Message from the Director
The future will challenge the INI to create meaningful experiences together across great distance and cultural differences, but I look forward to meeting those challenges in close collaboration with alumni, students, faculty and staff.
One of the most exciting events took place in May 2009, when we brought our students from our global programs to Pittsburgh for graduation. I was moved seeing the Class of 2009 from Pittsburgh, Athens, Kobe, Aveiro and Lisbon sit together for the INI diploma ceremony, and keynote speaker, Chinwe Abosi (Athens, MS17), spoke eloquently on the unique education she had gained from the INI. (I invite you to watch Chinwe’s speech at www.youtube.com/user/inicmu.)
The global reach of the INI did not peak at graduation. The incoming class in 2009 was our most diverse yet. It really said something when the INI's first-year students, with 22 countries represented, nearly matched the diversity of the entire incoming class of Carnegie Mellon's 1,454 undergraduates who came from 25 countries!
On a personal level, the past year was an important one, namely because I completed my doctoral dissertation on transnational university partnerships—a project inspired by the INI's global programs. On the same day as the INI diploma ceremony, I also received my doctorate in higher education management from University of Pennsylvania. I attended my hooding ceremony in Philadelphia on Saturday morning and presided over the INI ceremony in Pittsburgh that evening because I felt it was vital to be at both events. As I shared the company of all our graduates from around the world, the INI ceremony was the culmination of both my personal and professional goals in bringing the graduates together as one for this event.
My doctoral dissertation brought to light several opportunities. The future will challenge the INI to create meaningful experiences together across great distance and cultural differences, but I look forward to meeting those challenges in close collaboration with alumni, students, faculty and staff.
The INI community will be the base from which many initiatives launch in the year to come. We will graduate our first cohort from the bicoastal programs in mobility, information security and software management. In April, we will celebrate the INI's 20th anniversary. Going forward, the INI will increase efforts to educate more cybersecurity professionals, and we will contribute to the pool of technology talent within the federal government. I encourage you to stay informed and involved with us, as the INI develops partnerships and leads innovation, all towards building a stronger university made up of leaders, professionals, researchers and scholars worldwide.
Dena Haritos Tsamitis email
Director, Information Networking Institute; and
Director of CyLab Education, Training and Outreach