News

Improving efficiency, reliability of AI medical summarization tools

Improving efficiency, reliability of AI medical summarization tools

Researchers from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology created a new method to streamline medical summarization, a process that uses artificial intelligence to condense complex patient information.

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Group photo of IST Students at THON

IST represents at THON 2024

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Six students from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) were among the 700 dancers at THON 2024. The event raised a record-breaking $16.9 million, surpassing last year’s record by nearly $2 million. 

The students danced and stood without sleep for 46 hours — from 6 p.m. February 16 through 4 p.m. February 18 — at the Bryce Jordan Center.

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Sending a ‘We Are!’ to these Penn Staters

Sending a ‘We Are!’ to these Penn Staters

As part of our regular “We Are!” feature, we recognize nine Penn Staters who have gone above and beyond what’s asked of them in their work at the University.   

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Students compete to be featured on cover of IST's iConnect magazine

Students compete to be featured on cover of IST's iConnect magazine

Penn State students created art using generative artificial intelligence in a cover contest sponsored by the College of Information Sciences and Technology. 

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Photo of Jeff Bardzell

Associate Dean Jeff Bardzell Named Dean of UNC iSchool

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Jeff Bardzell, associate dean for faculty and graduate affairs in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), has been named dean of the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Bardzell’s appointment will begin on April 1.

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IST faculty member named to Center for Democracy and Technology fellows program

IST faculty member named to Center for Democracy and Technology fellows program

Priya Kumar, assistant professor in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology, has joined the Center for Democracy & Technology's Non-Resident Fellows Program.

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Photo gallery: Top pictures from the Penn State Today winter photo contest

Photo gallery: Top pictures from the Penn State Today winter photo contest

Thank you to all who participated in the Penn State Today winter photo contest! We received an incredible selection of photos reflecting winter scenes at Penn State. Click the headline or picture to view a gallery of our top 12 favorites, including the winner, pictured here, submitted by Gregory Bondar of the Smith Chapel and Carillon on the Behrend campus.

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IST professor named to ACM Distinguished Speaker Program

IST professor named to ACM Distinguished Speaker Program

Prasenjit Mitra, professor in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology, has been appointed as a Distinguished Speaker of the Association for Computing Machinery. 

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Predictive model detects potential extremist propaganda on social media

Predictive model detects potential extremist propaganda on social media

Researchers from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology developed a predictive model to detect potential extremist propaganda on social media. They published their work in Social Media Analysis and Mining.

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Westin Scholar Award enhances privacy, entrepreneurship skills for IST student

Westin Scholar Award enhances privacy, entrepreneurship skills for IST student

Tanishq Barot, a fourth-year student majoring in human-centered design and development and minoring in entrepreneurship, received the 2023-24 Westin Scholar Award. He was selected by faculty members in the College of Information Sciences and Technology. 

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Center for Socially Responsible AI awards seed funding to five projects

The Penn State Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence has announced the results of its most recent seed funding competition. The center awarded over $105,000 to five interdisciplinary research projects that feature teams of researchers representing six colleges and campuses.

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IST, World Campus alumnus remains an active Penn Stater

IST, World Campus alumnus remains an active Penn Stater

College of Information Sciences and Technology and World Campus alumnus Mark Poblete reflects on his Penn State experience and why it matters to give back to his alma mater. 

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One Health Microbiome Symposium to convene experts for innovative discussions

Penn State’s One Health Microbiome Center will host the One Health Microbiome Symposium on May 30-31, 2024, at the Huck Life Sciences Building on the University Park campus.

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IST faculty and staff recognized at annual awards ceremony

IST faculty and staff recognized at annual awards ceremony

The Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology recognized faculty and staff at its annual awards ceremony on Dec. 14, 2023.  

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Alumnus establishes matching scholarship program in the College of IST

Alumnus establishes matching scholarship program in the College of IST

Penn State College of IST alumnus Frank Igwé has established a 1:1 permanent matching commitment for first-time gifts from IST alumni. 

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Competition helps expose demographic and cultural biases in generative AI tools

Competition helps expose demographic and cultural biases in generative AI tools

Penn State’s Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence announced the winners of its first-ever “Bias-a-thon.” The competition, held Nov. 13–16, asked Penn Staters to identify prompts that led popular generative AI tools to produce biased or stereotype-reinforcing outputs.

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IBM Consulting internship information session on Jan. 12

IBM Consulting will hold an internship information session on Jan. 12 for second- and third-year students at Penn State.

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IST, Smeal alumnus reflects on his World Campus experience

IST, Smeal alumnus reflects on his World Campus experience

Corey Wheeler is an alumnus of Penn State World Campus, the College of Information Sciences and Technology, and the Smeal College of Business.

