The spotlight is on Emmenual Reddy, Assistant Lecturer, The University of the South Pacific, Fiji.

Spread over 33 million square kilometers of ocean and one of only three regional universities in the world, The University of the South Pacific (USP) is the premier higher education institution in the Pacific region. USP is a flagship of the ‘Blue Pacific’ principle of unity: the concept that the Pacific Ocean and its island nations are not just a collection of individual states but a single, interconnected entity that is united by shared geography, culture, and challenges.

Based in Laucala Campus, Suva Fiji, USP radiates its teaching to the 12 member countries of the region: Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

The university offers over 150 degree and postgraduate programs that are recognized in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. It has eight schools, of which the School of Information Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics (STEMP) is the largest. STEMP’s department of Computing Science and Information Systems delivers courses in computer networks and security, software engineering, business information systems, and cybersecurity.

CS/IS students learn how data and digital systems can improve services, strengthen decision-making, and support sustainable development across the Pacific region.

Emmenual Reddy is an Assistant Lecturer in the Discipline of Computer Science and Information Systems. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Mathematics, a master’s degree in Information Systems from USP, and a postgraduate certificate in Tertiary Teaching, and currently is pursuing a Ph.D. focused on Natural Language Processing.

He is a member of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society; the Association for Information Systems; and the Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society.

Oracle Academy: Please tell us about your use of Oracle Academy resources.

Emmenual Reddy: I use the database curriculum in my introduction to Information Systems and the Oracle Academy Cloud Program in my Cloud Computing class. But the most significant resource is Oracle NetSuite, which I teach within the Business Information Systems syllabus.

Oracle Academy: Is NetSuite for business students?

Emmenual Reddy: Not entirely. It is taught within Information Systems, both to computer science students who want to understand business and to students who are majoring in accounting, HR or other areas. At USP we have many such combinations of cross-department teaching.

Oracle Academy: How do you structure the classes?

Emmenual Reddy: I teach Introduction to Information Systems in the first year, 100 level, and Business Information Systems in the third and final year. I begin with Oracle Academy database and SQL fundamentals and then introduce analytics using PowerBI, which in businesses frequently sits on top of NetSuite as the dashboard and analytics layer. With this grounding in data and analysis, they are well prepared for NetSuite.

Students learn Oracle NetSuite as a means of getting hands-on experience with a full-scale ERP system. It’s a great benefit when you consider that NetSuite is one of the most widely used cloud ERP platforms globally. Most of the students combine the course with majors in accounting management, and so I concentrate on flows such as procure-to-pay, order-to-cash, record-to-report, plus item management, inventory tracking, and so on.

Oracle Academy: How many students do you have?

Emmenual Reddy: Each semester we have 500-600 students across the 12 countries we serve as well as from Pacific nations that are not part of USP, for example Papua New Guinea; these we call international students. English is the common language of communication across our region.

We teach online, and here in Fiji is where we have in-class and lab classes as well. NetSuite is embedded in our learning management system, allowing students to watch the Oracle Academy videos, carry out the two-hour lab exercises, and generally learn all the different components of enterprise resource planning.

One great pleasure for me and colleagues is to make periodic visits to the island states to meet students in class for a week or a fortnight.

Business Information Systems and Oracle NetSuite are not about turning students into accountants, but about building practical systems-thinking and industry-ready skills that bridge technology and business. We prepare them for work in small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and larger companies with diverse analytical and ERP systems.

Oracle Academy: And what other Oracle Academy resources do you use?

Emmenual Reddy: I use the Oracle Academy Cloud Program for teaching two units, Cloud Computing and Computer & Network Security.

Last year we started a Bachelor of AI program and are looking at other Oracle Academy tools such as Artificial Intelligence with Machine Learning in Java. And I am encouraging other instructors to use the resources.

In summary, Oracle NetSuite and Oracle Cloud help enormously in furnishing students with cloud and ERP experience, and I heartily thank Oracle Academy for these cloud-based tools.

Oracle Academy: Good to know. Finally, what interests do you have outside of teaching?

Emmenual Reddy: I play table tennis, soccer with colleagues, and enjoy reading. I also like watching tennis, especially the Australian Open that has just taken place. For fitness, I like to walk along the seaside. I also love to watch the Fiji Sevens team play in the Worlds Sevens series and the Fiji Drua 15s side play in the Super Rugby Competition.

I also like traveling, especially to the Pacific Islands, for themselves and also to visit students — connecting face to face is great. Above all I love returning to the small island I am from, named Taveuni, a tourist destination known for its famed Rainbow Reef dive site and waterfalls. Taveuni was headline news in the year 2000 because the 180-degree meridian line — the International Date Line — crosses the island. That meant people there had the thrill of being the first to see sunrise on the new millennium.

Thank you, Emmenual Reddy, for your passion for Oracle Academy and for preparing your students to make a positive impact.