CCAPS Welcomes New Faculty Director for Information Technology Infrastructure Programs

Meet Colin Miller, the new faculty director of CCAPS Information Technology Infrastructure program! Colin brings a wealth of IT experience, with a career spanning three decades and multiple roles and technologies. 

Originally from Jamaica and raised in New York, Colin began his academic journey at City College of New York on a basketball scholarship, before transferring to Howard University. There, he earned a bachelor’s in business administration, focusing on management information systems. This launched him on a remarkable career path, starting with COBOL programming, where he was responsible for developing, maintaining, and optimizing critical business applications on mainframe computers. He then broadened his expertise by becoming a Remedy Developer, a specialist who manages and customizes the Remedy IT Service Management (ITSM) platform to improve organizational workflows and resolve complex system issues.

Over time, Colin's skills evolved. He worked extensively in various technical roles, focusing on areas such as SAP Business Objects, data science, and business intelligence. As a Senior Business Objects Developer at UCARE, he developed and maintained data warehouse reports, collaborated with departments, and mentored analysts. Prior to this, he held roles at Xcel Energy, Cargill Inc., and Diversified Distribution Systems, where he developed SAP Business Objects solutions, optimized data architectures, and led enterprise-wide reporting projects. His expertise in SAP Business Objects enabled organizations to extract, analyze, and visualize data for more informed decision-making.

But Colin’s passion extends far beyond technology. He's a dedicated lifelong learner, evidenced by his impressive academic credentials. In addition to his BA from Howard, he has also earned a Master of Arts in Religion and, most recently, a Master of Science in Data Science. 

Transitioning from private enterprise to academia, Colin became an associate professor of technology and director of the Technology Department at North Central University in Minneapolis in 2019. Now, he brings his passion and expertise to our college, ready to guide our Information Technology Infrastructure (ITI) program to new heights. 

Here, Colin shares his teaching philosophy, his vision for the near future, and his excitement about leading the program.

It has only been a few months since you came on board as the ITI faculty director, but you’ve already shaken things up. What changes have you implemented?

Since I arrived, the staff and I have updated the names of our main sub-plan (track) courses to be more contemporary and aligned with emerging technology, as some of the previous course names were outdated.

And we’re launching two new courses in the spring of 2025: Cloud Computing and Data Lakes, and Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Both are very hot topics at the moment. We already have the instructors on board for those.

You’ve already laid out your top three initiatives for the year as well. Can you talk about the first one?

My top priority is gaining accreditation from the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET), which is a very big deal. 

ABET is highly recognized and prestigious in the engineering and technology space in academia. It’s the best that you can get. Accreditation means that our program meets the highest quality standards, and it shows that we are accountable to students and the profession. 

The second initiative is to implement the Writing-Enriched Curriculum for ITI. Could you explain that and why it’s important for technology students to be effective writers?

The Writing-Enriched Curriculum (WEC) model aims to improve student learning and retention by emphasizing writing and articulation of understanding. The Information Technology Infrastructure WEC Matrix outlines key abilities for students, including proficiency in various IT writing forms, effective information seeking, persuasive implementation cases, correct grammar and style usage, audience-appropriate messaging, concise technical communication, and collaborative writing. It’s based on the concept that students learn and retain better when they have to articulate their understanding of a topic. 

Your third initiative is to promote faculty engagement through gatherings such as lunch and learns—tell us about that.

Building community is very important to me.  At North Central, whose mascot is the ram, I organized sessions called “Ram Bytes”—a play on words referring to both the mascot and computer memory units. In these sessions, I invited experts from various fields, such as HR, cybersecurity, and other areas of technology, to present to students. We also provided a free lunch during these events.

I aim to introduce a similar initiative here, inviting our faculty to present their work and expertise. Our instructors are highly skilled in their respective fields, and this would provide a great opportunity to build community and allow students to engage with their instructors in a more informal setting.

What else are you looking forward to?

I want to build up the advisory board to take advantage of all the Fortune 500 companies that have headquarters here in the Twin Cities. Having some of the heavy hitters represented on our board will help us keep our curriculum on the cutting edge of market demand and also help more of our students get valuable internships.

And we have plans for another sub-plan in cloud computing. We hope to be able to launch that in fall 2025.

You have also written a vision statement for the program. Can you share that?

The statement is “Shaping ITI learners with an inclusive, ABET-aligned curriculum focused on technology, soft skills, and diversity.” 

The development of soft skills is very important to me. It’s important for students to be able to communicate their work and their findings. No matter which class you take, whether it's programming in Java or Python, you'll still need to stand in front of the classroom or sit in a Zoom session and present.

In my first position after graduating, we had a group assignment where each of us had to present, and I performed poorly. It was a terrible experience that I never forgot. From that moment, I promised myself it would never happen again. I also vowed that, when I had the opportunity to teach, I would ensure my students felt comfortable presenting, communicating, and working in a team environment.

The notion that IT professionals only focus on technology and work alone in the background is outdated. Today, our work is highly collaborative, requiring teamwork and communication.