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IST Professor Alan Peslak receives Meritorious Award for research excellence

IST Professor Alan Peslak receives Meritorious Award for research excellence

Penn State Scranton Professor of Information Sciences and Technology Alan Peslak has been recognized with a Meritorious Paper Award for his outstanding contributions at the Information Systems and Computing Academic Professionals (ISCAP) Conference.

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Penn State Scranton professor wins conference award for research excellence

Penn State Scranton professor wins conference award for research excellence

Penn State Scranton Professor of Information Sciences and Technology Alan Peslak has been recognized with a Meritorious Paper Award for his outstanding contributions at the Information Systems and Computing Academic Professionals (ISCAP) Conference.

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Nick and Melinda Berardi’s gift names College of IST student engagement center

Nick and Melinda Berardi’s gift names College of IST student engagement center

Alumnus Nick Berardi and his wife, Melinda, recently made a gift to transform and name the new student engagement center in the College of IST. 

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Gift from Keith and Lisa Hegner creates new scholarship in the College of IST

Gift from Keith and Lisa Hegner creates new scholarship in the College of IST

Penn State alumni Keith and Lisa Hegner recently established a new scholarship in the College of Information Sciences and Technology. The gift includes a corporate match from Microsoft, where Keith serves as the director of customer success. 

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True: Fact checkers tend to agree on validity of news claims, researchers say

True: Fact checkers tend to agree on validity of news claims, researchers say

Fact-checking organizations like Snopes and Politifact have generally agreed on the validity of news claims, according to researchers from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology. 

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Trained AI models exhibit learned disability bias, IST researchers say

Trained AI models exhibit learned disability bias, IST researchers say

Artificial intelligence tools, such as sentiment analysis and toxicity detection models, often exhibit biases toward people with disabilities, according to a new paper from researchers in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology. The work won the Best Short Paper Award from the Association for Computation Linguistics.

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Penn State Berks’ Abdullah Konak named IST Faculty Member of the Year

Penn State Berks’ Abdullah Konak named IST Faculty Member of the Year

Abdullah Konak, distinguished professor of information sciences and technology at Penn State Berks, was recently named the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology Statewide Faculty Member of the Year. He was presented with the award at the fall IST faculty meeting on Oct. 27. 

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Search launched for the next dean of Penn State’s College of IST

Search launched for the next dean of Penn State’s College of IST

Penn State is seeking nominations and candidates for the next dean of the College of Information Sciences and Technology. Nominations and applications will be accepted until the position is filled, and interested parties are encouraged to submit applications by Jan. 8, 2024.

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College of IST names student marshal for fall 2023 commencement ceremony

College of IST names student marshal for fall 2023 commencement ceremony

The College of Information Sciences and Technology has named Hardik Jain as its student marshal for the fall 2023 commencement ceremony. Jain will receive his bachelor of science degree in enterprise technology integration with a focus on application development on Dec. 16 in the Bryce Jordan Center at University Park.

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What if Alexa or Siri sounded more like you? Study says you’ll like it better

What if Alexa or Siri sounded more like you? Study says you’ll like it better

The more Siri or Alexa sounds like you, the better you'll like the service, according to researchers. The multi-institutional team published their findings in the current issue of the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies.

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Order of the Sword and Shield National Honor Society installs Penn State chapter

Order of the Sword and Shield National Honor Society installs Penn State chapter

The College of Information Sciences and Technology inducted 20 students into the new Penn State chapter of the Order of the Sword and Shield National Honor Society.

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$7M grant funds project to develop new ways to protect mushroom crops

$7M grant funds project to develop new ways to protect mushroom crops

A new grant for more than $7 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture will fund an upcoming project led by Penn State researchers, who aim to develop new pest management tools for mushroom crops.

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Nittany AI Challenge Ideation Workshop set for Nov. 30

Nittany AI Challenge Ideation Workshop set for Nov. 30

The Nittany AI Challenge Ideation Workshop: Agriculture and Environmental Sustainability on Nov. 30 will connect students with experts and local nonprofit leaders in agricultural and environmental sustainability to explore how artificial intelligence and machine learning can be used to address real-world problems in the field.

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$1.45M NSF grant to fund new research into how grasses thrive in dry climates

$1.45M NSF grant to fund new research into how grasses thrive in dry climates

A new $1.45 million grant from the National Science Foundation will allow Penn State researchers, including undergraduate students, to explore how pores on plant surfaces work and might be engineered to enhance photosynthesis and efficient water use.

