Lots of demand for tech workers despite the pandemic – to quote Ilya Brotsky from the March 2021 article: Because of COVID every company needs to be a tech company, even more so than before“.
ITAS alumni Ron Brash was named VIU’s October 2020 alumni of the month. Ron has become a leading cybersecurity expert and since graduating in 2008 has taught some Linux/Networking/Security classes and guest lectures for the ITAS program. We are grateful to have industry experts such as Ron to network with and provide input for the ITAS program curriculum.
2020 was an unusual year for the ITAS program with the onset of Covid-19. Our program had a strong start through January and February with a great second year cohort and some fun local events such as the Battlesnake Nanaimo AI programming competition where an ITAS student won first place in the Advanced category.
Starting in March, the ITAS program was able to work with VIU’s Health and Safety Department to continue in-class instruction by limiting the number of students coming the classroom each week, and overall we wrapped up a successful semester with student’s finding diverse jobs from local school districts to security and software firms such as aDolus and InputLogic.