Welcome New Students

August 14, 2019

Dear Students,

I’m so excited to welcome you to the Department of Information Technology (IT) at Georgia Southern! My name is Yiming Ji, I am the new Professor and Chair for the department of IT.

I transferred from the University of South Carolina Beaufort (USCB) after serving there for 13 years from 2006 to 2019. I had a great opportunity to develop three academic programs, including two B.S. programs and one M.S. program, and further to establish a new Department of Computer Science and served as its founding Chair. I was also much honored to many academic awards, including the most recent Governor’s Award recipient (2016), Breakthrough Research Leadership (2018), and Carolina Trustee’s Professorship (2019). I hope that my research and education experience has prepared me to serve you in the future.

I came to Georgia Southern because of the academics, athletics, its unique makeup, and most importantly, the IT department and our student community.
Georgia Southern is more than just a college in Southeast Georgia; it has a unique character and its own special nuance that continues to attract and nurture generations of students from around the world. Georgia Southern, now three campuses in one university, embraces not only conveniences in modern cities but also the charming living styles in the south. I hope that you all will soon be part of the university community and will thrive at Georgia Southern.

I am not sure how many of you are aware of it, but the B.S. IT program at Georgia Southern is one of the 1st such programs developed in the nation, dated back to the year around 2000. Over the years, thousands of students have graduated from our program and are now working in IT fields, helping to transform Georgia’s (and thus the nation’s) economy. Some of them are even working at Georgia Southern and are helping us in IT services and in teaching key courses in the department.

We are fortunately living in an increasingly technology-driven world. Skilled computer and information technology workers are highly sought in every job sector, including science, engineering, social science, and business. According to the United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment in the computer and information technology field is expected to grow by 13 percent between 2016 and 2026, which is faster than average growth rate for all other occupations. More importantly, employees in computer and information technology also earn more than average. In May 2018, the median annual wage in this field was $86,320, while for all occupations, the median yearly salary was $38,640. I therefore firmly believe that you all will have an excellent future career.

Let’s work together and develop a few IT moments at Georgia Southern. Let’s also care for and help each other in the department so that we all will succeed in the future.

Go Eagles!

Yiming Ji