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Renaissance Fund honors Barbara and Edgar Farmer, raises funds for scholarships

Renaissance Fund honors Barbara and Edgar Farmer, raises funds for scholarships

Penn State’s 47th annual Renaissance Fund celebration on Nov. 1 honored local community leaders and education pioneers Barbara and Edgar Farmer. The event hosted more than 300 attendees and helped to raise $193,364 for endowed scholarships to benefit students with financial need.

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Liberal Arts, IST student scores sports technology internship with Miami Dolphins

Liberal Arts, IST student scores sports technology internship with Miami Dolphins

Azziyah LaRue, a fourth-year student double majoring in sociology and security and risk analysis with a minor in information sciences and technology, interned with the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium this past summer.

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World Campus celebrates science and technology programs

World Campus celebrates science and technology programs

Penn State World Campus is highlighting its science and technology programs during its 25th anniversary.

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Penn Staters invited to compete to find bias in generative AI tools

Penn State’s Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence will host “Bias-a-thon,” a competition to expose biases in current-day AI tools. The virtual event will take place from Monday, Nov. 13, to Thursday, Nov. 16, and is open to anyone with an active Penn State email address. 

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Enterprise architecture and business transformation program marks 10 years

Enterprise architecture and business transformation program marks 10 years

The Penn State master's degree in enterprise architecture and business transformation has now been available for 10 years. Offered by Penn State World Campus in partnership with the College of Information Sciences and Technology and the Smeal College of Business, the 100% online program is designed to meet the needs of the evolving enterprise architecture career field. 

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Most websites do not publish privacy policies, researchers say

Most websites do not publish privacy policies, researchers say

Penn State researchers crawled millions of websites and found that only one-third of online organizations made their privacy policy available for review. They received the Best Student Paper award at the 23rd Association for Computing Machinery Symposium on Document Engineering, also known as DocEngr'23, for their work. 

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Trustees committee discusses AI and its implications for higher education

Trustees committee discusses AI and its implications for higher education

Artificial intelligence (AI) opportunities far outweigh the challenges for use at universities, according to Penn State Executive Vice President and Provost Justin Schwartz. He led a panel discussion on AI and its implications for higher education at the Board of Trustees’ Committee on Academic Affairs, Research and Student Life meeting on Oct. 19. 

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Information Sciences and Technology graduates honored at first Alumni Symposium

Information Sciences and Technology graduates honored at first Alumni Symposium

Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology honored graduates Nathan McNeese and Christy Grim at the first IST Alumni Symposium, held Oct. 20 at the Eric J. Barron Innovation Hub Building.

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Penn State partners with Gov. Shapiro to shape AI governance and strategy

Penn State partners with Gov. Shapiro to shape AI governance and strategy

Penn State has partnered with Gov. Josh Shapiro to provide expert guidance on artificial intelligence (AI) strategies and governance. This partnership aims to leverage Penn State's AI expertise and resources to help shape responsible AI standards for state agencies, aligning with the growing importance of AI technology in governance.

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Invent Penn State Venture & IP Conference shines spotlight on innovation

Invent Penn State Venture & IP Conference shines spotlight on innovation

Penn State students, faculty and alumni entrepreneurs joined with venture firms and startup founders from across the United States for the 2023 Invent Penn State Venture & IP Conference, held Oct. 16-17 at the Hershey Lodge in Hershey. 

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IST researchers earn best paper award at natural language generation conference

IST researchers earn best paper award at natural language generation conference

A paper authored by students and faculty from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology received the Best Long Paper award at the 16th International Natural Language Generation Conference.

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Ai photo

Media Mention: ‘Can You Hide a Child’s Face From A.I.?’

Where: The New York Times, “Can You Hide a Child’s Face From A.I.?

Who: Priya Kumar, assistant professor in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST)

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Human body movements may enable automated emotion recognition, researchers say

Human body movements may enable automated emotion recognition, researchers say

Penn State researchers combined computing, psychology and performing arts to develop an annotated human movement dataset that may improve the ability of artificial intelligence to recognize the emotions expressed through body language. Their work was featured on the cover of the journal Patterns. 

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Tenured, promoted faculty honored through books at Oct. 2 recognition program

Tenured, promoted faculty honored through books at Oct. 2 recognition program

Recently tenured and promoted Penn State faculty across the University were honored Oct. 2 through Penn State’s Promotion and Tenure Recognition Program, now in its 21st year, during a private event held in the Paterno Family Humanities Reading Room on the second floor of Pattee Library at the University Park campus.

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AI photo

Media Mention: “Chat GPT for Software Security — How it Assists Attackers & Security Analysis”

Where: Cyber Security News, “ChatGPT for Software Security: How It Assists Attackers & Security Analysts”

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