Ryan Edgell came to Purdue to major in industrial management but switched his major to computer technology to get a more focused education. Knowing he’d found his fit, Edgell dove headfirst into his studies.
“For undergraduate study, I found myself excited to exercise the concepts I had learned in class, using actual equipment in my first computer technology lab,” he says. “And in graduate study, I realized the exponential increase in my depth of learning during the first semester, and also how fulfilling completing my graduate degree was going to be.”
Edgell credits Phil Rawles as his favorite professor. In fact, Edgell says that without the professor’s guidance, he probably would not have considered graduate school.
After a brief teaching appointment at Purdue, and armed with three degrees from the University, Edgell started his own IT consulting firm, Edge Information Technologies.
“My degrees have opened many doors in my career, and in running my IT consulting firm, both as evidence for my level and breadth of knowledge and for exercising a deeper understanding of IT,” Edgell says. “My role is ever-changing, challenging and rewarding.”
His company has been involved in implementing the statewide Computer-Aided Dispatch and Records Management Systems (CAD/RMS) and text-to-911 projects and helps many public-safety and nonprofit agencies with their IT needs.