It is my pleasure to be here and and talk on this forum. So, I am from Jammu and Kashmir, a place in the north of India and an extremely beautiful place but I have lived in many other places including Rajasthan and Kolkata in India. And in the US, I lived in Pittsburgh and New York before moving to Philadelphia where I am right now. In terms of my interest, I like reading books and I like working out. Running is one of my passions these days. I'm also into bartending. I don't do it professionally but a lot of friends and family call on my services for that. And lately, I've been following sports like football and basketball. That's because my ten-year old makes me do that. So, that's what I'm up to these days other than my work.

So, MIS is a great area to be in these days. So, the students from our bachelor's program learn about how technology is changing business and as business professionals, somewhere down the line, they can make a difference by working in companies or with companies to be able to have these companies better utilize technology in their business. So, it's a good time to be in MIS because there's a lot of job opportunities because of the fact that there's new technologies coming up as well as companies still trying to figure out how to effectively use older technologies. So, there's a huge demand for MIS professionals these days and most of the undergrads get placed in established companies like Walmart or Johnson & Johnson or any other banks or insurance companies as well as in consulting companies like Price Waterhouse and Deloitte. In the last few years, we've been having close to a hundred percent placements for our undergrad majors. And again, the demand is driven by the need for companies to figure out how to use technology more effectively. In terms of our grad programs, we have a couple of grad programs. One in IT audit and cyber security which is again an extremely useful area these days because we've been hearing about data breaches and incidents in firms and companies. They're trying to figure out how to best protect their data and the data they collect from consumers. Again, there's a lot of opportunities in that area. And we also have for our masters program called digital innovations in marketing which again is a program for marketing professionals to get acquainted with the skills they need to operate effectively in the digital world and again, create the best buzz for their brand on digital platforms. So, again, these are the masters programs we have had for the last four or five years now and we graduated several students from these programs.

Our undergrad program is in the top fifteen in the country now as per the latest US News and World Reports ranking and I think there are several reasons for that. One of the key reasons is that we always update our curriculum and in tune with what the market needs. We have an advisory board of several large and small companies in the area who always give us feedback on what is currently in demand for IT professionals and we have the review of meetings every few years we revise our curriculum. So, there's a couple of misconceptions when it comes to MIS. I mean they are going away but I would like to reiterate these two points. One is MIS is more of a back office job where it's kind of a help desk or internal support for companies and two, it's male dominated profession. There's very few females. But I think both of these misconceptions are wrong. Again, IT or technology is playing a very strategic role in companies so we find that most of the people that we graduate like IT professionals are moving from the back office to the board rooms and taking an important part in strategy discussions and setting the tone for firm strategy and for years to come. So, it's an exciting place for smart, bright, young professionals both men and women who join this field and can work on interesting projects and interesting areas and make a difference.Again, a lot of companies place technology front and center nowadays. So, our grads get a chance to work on interesting projects. So, there's a lot of both men and women. I think in terms of our majors, I would say there would be an equal split between men and women who graduate from our programs. So, again, there's a couple of things I want to reiterate. And MIS is different from computer science and that although we need technical skills, we need to have some background in programming, but it's not overly technical and that's one of the misconceptions that some students have when they join the program and then they realize that it's more about business than the technical aspect. That is another misconception which is going away these days.