by M. C. Jennings | Nov 8, 2016 | Academics, COBA Faculty, Current Students, Research
by guest blogger and marketing major from Japan, Noah Bastable
Hello wildcats and welcome back to our weekly blog post on the Jessup Pope College Football Rankings!
This week is the tenth week of college football and we’d like to talk you through some noticeable changes since last week.
Our top four teams – Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, and Wisconsin – remain the same but their order has switched.
LSU lost to Alabama but they went up in the rankings from 16th to 11th. The score was close until Alabama broke the scoreless game in the last quarter by scoring 10 points.
Ole Miss shot up through the rankings from 28th to 17th after a 37-27 win against the Georgia Southern Eagles.
Nebraska went down from 12th to 20th after their staggering 62-3 loss to Ohio State.
The most interesting turnout, however, was one between two of our home state teams, Baylor and TCU. TCU “clobbered”, as Ryan Jessup put it, the Bears 62-22 defeating them so badly that their running back was sidelined for attitude issues. Perhaps there is a silver lining in the Bears-Frogs game, the lesson learned that no matter how rough a game may get, one must always maintain a right attitude.
That is it for this week. Come back and check us out again next week for more of the new and improved Jessup Pope College Football rankings! Go Wildcats!!
by M. C. Jennings | Nov 1, 2016 | Academics, COBA Faculty, Current Students, Research, Uncategorized
by guest blogger, Dr. Ryan Jessup
I present to you the first edition of the second season of the new and improved Jessup Pope (JP) College Football Rankings in which we rank all 128 college football teams in the bowl subdivision based on their performances through the first 9 weeks of the current season.
A very brief history
Last season, Don Pope and I introduced our ranking system which uses a modified version of the Google PageRank algorithm – the algorithm that jump-started the search engine giant and still underlies their current approach today – to allow it to rank teams instead of webpages. We also enabled it to account for home field advantage and temporal decay of performances (this is where games early in the season weigh less in the rankings than more recent games), among other things.
New and improved
You might recall that last season we ended with the same final 4 as the college football playoff (CFP) rankings and predicted that Alabama would defeat Clemson in the Championship by 5.7 points, a game Alabama won by 5 points. Our model (a) beat Las Vegas and (b) correctly predicted the winner of the bowl games 51.2% of the time. For us, that is not good enough. So, in the offseason we grabbed more seasons of college football data to help our system better learn and made a few additional modifications to supercharge the system. When we finally got around to running our new version on last season’s data, we found that it beat Vegas 61% of the time and correctly predicted the bowl game winner 56% of the time.
About our rankings
Before we get into the rankings here are a few quick reminders:
- We do not care about predicting the CFP rankings. We care about good predictions of game outcomes and correctly predicting the CFP rankings may lead us in the wrong direction.
- Our model does not care about win-loss records. A team with a losing record who lost multiple away games against tough teams by narrow margins will likely end up higher in our rankings than an undefeated team that has played a creampuff schedule.
- Our model is not biased by name recognition, what conference a team plays in, or start of the season rankings – three potential weaknesses of human ranking systems.
- Our model is forward-looking so as to predict future outcomes whereas traditional polls and ranking systems are backwards-looking and hence merely describe prior performance.
The rankings
As with last season, we are presenting the rankings using a dotplot which preserves the relative difference in JP values. For example, this image demonstrates that the difference in quality between teams 1 and 2 is larger than the difference between teams 15 and 50!
No one should be surprised that Alabama and Michigan are ranked at the top. Our high ranking of Wisconsin is consistent with their strong performances against quality teams, despite their two losses, both against teams that we rank higher (Michigan followed by Ohio State at #3).
My guess is that undefeated Clemson and Washington will round out the CFP’s top 4 in the first ranking of the season which will be released on Tuesday; though, our model suggests that they are currently on the outside looking in. Baylor and West Virginia’s losses this past weekend simplified the problem that would have otherwise arisen – people wondering why those two undefeated teams were ranked so low.
by M. C. Jennings | Oct 19, 2016 | Academics, Careers In..., COBA Faculty, College Decisions, Current Students, Faith Infusion, Human Resource Management, Uncategorized
Dr. Malcolm Coco
What is your educational background?
Bachelor of Business Administration, University of Southwestern La.
Personnel Management and Supervision, Central Michigan University
Doctorate of Public Administration, Nova Southeastern University
What is your work background?
I was a United States Air Force Pilot for 22 years.
What do you teach at ACU?
I teach Human Resource Management courses and am the Director of Internships for COBA.
What committees/other duties do you have at ACU aside from teaching?
Too many to list. I was Associate Dean from 1993-1997.
What drew you to teaching? Why did you want to work with students?
When stationed at Dyess AFB in the 70s, I met a number of ACU faculty/staff/and grads. I determined then based on those relationships that ACU was special and that after my Air Force career I would like to work for ACU.
