When most people think of Central Michigan University, they think of a big liberal arts school in rural mid-Michigan with a strong teaching component. Well, they're right, but it's also a whole lot more.

In six stops around Mt. Pleasant Monday, I learned that CMU is a global leader in several critical technologies and is deeply involved into bringing higher tech to driving, journalism and health care.

The day's first stop was in the office of D. Michael Fields, dean of the college of business administration, with Frank Andera, a member of the business information systems faculty, and Monica C. Holmes, associate dean, about the
university's long relationship with SAP.

Andera told me that relationship began through the university's relationship with Dow Chemical Co., which began implementing SAP in the early 1990s. By the late 1990s, as SAP installations were growing more in the United States, "we jumped on to the SAP university alliance program... We were one of the first five in the nation, and we never looked back."

CMU faculty members began to get detailed training in SAP, and students began using it in classes, ranging from human relations to accounting to management to marketing. Students have visited SAP installations at Miller Brewing and Harley-Davidson in Milwaukee and John Deere in Moline, Ill. Andera aid every CMU student studying for a bachelor of science in business administration is introduced to SAP in their junior year. CMU is also one of the few colleges offering its students a two-week SAP boot camp offered each year just after school gets ou tin May. The program, now nine years old, has been shown to result in starting salaries $6,000 to $10,000 higher than those who haven't had it.

CMU now offers an online MBA with an SAP emphasis as well as an SAP certificate program. Both are marketed both to mid-career professionals and to companies who want to add more SAP-savvy managers.

Holmes said she believes the current financial meltdown will give companies more reason to deploy software like SAP because of the close monitoring, control and traceability it gives all transactions within an enterprise. She said it closely documents the flow of information, which is the key to compliance. She said she believes the reason for SAP implementation failures "is poor project management or poor understanding of your own business processes.
SAP is very big and very complex and its not easy to implement. But if you understand what you want very well then you can be successful."

More at ww.news.cmich.edu/2008/02/new-cmu-programs-aimed-at-help/.

Next up was a visit to CMU's data mining programs, with statistics professor Carl Lee, grad students Steve Bauer and Ghada Ibrahim, and Tim Pletcher, director of applied research at the CMU Research Crop.

CMU last year launched a new graduate certification program in data mining, which is the only program in the nation to incorporate Geographical Information Systems studies. CMU's program also is the only data mining certification program available in Michigan.

The emphasis on GIS and geography helps make the link from data to maps that make data come alive.

Ibrahim, a native of Egypt, will present research on data mining into the question of what conditions are necessary for democracy to spring up in nations at an upcomign conference in Las Vegas. Ibrahim said she began studying data mining at CMU after receiving a master's degree in statistics from Western Michigan University -- and her prospective employers started asking her if she had expertise in data mining. Bauer, who also has a software startup, went to CMU to study computer science and started working for CMURC to become a programmer for them.

All those involved in data mining at CMU said measures can be taken to protect privacy while still achieving the remarkable predictive results that modern data mining techniques can produce.

More at http://www.news.cmich.edu/2007/11/cmu-graduate-program-first-of/.

Next up was CMU's still-gorgeous but no-longer-quite-new Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow College of Health Professions building -- and the coolest driving simulator I have ever seen.

Called DEER -- for Driving Evaluation, Education and Research -- the device was donated by AAA Michigan. It's the instrument panel, doors and front seats of a Ford Focus, surrounded by video screens for a 180-degree point of view.
The mirrors also have screens to provide a view of what's behind.

Richard Backs, a professor psychology and DEER Center director, said the device can offer rural, urban or industrial settings users can drive through, in conditions ranging from perfect to a blizzard. Cameras monitor a driver's face
and feet actions.The device will be used to determine the fitness of older drivers to drive, as well as for academic research on older drivers, drivers who have been impaired by injury, and reserach into drivers with attention deficit and
hyperactivity disorder.

I drove a few minutes in the simiulator -- OK, 20 -- and its realism is absolutely amazing. But for all its display power, it doesn't take all that much computer power -- six run-of-the-mill Dell machines running Linux create all the special
effects.

The device will celebrate an open house Oct. 17 and plans to open to test subjects Nov. 1. It will be marketed to senior citizens, doctors, ophthalmologists and others in a seven-county region of mid-Michigan.

More at http://www.news.cmich.edu/2007/11/cmu-acquires-advanced-driving/.

Next I met again with Pletcher, who told me about MiHIA, the Michigan Health Information Alliance, a group that aims to create a health information network in 11 counties of mid-Michigan and the Thumb.

Essentially, the group is aiming to create a health information hub that's easy and affordable to use for all health care stakeholders in the region -- individual doctors, laboratories, clinics and hospitals.

"We're trying to convince people that the fax machine is a lower standard of care than doing things completely electronically," while helping doctors that might not be able to afford a full-blown system, Pletcher said.

MiHIA is also hoping to participate in a $22 million grant the state received for health care high-speed networks.

More at www.mihia.org or
http://www.news.cmich.edu/2007/09/cmurc-joins-michigan-health-in/.

Next I had a blast in the brand-new Caponigro Multimedia Laboratory at CMU's journalism school, with instructor Mark Ranzenberger and assistant professor Kent Miller.

The lab is equipped with 18 Macs, each possessing two 3.2-gigahertz quad core Intel Xeon chips and six gigabits of RAM. There's also a sophisticated double-screen display system and an instructor station from which the teacher
can look over the virtual shoulder of every student.

The equipment "will stay current for a while and really opens up the possibilities of what the students can do," Ranzenberger said. For one thing, he can record lectures and presentations and offer them as private podcasts for students who couldn't attend.

The computers are equipped with the latest design, editing and video software as well.

The new lab coincides with a new major being offered at CMU, in new media and online journalism.

The professors also showed off a new CMU student journalism venture, an online magazine called Grand Central, at www.grandcentralmagazine.com. It's all-volunteer and separate from the college's longtime and successful student
newspaper, Central Michigan Life. And Grand Central is already an award-winner.

My terrific day at Central ended with an excellent lunch at the new cafeteria at Woldt Hall. Boy, cafeteria food sure has changed since the late 1970s -- it's actually good, and frequently good for you. Like many universities, CMU has gone "trayless" in an effort to cut the dishwashing load. Special thanks to Tracy Burton, assistant director of media relations, who spent most of her day hauling me around when she probably had actual work to do.