7 minute read
Nichols launches the Center for Intelligent Process Automation
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Williams, a self-described “zealot,” estimates there are currently 80 million RPA jobs in the U.S. With his extensive knowledge and background in marketing new technologies, he motivated Nichols towards exploring partnerships with industry leaders. “We are talking about transforming lives,” Williams adds. “We are changing the way people feel about their ability to drive their careers in the future of work.” Graduates like Bethany Faford ’19 MSA ’20, a senior accountant at AAFCPAs who is credited with building the first bot at Nichols, are already seeing the impact. Shortly after she joined the firm, the managing partner began talking about investing in company automation. “I was only there for three months at this time, but I decided to set up a meeting with her to discuss my experience and how RPA might be useful to gain efficiencies at the firm.” For Haverty, who came to Nichols in his senior year from a 3+1 Program with Mount Wachusett Community College, RPA training will be the key to unlocking opportunities in accounting and finance. “Every job over the next 10 to 15 years, every company is going to have some amount of RPA in their business. This puts me ahead of other applicants,” he says. “I am glad to have found it when I did and look forward to a bright future for this field,” adding, “My curiosity got me into it and my passion will make me stay.”
Nichols College has taken a major step toward preparing students to capitalize on the emerging technologies that are transforming business with the launch of the Center for Intelligent Process Automation (CIPA).
CIPA is the result of a ground-breaking partnership between the business education specialists at Nichols and the internationally recognized tech leaders at NICE Ltd. to bring Robotic Process Automation (RPA) training and implementation to businesses at every scale.
“CIPA provides students with an unrivaled immersive opportunity in the data science field and showcases Nichols as a leader in digital transformation and a hub for training, data analytics, automation development, and research,” said Nichols President Glenn M. Sulmasy, JD, LL.M. “In addition to advancing data and tech-related buisness skills, experience, and career prospects of students, CIPA will be an invaluable resource for the greater educational and business communities.”
While driven by industry needs, CIPA is fueled by the passion, creativity, and leadership of students who have learned to build bots that perform audits, reconcile accounts, collect stock data to automate portfolios, and support the admissions call center, among others.
“Through our training, consulting, and methodology development, CIPA has prepared me to lead in an ever-evolving business landscape,” said Jacob Ortega ’21, a current MBA student. “I feel that through this work I have accomplished the goal I set out on when I first arrived on the Hill in 2017, to be the most effective resource possible in helping businesses operate and make better decisions towards achieving their goals.” Ortega serves as the lead intelligent process automation analyst for CIPA, joined by analysts Nick Kolodziejczak ’22, Chris Haverty ’21, Cody Roberts ’22 and Kendra Annis ’22.
Jacob Ortega ’21 Nick Kolodziejczak ’22, Chris Haverty ’21 Cody Roberts ’22 Kendra Annis ’22 Bryant Richards, associate professor of accounting and finance at Nichols and CIPA director, notes that a student-run center of excellence is highly unusual in higher education, making CIPA an unparalleled opportunity. “The depths and layers of experience our students are getting will uniquely prepare them for a digitally transformed workplace,” he said.
The NICE alliance also opens the door to student-involved research in business applications of emerging technology. Nichols has relationships with research fellows from other institutions who are working with students on two projects: identifying complex factors in automations that cause increased development time and deployment challenges; and exploring best practices around Citizen Development, a process that encourages non-IT professionals to become software developers. “Both of these will put us on the cutting edge of solving problems for industry,” says Richards.
For more information on how Nichols is elevating its profile in the field of data science, visit cipa.nichols.edu.
From the Archives a The Hill was alive with the sound of…
Singing. For several decades, dating back to the founding of Nichols Junior College, vocal groups were a big part of the campus culture. Ensembles, such as the Glee Club, performed on campus, entertained the region and even took their talents to the airwaves. They were seen as ambassadors of good will for the college, united by a pure love of singing.
The first Glee Club was formed in 1931, drawing 37 members, but hit an immediate snag when fire struck Budleigh Hall, destroying their music and other materials. (“An impromptu rehearsal was held,” reported the Budget newspaper, “but it was necessarily hindered by a lack of music.”) Over the next decade, the Glee Club was recognized as an asset to Nichols. They performed at convocations, dances, and the annual Winter Carnival and at off-campus concerts, rotary events, church suppers, garden clubs, places such as the Worcester Art Museum and on WTAG radio.
The Glee Club rehearsed often in pursuit of perfection, which they often achieved, according to student reviews. Other times, practice didn’t always make perfect, as in this 1956 depiction from the yearbook: “In the beginning, the sounds heard could not exactly be called music, but as the sessions wore on, the melody became discernable. The end result was most satisfying.”
Some years, due to insufficient interest, the Glee Club went silent, but not singing. The Metronomes, a dapper octet comprising Glee Club members, made its debut at the Freshman Frolics in 1949. Later performance highlights included the Hotel Touraine in Boston, a sales convention at the famous Toots Shor night club in New York City, and a televised talent show.
One of the more celebrated vocal groups was the Nicholodians (spelled variously as Nicholodeans, Nicholodiens, and Nicholodeons). Formed in the fall of 1956, the Nicholodians wowed audiences with barbershop melodies and modern swing, producing a tight harmonic sound. They became a favorite on and off campus, “spreading the name of Nichols across New England,” at other colleges, nightclubs, private parties and social functions.
Then there was their appearance on the “Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar,” a story retold by the late Reverend Paul Price ’58 in a 2016 visit to campus with his wife: While taking a break from performing with the Glee Club at a school in New York City, a few of the Nicholodians toured NBC studios. Clad in their nifty vests, they caught the attention of Paar, who asked them to sing a few notes during the show. “It was very brief,” recalled Price, “but we were hometown heroes when we returned to Nichols.”
Throughout the ’60s, the Glee Club performed predominantly with and at other colleges. As in previous years, they relished the opportunity to travel to all-female schools, such as Annhurst, Endicott and Mt. Ida, or sing with their female counterparts. In the words of a 1942 club member, these occasions “provided many pleasant associations with the opposite sex.” The Nicholodians also stayed busy, typically as an octet, and formed a campus quartet toward the end of the decade, adding folk music to their repertoire.
From then, unlike Don McLean’s “American Pie,” it’s difficult to pinpoint the day this type of music died on Dudley Hill. Undoubtedly, music — and even singing — commanded its place and presence in campus life in the ensuing decades, but by the early ’70s, formal vocal groups had all but reached a coda, save for yearbook evidence of a Glee Club in 1977 and Nicholodians in 1996, and talk of launching the Bison Singers in recent years.
It’s also difficult to pinpoint why. Perhaps waning interest coincided with the emergence of other clubs at Nichols, especially those catering to professional activities, such as the American Marketing Association or Finance Club. Perhaps college glee clubs had passed their prime and only the most stalwart, robust, and historic choral groups, at places like Harvard and Yale, survived. Or maybe the enjoyment of music itself had become too personal an experience, appealing to a range of diverse tastes and delivered through earbuds.
Whatever the reason, the Hill still echoes with the memory of those intrepid voices, raised in song to the sounds of music.
The Nicholodians, who made their debut in fall 1956, were often called back for many encores.
