Innovations for Industry is a class that allows students to solve information technology problems for local businesses. The class recently did a project with the Glendale Area Medical Association (GAMA) to upgrade the company’s technology. Arianne Waddington ’11, Williamsburg, Pa., explains further:

What exactly was your project in Innovations for Industry?
The GAMA was not up to date in their technology and was behind industry standards, so our basic project was to upgrade their equipment. We updated their website. We upgraded their brochure. We did a wireless evaluation. We worked with their conferencing equipment and prepared them for the changeover to electronic health records.

How did that come to be your project?
There were three different projects presented to the entire class, and the three of us who were team leaders picked a project and a group to work on the project.

Was the assignment difficult?
Project management is somewhat difficult, and some parts were hard to manage. Our client contact was in charge of the hospital, and it was hard to receive all the information needed from them quickly. Also, the clinic is about an hour’s drive away, which also made the project difficult.

What did you learn?
Communication is a very important thing, not only for teamwork, but also in every project for every company with which you could possibly work. I also learned much about web programming.

Did you enjoy it?
Yes, I did enjoy it. It is a very unique thing to have the Innovations for Industry class go out and work with industry in the real world instead of doing random projects that professors assign.

-Aaron Adams ’12, Juniata Online Journalist