INSIDE GGC

By Corey Mobley

Congratulations to the Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) Information Technology Students of America (ITSA) members who recently won the prestigious Model Student Organization Award at the Seventh Annual U.S. Information Technology Collegiate Conference (USITCC).

In a truly historic achievement, GGC students earned awards in every competition they entered, including the inaugural USITCC Hackathon Competition.

Students excelled in the following categories:

Hackathon Competition

Connor Griffin, Sean Nolan, and Joel Erulu earned the top honor, the Best Overall award. This three-day competition concluded with the development of a live, fully operational mobile application.

Database Competition

Thanh Tran secured first place individually, while the GGC team – Gabriel Morrow and Krishan Bhalsod –placed third.

Security Competition

Loana Morillo Diaz won second place. She, along with Kelechi Ariwodo, Gabriel Morrow and Adam Hup, advanced to the final round, which featured the top 25 students from the qualifying round.

Microsoft Office Competition

Thanh Tran and John Brannigan earned third place, marking the first time GGC students brought home a trophy in this category.

PC Troubleshooting Competition

Loana Morillo Diaz placed fourth in a highly competitive event that drew the largest number of individual participants.

Students achieved this level of national recognition because of the dedicated, skilled information technology (ITEC) faculty in the School of Science and Technology (SST) and support from President Jann L. Joseph, Provost Chavonda Mills and SST Interim Dean Joseph Ametepe. ITSA student advisors include professors of ITEC Drs. Shuting Xu and Lissa Pollacia, and Dr. Evelyn Brannock, associate professor of ITEC. Also, Dr. Sean Yang, professor of ITEC and interim Information Technology Department chair, procured funding to sponsor student and faculty travel.