What’s the best part of working with students?
Working with young people with fresh ideas, passion, and engagement.
Have you ever given up any big opportunities to keep working with students?
The offer to be the Director of Human Resources at ACU and several other HR director jobs.
Outside of teaching, what passions and hobbies do you have?
Anything outdoors: bow hunting, fly fishing, and duck hunting especially.
Enjoying the great outdoors.
What is a good, early story about your teaching?
I’ve always enjoyed inviting local, national and international HR professionals to speak in my class.
Tell me about a project or accomplishment that you consider to be the most significant in your career.
Being the Deputy Director of U.S. air force pilots world wide assignments for 40,000 air force pilots as well as being the Associate Dean during some of the most challenging times for the College of Business.
Do you do any charity or non-profit work?
I volunteer with Rotary International, Big Country Society for Human Resource Management, Military Officers Association, and Herald of Truth.
Who is your role model, and why?
Anyone of a few faculty who can fully engage students.
Dr. Coco on a field trip with students.
Who was your most inspirational professor and why?
Former Department Chair, Lamar Riench.
If you could have a superpower, what would it be and why?
To have a better ability to connect people with Jesus.
What is something that students might be surprised to find out about you?
That I was a State Champion pole vaulter and sprinter.
What would you really want students and alums to know about you?
To know how much I really care about our students and how much I appreciate our student’s parents giving us their children for an education.
by M. C. Jennings | Oct 12, 2016 | Academics, COBA Faculty, College Decisions, Current Students, Faith Infusion, Research, Uncategorized
Dr. Katie Wick
What is your educational background?
I was drawn to the University of Virginia for my undergraduate education. The campus is a magical place steeped in history and tradition. When I came to UVA, I was convinced I was going to be a doctor, and as I was taking my first course in chemistry I realized that I was going to have to slog and push myself through my prerequisites for medical school. Simultaneously, I happened to enroll in principles of microeconomics with 550 other undergraduates and the class made my heart sing! I decided I need to dive into economics further.
My game theory and experimental economics classes convinced me to make the study of economics my future. Strategy, games, choices, and decisions came alive in the economics laboratory, and I simply had to find a way to get to graduate school to study further. With the guidance of my advisor, I applied to experimental graduate programs and received an amazing offer from the University of Pittsburgh where the real work in economics began.
Playing economics games with handheld devices out on the famous UVA lawn with my experimental economics class (that’s me on the very far right in the red and my advisor/professor right next to me). This was a big deal since it was WAY before iPads!
After two to three years of the basic course work (basic is a misnomer since it was scary hard), I started my research in experiments. My dissertation was based around two experiments I designed to test efficiency in public good giving. It was such a thrill to conduct every aspect of the experiment and see it take shape from just an idea to the design then the programming, the recruiting of subjects, the running of the experiment in the laboratory, and the analysis afterward. The day I defended my dissertation was almost as exciting as the days I welcomed my children into the world!
What is your work background?
You’ll notice the narrative of my work history exactly coincides with the development of my family. My first professor job was at Allegheny College in Meadville, PA where I was blessed with amazing students who loved economics as well as game theory and experiments. At the end of my very first week of work, our first foster child came to live with us, a little boy named Braden who we had the privilege of later adopting. Concurrently, my husband was in his family medicine residency, and when he graduated, he would begin active duty with the Air Force due to the terms of his medical school scholarship. After two years of working at Allegheny, my husband was given orders to Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, TX, which we had to look up on a map! God went before us to provide a community of support including an amazing church and friends.
Dr. Matthew Wick, then a captain in the USAF on his first day of active duty service at Dyess with our 2-year-old son Braden.
I was 30+ weeks with our second child when we moved to Abilene, and I took two years off from teaching to be with our small kids. I missed being with students and teaching, and I reached out to the academic community in town. I started teaching part-time at McMurry in the fall of 2012 when I was 36 weeks pregnant with our 3rd child! I had missed the excitement of the first day of school in those two years away. That was a busy semester!
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The first day back to school in 2012! 36 weeks pregnant with #3.
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My bosses for two years “off”.
I taught part-time at McMurry for one year and full-time for three years. We loved living in Abilene. After my husband’s active duty commitment was over, we decided to stay and put down permanent roots here, and we had one more kid too!
What do you teach at ACU?
My main teaching focus at ACU is the principles of economics courses (macro and micro) and equipping our COBA students for their upper level business classes. This spring I will be teaching one of my favorite classes on game theory which studies choices in strategic settings. We also play a good deal of games which makes it a very fun and memorable class. I also hope to add other economics topics classes in the future.
What drew you to teaching? Why did you want to work with students?
