KSU to host state's first "Yamacraw Day"

1/11/01 - The state's technology economic-development group Yamacraw is beginning its push to recruit more than 2,000 design engineers with a job fair at Kennesaw State University Jan. 23.

Executives with Yamacraw's 17 member companies, which include Nortel Networks, Cirrex and Barco, have been invited to participate in the daylong event. Lectures, discussions with Yamacraw company executives and the presentation of certification awards for KSU computer science and information systems students who have completed core courses for a Yamacraw designation will be among the day's highlights.

The event will be held in the atrium of the Science Building, Building 12, from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

"Hosting the state's first 'Yamacraw Day' brings recognition and awareness that Kennesaw State University is a very large and significant source of technology employees," KSU Computer Science and Information Systems Department Chair Merle King said. "The average age of our graduates is 29, which means employers get mature, experienced employees out of our programs."

For the 1999-2000 school year, KSU graduated 120 CSIS majors-more than any other nonresearch university in Georgia. So far this academic year, 62 CSIS majors have graduated.

On "Yamacraw Day," KSU CSIS grad Jonathan Higgins will be presented with the state's first Yamacraw certificate. The former tattoo artist said he thinks his Yamacraw certification will help him land his dream technology job in programming or hardware architecture development.

"The Yamacraw courses are a way to specialize in a particular area of computer science-programming," Higgins, a resident of Cartersville, said. "Compared to the average CS student, the Yamacraw designation puts me in a specialized bracket of technology."

Yamacraw is charged with turning Georgia into a nucleus for the design of next-generation systems, devices and chips needed for advanced telecommunications.