The Grizzlies have won their first national championship – not in athletics, but in academics.

Members of the Georgia Gwinnett College student chapter of the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) recently brought home the institution’s first national championship from the 2013 AITP National Collegiate Conference in Database Design, held in St. Louis, Mo.

The annual conference features a range of competitions. About 700 attendees represented 70 colleges and universities, including Purdue University, Brigham Young University, Texas State University and many more of the finest schools in the country. Student teams vie for 42 trophies in 14 categories, meaning that many of the competing institution’s teams go home empty-handed.

To prepare for the stiff competition, faculty advisors Dr. Lissa Pollacia, professor of information technology, and Dr. Evelyn Brannock, assistant professor of information technology, along with other dedicated faculty in the School of Science and Technology (SST), mentored GGC’s AITP members in the evenings and on weekends. Timed, four-hour practice sessions enabled the students to perfect their strategies under the same parameters as the conference challenges.

America loves an American success story and “rural outsourcing” is certainly one of them.  Bringing lower cost IT development alternatives back on shore is a trend that is now picking up speed across the United States.  Monty Hamilton, CEO of Rural Sourcing Inc., an Atlanta Ga. based IT process outsourcing firm, presented an overview of the  $300 billion IT outsourcing industry, a look at the history of RSI, Inc., and the drivers that are now bringing IT jobs to many mid-sized (2nd and 3rd tier) US cities. 

“The cost of living” said Hamilton, “is simply lower in rural America.”  “In many of these places, we’ve found pockets of IT talent at the recent graduate level as well as mid and senior management,” he said.  Hamilton points to client dissatisfaction with overseas outsourcing as a major driver for domestic sourcing.   "This is a large industry with a lot of unhappy customers,” said Hamilton.  “Many don’t want to go off shore due to the risk and quality issues,” he said.