What if someone asked "What if?"

Research Highlights was a newsletter highlighting the research being done at the Boston University School of Management (Questrom School of Business).MBC (MANAGEMENT BY CURIOSITY) The great advances always come from asking the right questions. The questions throughout this booklet reflect some of the ways Boston University School of Management alumni have transformed academic experience into professional results. Curiosity is a positive force, because good management is about exploring, not accepting. It's about revision, refinement, and rethinking rather than regurgitation. It's a matter of taking the heat rather than taking shelter. It's a career of challenging yourself and your employees continually to improve the quality of your products and service. And it's the kind of management you'll learn at Boston University

Development of Small-Scale and Low-Power Attitude Determination System for Nanoscale Satellites by Infrared Earth-Imaging Sensors

Many space missions require that the spacecraft be oriented in a specific direction to operate correctly. ARKSAT 1, the University of Arkansas’s first satellite, is a 1U CubeSat designed to perform atmospheric spectroscopy from Low-Earth Orbit and as such requires precise attitude determination and control. Currently, attitude determination systems for 1U CubeSats with small space, low power, and low cost restrictions do not exist. This paper discusses the development of an earth-imaging infrared camera system for attitude determination on CubeSats and SmallSats that meets these requirements. Melexis MLX 90640 IR arrays and Microchip 8-bit microcontrollers are used to create infrared images of various test targets. The contrast of the resulting images is discussed along with recommendations for future development of the system

Rule Based System for Diagnosing Wireless Connection Problems Using SL5 Object

There is an increase in the use of in-door wireless networking solutions via Wi-Fi and this increase infiltrated and utilized Wi-Fi enable devices, as well as smart mobiles, games consoles, security systems, tablet PCs and smart TVs. Thus the demand on Wi-Fi connections increased rapidly. Rule Based System is an essential method in helping using the human expertise in many challenging fields. In this paper, a Rule Based System was designed and developed for diagnosing the wireless connection problems and attain a precise decision about the cause of the problem. SL5 Object expert system language was used in developing the rule based system. An Evaluation of the rule based system was carried out to test its accuracy and the results were promising

Satellite and aircraft communications through SDR as an introduction to Telecommunications and Electrical Engineering.

This article describes our teaching experience and lessons learned using Software Defined Radio (SDR) for introducing freshmen to Telecommunications and Electrical Engineering programs. During the course we give a hands-on introduction on SDR, Python programming language, and some basic concepts in communications. With these tools, the students address challenging projects on wireless communications. One of the main objectives is to motivate freshmen students on Telecommunications and Electrical Engineering programs. In this paper we explain the methodology used and some of the projects that have been developed during the last two years

An Exploratory Investigation of Change in Students' Subjective Perception of Informatics

This paper discusses an exploratory, small-scale investigation of students' perception of informatics from an uncommon perspective, i.e. by addressing change between patterns representing frequencies of associations of keywords and ideas as they emerge from a questionnaire administered to particular groups of subjects. The analysis is aimed at identifying trends of change across subsequent instruction levels as well as in connection with extracurricular outreach programs

Business: BS Management Information System

Add a BS in Management Information Systems degree to the Department’s portfolio of degree programs

Difusion of Free/Opensource Software as Innovation: A Case Study of METU

In this research, the diffusion of free and open source software (FOSS) on desktop PCs at Middle East Technical University in Ankara (METU) is investigated within the framework of the diffusion of innovation theory. This work aims to propose some policies for the migration to FOSS on desktop PCs at METU. The research is conducted through two similar web-based surveys. The first survey was held during 27-28 September 2003 after the examination of exemption for the IS100 course. The second survey was held between 23 March and 24 May 2004 in the whole of the METU campus. This survey was open to all students and academic and non-academic staff with a METU network account. There were 402 participants in the first survey and 1224 in the second. As expected, Microsoft OS rules the desktop PCs within the METU campus. According to the surveys, there is a rather large PC user base which could potentially migrate to GNU/Linux system. In addition to a large amount of data, it has been found out that a migration to FOSS is welcomed greatly by the users if the process is explained on the basis of public economic gains. However personal migration is still difficult if the user is left alone to install any new OS. Activities which will eventually increase the awareness for FOSS at METU, change in the curriculum of the IS100 course, collaboration among METU FOSS users and creation of a software catalog with possible FOSS equivalent for METU courses are some of the propositions which will eventually help the migration process. Furthermore, different innovation-decision models are discussed based on the research findings.