Business professor lauded with national award
Business majors can find a role model in a young, award-winning professor.
Bob Mills, assistant professor in the business and information systems department at Utah State University, received the Ben Bauman Award for Excellence by the International Association for Computer Information Systems on Oct. 4 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
The award recognizes university faculty excellence and service. Candidates for the award include junior faculty showing outstanding scholarship, service and great promise. It is expected that candidates in this category will not have a long record of scholarship and service, but will have recognizable achievements. The major emphasis when reviewing junior faculty nominations for the Ben Bauman Award is on the candidate’s potential and promise for a significant academic career.Feech Ed 11/11/02 attribution?
“I was chosen from a group of outstanding candidates from across the nation for my outstanding research, teaching, and service activities,” Mills said.
Last year, Mills also received the BIS Teacher of the Year award.
Mills instructs BIS 6350. The course is designed as an introduction to training and development. Students become familiar with the process of developing and implementing training programs in business, government and non-profit organizations. The course includes an examination of the steps that are typically followed in developing training programs. Students practice developing a representative training program that could be implemented into a realistic training environment.
Mills’ class is currently helping to provide training for the Utah Jazz with guest and food services.
“We are proud to be working with the Jazz to help them deliver an excellent training product. Students are provided with an excellent opportunity to apply the theories and best practices learned and apply them to a real-world project. This project will also provide the students with an outstanding portfolio piece,” Mills said.
Mills has also been very active in the grant-writing process. He has written seven funded grants. Grant writing continues to be his top priority each year. These grants provide assistance for hard-working students looking for research opportunities, he said.
“I believe that [writing grants] is one of our responsibilities to help fund our students,” Mills said.
Mills completed his master’s degree in the BIS department and his doctorate in instructional technology at USU. During his doctoral program, he worked as a programmer and lead instructional designer for the ID2 research group, as well as maintained the ID2 Novell 3.12 server.
This group provided computer-based training solutions for a number of organizations – including US West, MCI, Novell, Bell Canada, Techmatics, NRTC (DirectTV), Hewlett Packard, and the United States Air Force. He has also consulted with a number of organizations including Mitsubishi, EDS, John Deere Tractor, and the Media Group to develop Web-based training solutions.
Nov. 11 through 15, the College of Business is hosting Business Week at USU, which will be run by the Business Council. Last year, the Business Council was selected by Associated Students of Utah State University as the organization of the year. This council votes on issues affecting students – such as fee increases and expenditures, campus standards and student activities – and serves as a student voice to faculty and administration. This is Mills’ second year serving as a Business Council adviser.
“[The council] has an exciting and productive year planned again for this year,” Mills said.
He said he is very happy to be at USU, and each department in the College of Business offers students excellent opportunities if they are willing to put forth the effort.
Mills said his best students can, and often do, compete with top business students from around the nation. For instance, one of Mills’ previous teaching assistants, Steven Egli, is competing successfully against other top students as he works on his MBA at UC Berkeley.
“We [members of the faculty] are working with our new dean, Caryn Beck-Dudley, to plan an exciting future for our college. Through dedicated efforts, we intend to become a top-50 business school. It is exciting to be working in an environment that is committed to excellence,” he said.