QUINCY — Quincy native Michael R. “Mike” Smith has been awarded a doctor of information technology (D.I.T.) degree by Capella University, Minneapolis, Minn. Smith is a 1987 graduate of Quincy Senior High School and a 2010 graduate of John Wood Community College.
Following high school, Smith completed a three-year enlistment in the U.S. Army and then spent 10 years driving long haul trucks, amassing more than a million safe driving miles. In his spare time, he taught himself about computers and received all relevant certifications from Cisco and Microsoft. Switching careers, he worked in the computer field in Quincy for KSNI, Adams Electric Coop, Computerland and Niemann Foods.
At age 40 Smith began higher education at JWCC. Subsequently he earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in 2015 and 2017, respectively, both in computer science, at the University of Illinois – Springfield. His B.S. degree was awarded summa cum laude and all of his post-secondary work was accomplished with a 4.0 grade point average.
Dr. Smith is currently a cybersecurity engineer for General Atomics Corporation in Huntsville, Ala., where his work focuses on military unmanned aircraft.