The U of A Academy of Computer Science and Computer Engineering is a prestigious group of alumni who are devoted to serving students. The academy inducted seven new members at its annual banquet on April 8. Inductees included Dustin Applegate, Andrew Bailey, Andrew Beasley, Joe Lavelle, Jason Moore, T.J. Sangam and John Taylor.

Applegate graduated from the U of A with his B.S. in computer engineering in 2004 and has since completed his MBA with the Walton College of Business. Applegate previously worked for Axiom Corporation consulting on matters of business intelligence and customer relationship management solutions before moving to Alltel/Verizon Wireless, where he rose through the data science division ranks. In 2016, he received his first patent, which used wireless network data to extrapolate behavioral patterns, usage and customer segmentation at geolocated areas. Applegate joined PNC Bank in 2018, where he built a team focusing on evaluating customer-agent voice interactions for reason and insight extraction. Applegate most recently became director of data analytics for Genworth.

Bailey received both his master's and bachelor's degrees in computer engineering from the U of A. Bailey is director of application development and information technology at Harvest Group in Rogers, Arkansas. He is passionate about growing high performing technology-focused teams and building tools that help transform the way retail analytics drive sales in physical stores and online. Prior to his work at Harvest Group, Bailey was an engineer at J.B. Hunt Transport Services innovating new ways to optimize freight network efficiency and create best-in-class pricing software.

Beasley graduated from the U of A in 2003 with his B.S. in computer engineering. Beasley started as a software engineer for Dillard's Inc., developing enterprise solutions and assisting in design and support for their intranet sites. In 2007, Beasley joined J.B. Hunt Transport Services as a programming specialist taking on many large-scale technology projects for the company. In 2017 Beasley obtained his MBA from the U of A and was hired by Walmart as a consultant on the total rewards analytics and intelligence team. In 2020, Beasley was appointed by the United States Department of Labor to serve on the Bureau of Labor Statistics Data User Advisory Committee. Beasley is currently senior director of customer insights at Walmart, where he is responsible for delivering business and customer intelligence with highly specialized data science teams.

Lavelle is semi-retired after a career in computer and management consulting with Cap Gemini, Anderson Consulting, First Consulting Group and his own company called Results First Consulting LLC. Lavelle graduated from the U of A in 1990 with a B.S. in computer science engineering. During his time at the U of A, Lavelle completed five co-op semesters at General Dynamics in Fort Worth, where he lead a team of "real software engineers" to develop data extraction and analysis tools and infrastructure for a large war game simulation. In taking on other projects, Lavelle steered from his consulting career first to be CIO of a startup radiology practice management company Radiologix and later to be the COO of a radiology workflow management software vendor called Compressus. Lavelle continues to pick up the phone when former clients call and need him to run large consulting projects as time permits.

Moore earned his B.S. in computer system engineering from the U of A in 2001. He obtained his M.S. in computer science from Southern Methodist University in 2004 and his Ph.D. in computer engineering from SMU in 2014, in addition to an M.S. in security engineering. During his academic career, Moore published magazine articles and 10 papers. Moore currently works as a principal systems engineer at Raytheon Technologies, is an adjunct professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at SMU and an associate professor of computer science at Collin College.

Sangam is co-founder and chief executive officer at SupplyPike, a growing software company in Arkansas. Sangam began programming at age 9 using Commodore Amiga, leading him to obtain a B.S. in computer engineering and an M.S. in computer science from the U of A. Sangam is still active in the technology community and works on projects spanning from web scalability to computational mathematics and data science. Previously, Sangam worked for Acxiom, J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Mercy Hospitals and numerous startup companies.

Taylor arrived at the U of A from Ghana, West Africa. He graduated in 1998 with his B.S. in computer systems engineering. After graduation, Taylor was a member of the first group of employees to work for Axciom Corporation at the university's engineering research center. Taylor worked with Axciom for 10 years before relocating to Maryland to be closer to family. In Maryland, Taylor worked briefly as an integration specialist with a small company called Message Systems, after which he founded his own e-commerce company, Ghanamart, which he has been running for 10 years. Ghanamart facilitates people living abroad to provide for families and loved ones in Ghana and is a one-stop-shop providing services such as buying domestic products, bill-paying, cellular plans and more.

The academy held a business meeting the following morning to elect new officers and board members for the next year of activities. Fred Grigg, the chief enterprise architect for Arkansas Division of Information Systems, will serve as the next academy president. The academy also welcomed Michael Collyar, vice president of information technology at The Fishin' Company, and Will Arensman, software engineer at Blue River Technology, as new board members. More information about the academy can be found on their website at https://uaacsce.uark.edu.