Recognizing the increasingly central and critical role that information systems play in organizations, both public and private, the Center for Research in Information Systems (CRIS) is dedicated to undertaking research that (1) aids in our understanding of this phenomenon and (2) explores ways whereby information systems can be used more effectively within organizations. Information systems and technology have near universal application in such areas as (examples, not an exhaustive list):
• National security
• Medical and health care
• Retailing
• Financial and insurance services
• Transportation, and
• Manufacturing
The management and use of information systems play a key role in the research of CRIS; but because different areas of business are the espoused target, the Center is designed to promote multi-disciplinary, cross-functional participation by faculty not just from with the CIS Department but throughout the College.
CRIS complements, but does not compete with, other RCB research centers and institutes while drawing on the traditional strengths of the CIS Department. In particular, the RCB Center for Process Innovation (CEPRIN), with its focus on business processes and supply chain management, complements CRIS, whose broader focus will be on the role that information systems play in all aspects of organizational life. It is anticipated that RCB faculty will be active in both centers.
The purpose of the Center is (1) to promote areas of research of strategic importance to CIS, (2) to facilitate closer collaboration within RCB and with outside firms and institutions, and (3) to support the undertaking of industry-oriented action-research projects. To achieve this, CRIS is organized into programs. Strategically, CRIS will pursue a limited number of programs at a given point in time. Structurally, each program will take its own form to suit its particular circumstances. Based upon existing research activities within the Department, the initial four research programs are:
• Information security
• Health informatics
• Mobile and wireless systems, and
• Educational innovations
Information security is in place as an active area of research in the Department, complemented by a solid curriculum in IT security and with additional courses under development. Dissertations have already been conducted in health informatics and new undergraduate and graduate health-informatics majors have been established in conjunction with the RCB Institute of Health Administration. A funded research project in mobile technology has just been completed and another grant request is under development. Finally, the Department has just received a three-year $315,000 grant, CPATH, to study the transferability of educational innovations.
These four programs within CRIS will be supplemented as time goes by with other programs. Approval for promising new research programs, or discontinuing programs that have been completed, will be done through application to a CRIS Review Board. This Board will be composed of the CRIS Director, the CIS Department Chair, and the current CRIS Program Directors, with inputs from CIS faculty and CRIS Fellows, that is, those faculty members from other RCB units that are currently active in the Center. All programs under the auspices of the Center will be reviewed annually.
Ephraim R. McLean, Ph.D.
Regents' Professor
Interim Director, CRIS
