INTERFACE Honolulu
Presented by Brook Conner • CIS Lecturer & PhD Candidate, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Every organization is trying to improve itself with new technology. Today, that technology is artificial intelligence. But it isn’t working nearly as well as it is supposed to. The problem isn’t the technology, or the hype around it. The problem is that large organizations undergoing change are complicated. There is no magic wand, no silver bullet, no hammer for the nail, that will work for everyone, not even AI. You need to describe what’s going on, past, present, and future. This description needs to include the technology, but also the people, the processes, the information, the world around you, everything. By incorporating diverse fields, including enterprise architecture, organizational behavior, programming language theory, semiotics, psychology, and more, even the most baroque organizations can be described, and their roadblocks and opportunities be revealed. See how, with examples both from past successes and from current trends.
Presented by: Brook Conner / CIS Lecturer & PhD Candidate, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Currently earning his PhD from the University of Hawaii, Conner is an experienced cross-industry CIO. He serves as a faculty instructor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. His dissertation is tentatively titled “A system architecture approach to digital transformations.” It builds on both work experience and prior research and publications. Prior research included some of the earliest and formative papers on interactive 3D graphics, the relationship of programming language mechanisms to interactive systems, 3D user interface design, and a redesign of the undergraduate computer science curriculum.
Previous work includes five years at the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education, where his team replaced the Department’s core accounting system, modernized collaboration for all staff and students, and managed the educational technology needed to support distance learning during the COVID pandemic. Prior to that, Conner was the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Estee Lauder Companies, a Fortune 500 global retailer and manufacturer. He built the vulnerability management program for Morgan Stanley in response to a nation-state cyberattack, and re-architected core parts of the Bloomberg Terminal Service. Conner has an AB in art, an ScB in Math/Computer Science, and an MSc in Computer Science, all from Brown University. He is conversational in French and Hawaiian and enjoy stand-up paddling, role-playing games, video games, and wargaming.