The mentoring process is my favorite part of teaching. I love getting to know about student’s uniqueness and helping them learn material in a way that makes sense to them. I went to a large university where having a mentor relationship with your professor was very difficult if not close to impossible in some cases. It became paramount that my students have a different experience than I did, one where they were known. In addition, I LOVE school, have always loved school, so it’s exciting that I always get to be in school!
What’s the best part of working with students?
I love that I get to be a small part of this transformational time in their lives. College is a shaping experience academically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually. It is a great privilege to be able to encourage them on this journey. In addition, students make me laugh, and they help to keep me relevant.
Outside of teaching, what passions and hobbies do you have?
When I’m not teaching, I’m usually at home or out and about with my “tribe.” They are my biggest hobby and my greatest joy in life. Currently, my kids are 2, 4, 6, and 8 years old so they are still at an age where they require attention which is both great and hard.
Other than my tribe, I love to spend time with my friends, exercise, read, and I am very involved in my church community. I have a huge passion for the foster and adoptive community, and we hope to open our home again to children in the future.
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My tribe of kiddos
What is a good, early story about your teaching?
While I was still a student in my doctoral program, I taught a section of Intermediate Microeconomics in the summer when I was 24 years old. I remember walking into the classroom, very nervous, and one of the students asking me about the professor and if this was known to be a hard class. I giggled on the inside. I guess they thought that I was taking the class and not teaching it!
Tell me about a project or accomplishment that you consider to be the most significant in your career.
Up to this point, I don’t think anything has topped the feeling of the accomplishment of my dissertation. Conducting every aspect of those experiments and single authoring the papers created an incredible sense of triumph.
Do you do any charity or non-profit work?
Most Thursday mornings I work in my church’s food pantry where we provide groceries and household goods to approximately 25 families that day. These families and the others working the food pantry bless my life in tremendous ways. I also lead a life group and counsel couples in the premarital journey with my husband.
Who is your role model, and why?
My parents! My father worked tirelessly to provide for us as well as let us know we were always loved. He was also an incredibly successful surgeon bringing healing to thousands of patients and teaching hundreds of budding doctors. My mom was the rock upon which our whole family stood, and she is our earthly guide in this life. She also led each of her children to know and love the Lord.
Who was your most inspirational professor and why?
There are many, and I could pick inspirational teachers/professors for different phases of my life.
Childhood – my mom, Helen Johnson, who encouraged me to love learning and see it as a constant adventure at a young age.
Middle/High School – Dr. Tracy Inman who taught me an intensive three-week summer course in humanities studying different perspectives of the afterlife at my favorite summer camp (lovingly dubbed nerd camp by my friends and family). Her guidance helped challenge my critical thinking skills and nourish my individual ideas.
College – Dr. Charles Holt who opened my eyes to the world of game theory and experimental economics. At the time, I didn’t know he was such a leader in this field and that working in his laboratory would put me way ahead in skills for graduate school. I was so blessed by his leadership and guidance.
At UVA’s Intermediate Honors (I’m on the far right) with Dr. Charles Holt in the center. We all call him Charlie.
If you could have a superpower, what would it be and why?
Flying! Oh, how freeing it would be! Plus, you could see the world from a different perspective and travel places quickly.
What is something that students might be surprised to find out about you?
My husband and I were dating for less than 10 months when we got married! We are coming up on our 11th anniversary this Christmas.
What would you really want students and alums to know about you?
When I was in graduate school, I longed to teach at a university just like ACU. Working here is a blessing, and teaching, mentoring, and working with students is my professional dream-come-true. I am honored to share in the mission of ACU.
The Wick Family
by M. C. Jennings | Sep 28, 2016 | Academics, COBA Faculty, Current Students, School of Information Technology and Computing, Uncategorized
We’re excited to introduce you to one of our new professors, Dr. Jeremy St. John, coming to ACU from East Texas (Texas A&M University – Commerce). Jeremy grew up and attended school in Denton, Texas and Munich, Germany traveling every year between the US and Germany. He is fluent in German. Through junior high and beyond high school he worked in residential housing construction (non-management, all manual labor). Over the years he also worked as a property manager managing family rental properties (his family founded Chris Craft which was at one time the largest privately owned company in the U.S., but was sold in the late 60s).
Dr. Jeremy St. John
In the early 90s he began serving on the Denton Chamber of Commerce as the 21 year old owner and manager of a retail pet store. Isaac Asimov and the importance of the computer for a small retail store were major factors for Jeremy’s choice of MIS as a major. He went on to earn a BBA in Business Computer Information Systems from the University of North Texas, a Master of Science degree in Information Technology, and a PhD in Business Computer Information Systems from the University of North Texas. Jeremy (and his future wife Karen) were instructors for the Treasury Department’s Computer Audit Specialist training program for five years. Instruction was on auditing large organizations with a focus on COBOL, computer forensics and the mainframe environment. In 2008 – 2009 he worked at Tyler Junior College as the program development manager for Science and Technology where he developed a petroleum Landman training program. From 2009 – 2011 he taught at the University of Texas at Tyler. He has served as an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University – Commerce from 2011-2016 including a stint as interim department head from 2013-2014.
