Dewey Swanson is an Associate Professor in the Computer and Information Technology (C&IT). Professor Swanson teaches computer technology courses at the Purdue Polytechnic Institute location in Columbus, Indiana. Purdue Statewide Technology (PST), which is a unique partnership between education, business, industry, and government, was formed to meet Indiana's need for trained technologists and technicians. PST brings the academic programs of the Purdue Polytechnic to other sites across the state, which allows more students to become trained technicians, and gives students a chance to obtain a degree and hold a job at the same time.
Professor Swanson has over fifteen years of industry experience as System Analyst, Project Leader and Database Administrator (DBA) working with state government in Indiana and working for the Defense Department at the former Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) in Indianapolis. Professor Swanson is actively involved academic recruiting and advising at the Columbus campus. He is also active in partnering with the local industry. As Academic Project Manager he was involved in a cooperative venture between Purdue and Cummins Inc. This project provided a 13 week intensive, boot camp-like, credit-based continuing education program to cohort groups of Cummins Engine Company. This program has resulted in the donation by Cummins of a state-of-the-art computer lab for the Columbus campus. Ten percent of Cummins worldwide IT work force(at the time of the program) completed this program. Professor Swanson also helped develop and teach in the Business/Systems Analyst Program. This program was developed by Professor Swanson, Columbus faculty in C&IT and OLS, Cummins managers and contractors. The purpose is to retrain Cummins IT staff to work in an environment where development and support is handled by offshore contractors.
Professor Swanson is actively involved in development of curriculum and delivery methods that meet the needs of C&IT students in Columbus and throughout the statewide system. He has been involved in converting classes to online format, along with incorporating both hybrid and flipped classes based on the needs of the community.
In 2011 Professor Swanson developed and staged the Columbus Computer Animation Camp. The summer camp was developed to get students interested in technology and specifically introduce campers to computers and technology. A secondary goal was to get girls interested on technology. The highly successful camp has sold out the first two years of it's existence. Also, nearly 40% of the campers have been female.