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38 | DOING BUSINESS IN CONNECTICUT | 2018 2018 | DOING BUSINESS IN CONNECTICUT | 38 Professor John Murphy leads Digital Media & Design students in the UConn Social Media Analytics Command Center (SMACC), where students analyze key topics, gather insights and provide reports to clients. Here, they analyze public data around the upcoming gu- bernatorial primaries in Connecticut using the Zignal Labs platform. Adapting to Change UConn's DMD program takes on the challenges of a changing world By Carol Latter One of the many things that Heather Elliott-Famularo and her colleagues agree on is that digital media is rapidly revolutionizing the way people interact, learn and communicate. And it's is not just transforming the communications, art and entertainment sectors, but business, science, technology, and even the humanities and social sciences. Elliott-Famularo – head of UConn's Department of Digital Media & Design (DMD), and the Donna Krenicki professor of design and digital media – has only been on the job since January of 2018. But in that short timeframe, she and her team members have hit the ground running in their ambitious quest: to imagine and deliver cutting-edge new programs that will better prepare their students, and Connecticut companies, to succeed in a fast-changing world. As part of the program – a four-year major at both the Storrs and Stamford campuses – "students working in our state-of-the-art facilities engage with leading-edge hardware and software systems under the guidance of faculty who are all experienced professionals." Then, through a series of hands-on, real-world experiences, the students team up with companies, and use the latest digital technology and methodologies to help those businesses produce better outcomes. One example is a partnership between Connecticut Innovations, in which CI connects the students' own digital media agency with various up-and-coming startups and portfolio companies that need help to build creative assets and digital-marketing strategies. "These are startups that otherwise don't have ability to have internal content creation or business strategy development," said Elliott- Famularo. "It's a way for us to give back. At the same time, it gives our students the opportunity to get real work experience within one semester, so it's great for both the students and for the partnership companies that we work with." The student agency has continued to work with more than a dozen companies since the program was launched, she said. Another initiative will follow this fall, when UConn launches a "social media listening and analytics command center." Elliott-Famularo explained that social media listening involves examining public online data as it relates to a particular client. In other words, "What's getting tweeted, posted on blogs, and distributed through different forms of digital broadcasting. We are trying to train our students how to listen to that data, analyze it, determine the sentiment – whether it's positive, negative or neutral – make reports, and communicate their insights to our clients." Although many smaller companies are unaware of the importance of this type of data to their marketing strategies, she said, "it's such an important field. I think that's a real way that UConn, and our program in particular, can become a leader. We'll invite clients to hire us to get that data. When we talk about being able to support those small companies, it's important to give them those tools so they can be on the same playground as the big guys. It's not a perk. It's a necessity right now in the 21st century. It's important that we can train our students to be out there, learning about it and helping our companies to understand it as well." Elliott-Famularo said her department will be seeking out those types of business partnerships more and more. One of the things Heather Elliott-Famularo, head of UConn's Department of Digital Media & Design (DMD). [Photo by Michael Ferriera, Cat Boyce] [Photo by Cat Boyce] ENTERTAINMENT & DIGITAL MEDIA