Georgia Southern’s College of Information Technology presents first Awards of Excellence

May 3, 2007

The College of Information Technology (CIT) at Georgia Southern University recently recognized four faculty/staff members with its inaugural College Award of Excellence.

Cheryl Aasheim, an assistant professor in the college’s Department of Information Technology, was named CIT Teacher of the Year. In presenting the award, James Bradford, CIT’s dean, said Aasheim ‘consistently receives high praise from students. In addition, she has made significant contributions to the development and redesign of several introductory courses in the college’s Bachelor of Science in Information Technology Program.” Aasheim received her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Florida. Prior to joining Georgia Southern University, she taught at the University of Florida and Santa Fe Community College.

Lixin Li, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Sciences, was selected CIT Researcher of the Year. A noted and respected researcher in the field of geographic information systems, Li has published numerous articles in the area of constraint and spatiotemporal databases. She recently authored three chapters related to her research for the Encyclopedia of Geographic Information Systems. The titles of those chapters are ‘Constraint Databases and Data Interpolation,” ‘Constraint Databases and Moving Objects” and ‘Constraint Database Queries.” Spatiotemporal databases are specialized computer applications that store data related to geographical locations measured over time. An example of a real-world application of such a database would be storing and recovering ozone concentration information for the whole United States. Constraint databases are relatively new research tools that use highly advanced mathematical computations to help estimate data for locations where no measurements exist. Li earned a doctorate in computer science from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Her bachelor’s and master’s degrees are from Southwest Jiaotong University in China.

Thomas Case, a professor in the Department of Information Systems, received CIT’s Service of the Year Award. Case was honored for his outstanding service to the university as well as his work with numerous community and professional organizations. ‘Tom has served on multiple university-wide committees as well as numerous committees within CIT and the College of Business Administration,” said Susan Williams, chair of information systems. ‘It is difficult to imagine how any one person could be a stronger contributor in this area than Dr. Case.”

Maria Aviles, an academic student advisor for the college, was recognized with the Staff of the Year award. According to Bradford, Aviles continually seeks opportunities to better understand students and improve the advising process, and ‘her creativity and outside-the-box thinking have added immeasurable value to our college advising unit.” Aviles joined CIT in January 2005 after completing a Master of Business Administration degree with a concentration in information systems from the University’s College of Business Administration.