the faculty in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at New Mexico Tech.
His research interests include big data and data analytics, cloud computing, social computing, and energy efficient computing. He has conducted collaborative research with his students that they were invited to present at selective events organized by major organizations including the National Science Foundation, Google, and Siemens. He aspires to excel as a teacher and researcher at Illinois State and already enjoys interacting with his colleagues and students. In his limited spare time, he likes to watch soccer matches from the Spanish La Liga or the English Premier League.
Assistant Professor Qi Zhang
Qi Zhang is an assistant professor in computer science. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computational mathematics and applied software from Jilin University.
Zhang obtained his master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo and his Ph.D. degree in biomedical/computer engineering science from Western University with a research focus on visualization, computer vision, computer graphics, big data, virtual reality, biomedical imaging, and information technology. He has held several research positions and comes to us from the faculty of State University of New York at Canton. In his spare time, he loves to travel and meet various people and experience new cultures.
Visiting Professor Will Lewis
Will Lewis is serving as our visiting professor in information systems this year. He had left academia to be an independent consultant for several years and is wading back into the academic spring, so to speak.
Lewis has examined IT phenomena important to industry, including technology adoption, computer-mediated experiential flow, and IT disasters. Lewis plans to help students develop their soft skills as well as their technical ones. Companies find limited usefulness in IT graduates if they lack the ability communicate effectively with people across all areas of the organization.
Lewis received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Florida State University. Among his past achievements is being selected a McKnight Fellow. His hobbies include motorcycling, geocaching, and 3-D printing. He is interested in cybersecurity and research methods. He hopes to develop innovative teaching methods and infuse community service into his classes.
Instructional Assistant Professor Karen Johnson
Karen Johnson is our new full-time nontenure-track instructional assistant professor. She brings a wealth of experience as an instructor and as a practitioner in the field. She has taught a variety of courses and is an experienced project manager and program analyst/developer.
Johnson has a bachelor’s degree from Saint Leo University, two master’s degrees from Keller Graduate School of Management, and a Ph.D. from Capella University. She likes like swimming, reading, and dancing and is interested in researching topics associated with agile development and project management.
