Interested in working with Fortune 100 clients in insurance, consumer goods, retail, finance, logistics, and more? Get real-world experience that can give you a step up on the competition.

This is a new practicum course, with the first pilot in Spring 2020 and then every Fall. It is a small and selective class. You can read about the experience of the students from previous semesters on the blog, and take a look at the syllabus. As a sample one project was with is a fortune 100 consumer goods company with a salesforce consulting project and another was a Microsoft dynamics cloud ERP consulting project with a B2B supplier. This semester (Fall 2022) we are focusing on Blockchain research and prototyping projects, along with our usual focus areas mentioned below. Read about some projects for the upcoming semester.  

If you are a corporate interested in providing challenging projects to our best and brightest, with a focus on hands-on learning in the area of tech and operations, find out more about opportunities to partner

Here is an overview of the projects the students have worked on over the years. 

AI Chatbots – Create a knowledge bot for new employees and Automating competitor intelligence using Large Language Models 

Legacy to Cloud ERP Migration –  Setup ETL process for moving a small business from a legacy on-premise system to Microsoft Dynamics (Business Operations) Cloud ERP. 

Natural Language Processing – Analyze and classify support tickets(using some classification algorithms) from internal clients using test development environments and help the firm speed the system development life cycle. 

Process Optimization – Evaluate processes for Cable management for B2B customers, and establish constraints. (Stretch target) Prototype a customer and internal-facing application for cable management. 

RPA –  A project on Robotic Process Automation, where the team evaluated a few processes and recommend which ones are suitable for automation.  They also got to learn an RPA tool, Automation Anywhere. RPA is the foundation for setting up advanced analytics for process optimization. Another project focused on using the Microsoft stack for automating customer interactions and inventory tracking for a research lab at a Fortune 100 company. 

Machine Learning – The impact of open-source machine learning and deep learning algorithms in the agriculture sector. Evaluate the impact on R&D and then production.  

This course allows you to apply the topics you learn in the Information Systems and/or Operations Management curriculum to real-world projects. We follow the template specified by the Magelli Office of Experiential Learning at GIES, with a clear focus on delivering value to the client while ensuring you get to learn a lot from the firms. While you are provided guidance by the faculty as needed, the teams work closely with the sponsoring company. In class, we will help you gain the skills you will need to successfully complete the project.


Pre-requisites 

Information systems students must complete BADM350 before registering for this course. Ideally, 352 and 353 as well, but concurrent enrollment in one or both of these courses would also help.

Operations Management students should complete BADM 275 or 375 before taking the course. 

The BADM 395-IOP Infosys & OpMgmt Practicum course can fulfill the requirement for an IS Major Elective course OR an  IS Program Elective course. It cannot fulfill both requirements. 

The BADM 395-IOP InfoSys & OpMgmt Practicum course is also a BPM/OM Program Elective (Choose Three) course. 

This course will be offered every Fall usually Monday evenings 5 to 8 pm . The ideal candidate would be one that meets the pre-requisites above and has some experience in working in team projects or an internship/co-op at a firm.   


If you have questions, email me at Vishal AT Illinois DOT edu