Career Watch: NYU focuses on IT leaders

10.11.2008
Campus Watch

A Focus on IT Leaders By Thomas Hoffman

Techno-MBA degrees for CIOs are nothing new. As the CIO role has evolved, such programs have entered the curricula of several U.S. universities and even become "a path to the CEO" post, says Andres Fortino, associate provost at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University.

Now, NYU is working with a number of organizations, including the state of New York and the United Nations, to craft a similar degree program for chief information security officers, Fortino says. This spring, Polytechnic will launch a two-year, part-time master's degree program for CISOs. The school is working on developing an accreditation process for the 30-to-36-credit program with the New York State Office of Cyber Security & Critical Infrastructure Coordination.

As for the techno-MBA for CIOs, Polytechnic added course offerings this fall, says Fortino. One addition focuses on optimizing and building "world-class, green data centers," he says. These and other courses will also be offered to aspiring IT leaders who attend IT management conferences organized by AIT Global Inc., a Kings Park, N.Y.-based consultancy.

The first of the weeklong master's degree courses will be introduced at an AIT-sponsored conference in New York on Nov. 11, said AIT Global President Mike Lackey. Subjects covered will include service-oriented architectures and developing environmentally sustainable data centers. Another topic of discussion will be the changing role of the CIO, including a look at setting strategy for the enterprise and leading innovation efforts.