IT professionals from Axalta Coating Systems served as judges for the Information Technology and Informatics (ITI) Showcase held by the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Presentations from more than 40 student teams featured IT-based solutions to business challenges faced by organizations. The majority of participants came from Rutgers’ ITI Capstone course, which challenges small teams to create IT products.

Karla Viglasky, Axalta Chief Information Officer-North America, Chris Davis, Axalta IT Operations and Technology Manager-North America, and Clayton Beale Jr., Axalta Enterprise Resource Planning Applications IT Manager-North America rated the students’ projects and offered advice and feedback.

“Axalta is committed to supporting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education efforts and the ITI Showcase is a great event that puts students to the test to find solutions to twenty-first century business problems,” said Viglasky. “All of the judges were impressed by the maturity and thoughtfulness of the projects. It was great to support the education of tomorrow’s IT leaders.”

The ITI Showcase event was conceptualized by Assistant Teaching Professor Sharon Stoerger, who is also the director of the ITI Program and co-founder of Women in Information Technology at Rutgers.

“Like many courses, the Capstone and Management courses included a group project, final report, and presentation components,” said Stoerger. “However, presenting for classmates and instructors in the classroom lacks that professional, ‘real world’ element. We wanted to raise the stakes for students in the Capstone and Management courses and make the presentation component similar to an event they will likely encounter in their IT careers. We wouldn't be able to do Showcase without people like Karla, Chris and Clayton making time in their busy lives to share their expertise and advice with our ITI students."