Administration
Department of Computer & Cyber Sciences
School of Computer and Cyber Sciences
Department of Computer & Cyber Sciences
Administration
Department of The Graduate School
Director, M.S. Information Security Management, Computer & Cyber Sciences
Dr. James N. Smith, DBA, MBA, CISSP is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing and Cyber Sciences at Augusta University. Prior to transitioning to academia, Dr. Smith spent his career bridging the corporate and academic worlds. For almost 20 years, he served in a variety of positions, both in private industry and as a civilian contractor for the U.S. Army, culminating as corporate Director of Information Technology. In addition to his industry experience he taught various security and networking courses first at Georgia Southern University and later at Mercer University prior to completing his doctorate at Kennesaw State University. His research interests focus, at the macro level, on how organizational and public policy affect change in the cybersecurity environment and, on the individual level, on how emerging neuro information systems methods can be applied to the security field. Dr. Smith also serves in various corporate and not for profit board capacities.
My objective when teaching security and technology in the university environment is threefold. First, I seek to use the educational experience to teach state of the art solutions to help the future professional to be marketable. Second, I use that experience to teach the long term skills that the future professional will need to remain relevant in a fast changing field. Third, I seek to instill a focus on business objectives that will help the future professional succeed as a leader in the information technology field.
We owe it to our students to teach them information technology using the most current products and best practices that we possibly can. It requires continual learning on our part, but it helps our students to enter the field equipped to capture their first professional position. I feel that academic research can work hand in hand with continuing professional education on our part to maintain an academic environment that is relevant to the business needs of today and tomorrow.
While we are teaching them the most current technology, we owe it to our students to teach them the long term skills that will equip them to be relevant as future technologies eclipse what they were taught. The fundamentals of problem solving, systematic thinking and self-teaching are critical to the mid-career IT professional to stay competitive. This helps out students to truly grow from apprentice to journeyman to master across their career.
While we teach them the technologies of today and the lifelong skills of an IT professional, we owe it to our students to teach them that technology does not exist in a vacuum. Learning, understanding, and internalizing the operational and strategic goals that IT seeks to meet will help the student see the larger picture of the organizations in which they serve. This larger picture view helps the IT professional transition from a skilled follower to a skilled leader across their career.
Utilizing quantitative survey-based, qualitative and experimental approaches, I am most interested in exploring the following areas in information systems and technology:
• Human factors related to cybersecurity and behavior
• Cybersecurity practice and education
• NeuroIS and Assistive Technologies
Thus far, my research has focused on the experience of family influenced firms in the implementation and assimilation of enterprise systems. Drawing from the family business literature and IS literature looking at organizational fit to the enterprise system artifact I have proposed the existence of organizational misfit between the operations of highly family influenced firms and standard ERP systems.
For my dissertation research I have developed a survey based quantitative instrument which hopes to support this proposition. In addition. I am gathering qualitative data for future work in looking to make information technology more valuable to family businesses. At present, I am engaged in data collection and analysis for my dissertation.
Expanding on my industry experience in the security realm and my teaching experience in cybersecurity, I have an ongoing interest in research into cybersecurity practice and education. I hope to contribute to a pedagogy that teaches cybersecurity in a broader context in the university environment by developing a case based framework for teaching global strategic cybersecurity.