Courses Dr. St. John has taught include information systems and programming at the University of North Texas (six years). Managerial Decision Making, Operations Management, Quantitative Analysis, Database Information Systems and Management Information Systems at the University of Texas at Tyler (two years) and Business Research, Process Analysis & Design, Networking & Security at Texas A&M University Commerce (five years). Recent projects include writing the textbook Excel for Landmen and the design & manufacture of the Critter Cutter, a unique multi-tasking tool . The Critter Cutter reflects a new research interest into Crowdfunding. Recent research includes two articles published in the top MIS journal Information Systems Management.
Jeremy volunteers as the faculty sponsor for Weekend Campaigns at Abilene Christian University. This is a student volunteer group on campus who have a desire to serve other communities. They travel to many children’s homes and to disability communities over the semester, spend time with the residents there and help build different things, as well as complete any other tasks their host needs them to do. They recently traveled to the Boles Children’s Home to help build a fence and driveway for their new nursery, and to spend time with the kids there.
The Boles Children’s Home is a Christian not for profit organization that provides a safe haven for children and single mothers in need. They also reach disadvantaged children in their neighborhoods through their outreach ministry programs. They help families and orphaned children avoid homelessness, poverty, abuse and neglect and lead them to sustainable and productive lives where they can attend public school, universities, trade schools, and participate in church and school activities. They do not receive state or federal grants but rely on donations and volunteers.
Jeremy stated that the Weekend Campaigns organization is a great group because it helps students get connected with other students, and learn to enjoy volunteering and helping others during a time where most people think about themselves. He said the students at Abilene Christian have been able to be a friend, helper and mentor to kids and adults in need. Jeremy is looking forward to the next Weekend Campaign trip which will be a Thanksgiving trip to Oklahoma to hand out food to the poor.
The St. John Family
Jeremy’s wife of 17 years, Karen, will start in the spring at ACU as an IT Instructor and is currently teaching at A&M Commerce. They have six children who attend Abilene Christian Schools and live on 158 acres in North Abilene. Please help us welcome the St. John family to COBA!
by M. C. Jennings | Aug 31, 2016 | Academics, Careers In..., COBA Staff, College Decisions, Current Students, Outcomes, Uncategorized
Meet Aimee (pronounced I-may) Agee, COBA’s newest staff member. Aimee serves as COBA’s Student and Professional Development Manager, working with students to help them via class insertions, job and internship coaching sessions, resume help and much more. COBA students, we hope you’ll come in to the Dean’s Suite and meet Aimee!
Aimee Agee
What is your educational background?
I completed two A.A. degrees with the Community College of the Air Force, one in Aircraft Maintenance Systems and the other in Instructional Science. I completed my undergraduate degree in Adult and Career Education at Indiana State University. I am projected to graduate with my M.Ed from ACU in December.
What is your work background?
I spent 11 years in the Air Force, 7 years as an aircraft mechanic and 4 years as an instructor under the Community College of the Air Force. After separating from the Air Force I was an assistant campus director for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and then a community readiness specialist, specializing in employment.
Aimee and her husband, First Lieutenant, Alfred B. Agee Jr.
What do you do at ACU/COBA?
At COBA I am the Professional and Student Development Manager. I focus on helping our students be prepared for the work force and find internship and employment opportunities.
What drew you to work at ACU? Why did you want to work with students?
What drew me to ACU was being able to combine my passion for higher education, students, and Christ.
What’s the best part of working with students?
The best part of working with students is knowing that you can help them through such an important transition period in life.
Outside of ACU, what passions and hobbies do you have?
My passion is education. I love reading, taking classes, and learning new things. My two young girls take up a lot of time but I love being a mom and learning.
Aimee and her daughters
What is a good, early story about your first job or when you were in college?
Being petite in size made my first job very challenging! I quickly realized being an aircraft mechanic was not for me. I trusted God and He led me to my second job and my passion for higher education.
Who is your role model and why?
My role model is my mother-in-law. Her faith is her guide in life. When I need to speak to someone she always guides me back to the best resource available, the Bible.
Who was your most inspirational professor and why?
My most inspirational professor was Dr. Morris. He facilitated a few of my graduate courses and I was so impressed at his ability to be engaged and involved with students holistically in an online setting.
The Agee Family
If you could have a superpower, what would it be and why?
Time travel! I would love to go back in time and meet so many historical figures.
What is something that students might be surprised to find out about you?
English is my second language. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico with Spanish as my first and primary language.
