The strength of the College of IST is demonstrated through the successes and accomplishments of its students, faculty, alumni, and programs. Read more about how the college and its people are driving innovative change and taking on the challenges of the Information Age.
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Treating non-humans as stakeholders key to sustainable technologies
Researchers from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology made a methodological contribution toward a potential answer to the challenging problem of how to operationalize posthuman concepts into practice for human-computer interaction through the art of noticing — specifically, observing birds to reimagine their relationship to the natural world as designers of technologies.
Gamrat co-authors book chapter on state of microlearning in higher ed
Chris Gamrat, instructional designer at the College of Information Sciences and Technology, is co-author on a chapter in the new book Microlearning in the Digital Age: The Design and Delivery of Learning in Snippet by Routledge.
Essential workers' tweets show surprising positivity during pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, essential workers tweeted less often than general users about COVID-19 but more about overall mental health issues, according to researchers at the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology. Additionally, essential workers’ overall tweets were more positive compared to general users, the researchers found.
Talk to explore power of taxonomy and embedding in text mining
Jiawei Han, Michael Aiken Chair Professor in the Department of Computer Science at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will present a talk as part of the Penn State Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence Distinguished Lecture Series at 11:30 a.m. on June 14 via Zoom. In the talk, Han will discuss his work to explore the power of taxonomy and embedding in text mining.
Doctoral candidate aims to help international students attain higher education
As a child growing up in Nepal, Bikalpa Neupane never thought he would come to the U.S. for a college education, much less a graduate degree. Now, as a doctoral candidate in the College of Information Sciences and Technology, Neupane has developed an AI-driven platform that matches international students with mentors to help them through the college application process.
Study of police language aims to find patterns that may lead to tragic outcomes
With a new grant from the National Institutes of Health, an interdisciplinary team of researchers aims to examine police radio communications to observe what happens during adverse encounters between police officers and male minority youth and study any patterns of interaction that may lead to unfortunate or tragic outcomes.
University Libraries Research Awards honor 100 students from 19 campuses
Penn State University Libraries presented its fourth annual Undergraduate Research Award: Excellence in Information Literacy honors to 100 students at nearly all undergraduate Penn State campuses. Awards recognized 96 current undergraduate students and recent graduates, four graduate students, plus two additional College of Medicine students and two collaborating faculty members participating in campus-wide virtual research exhibition events.
Seminar series to explore how artificial intelligence can improve health care
A new seminar series that aims to initiate a dialog between healthcare practitioners, clinical researchers, and artificial intelligence and data science experts on strategies for realizing the promise and potential of AI in healthcare starts June 8.
Two faculty members receive Amazon Research Awards
Penn State faculty members James Wang, professor of information sciences and technology, and Rui Zhang, assistant professor of computer science and engineering, each received a 2020 Amazon Research Award, which was announced publicly in April of this year.
Inclusive social network created by alumna to empower young women leaders
Penn State alumna Jayme Anne Goldberg is the founder of Consequential Flowers, a social media network designed to help female students and young professionals develop impactful leadership skills.
Talk to examine network heterogeneity on graph neural networks
Philip S. Yu, distinguished professor and the Wexler Chair in Information Technology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will kick off the Penn State Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence Distinguished Lecture Series at 11 a.m. Thursday, May 27 on Zoom. Yu’s talk will focus on network heterogeneity on graph neural networks.
2021 Guentter Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis Award finalists, winner named
Penn State University Libraries and the Schreyer Honors College recognized the 10th annual finalist presentations and winner of the recently endowed Robert F. Guentter Jr. Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis Award on May 6, immediately following the three finalists’ remote presentations. Finalists represented the College of Agricultural Sciences, the College of Information Sciences and Technology, and the College of the Liberal Arts.
Observing eco farmers could guide sustainable information technology innovation
Cutting-edge agricultural technology has advanced in recent years, introducing innovations from self-driving tractors and laser scarecrows to robotic bees that aid in pollination. What could technologists learn from alternative agricultural movements, such as permaculture and eco farming, which seek to reimagine the relationships between humans, non-humans and land? Researchers at Penn State are finding out.
College of Engineering announces Learning Factory capstone project winners
The College of Engineering has announced the winners of the spring Learning Factory Capstone Design Project Showcase, which took place virtually for the second year in a row. More than 700 students representing majors from the colleges of Engineering, Earth and Mineral Sciences, and Information Sciences and Technology participated.
AI-powered software to improve public health outcomes in underserved communities
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a struggle for many students. But for Kareem Jelks, the pandemic has fueled his passion to help others, especially those in underserved communities. Jelks, who earned a degree in cybersecurity analytics and operations from the College of Information Sciences and Technology last week, has spent the past year creating software that helps minority populations with healthcare needs.
Virtual conference explores artificial intelligence in a post-COVID world
On May 13, the Penn State Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence hosted "AI in a Post-COVID World," a virtual conference that will brought together experts from a variety of disciplines to discuss how artificial intelligence has aided in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.
Using data science to boost diversity, using diversity to boost data science
Data science can only be data science for good when it can be data science for all. That was the message of a recent symposium, “Harnessing the Data Revolution to Enhance Diversity,” which explored the issues of — and opportunities in — using data science to improve equity and diversity in academia and in society.
Twitter data unveils issues nursing mothers face, informs proposed interventions
Social media has become a platform for new mothers to openly share their experiences of the joys and challenges of parenthood. Researchers at Penn State and Dalhousie University have unraveled the sentiments in nursing mothers’ tweets to better understand the factors influencing breastfeeding behaviors, which they hope can inform policies and improve resources for mothers.
Penn State participates in virtual social science advocacy day
Penn State researchers recently participated in the Consortium of Social Science Association’s annual Social Science Advocacy Day, meeting virtually with Congress and their staff during this annual event.
IST experience leads to alumnus’ work exploring breakups in the digital age
After a romantic breakup, there are often decisions to be made regarding the partners’ shared possessions, such as who takes the house and who gets the cat, and who keeps the friends. But when it comes to navigating a breakup in the digital age, a clean break isn’t necessarily as clear cut, according to Penn State alumnus Anthony Pinter.
Lavender Recognition to be held on April 30
2021 marks the 20th celebration of LGBTQ+ graduates during the Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity’s Lavender Recognition ceremony.
After change of course, IST alumnus lands career in academics
When Porter Jenkins came to Penn State to pursue a doctorate in marketing, he never imagined he’d one day have a full-time career in academics, teaching and conducting research on data sciences and machine learning.
Amazon Alexa skill offers supportive care to breast cancer patients
Penn State researchers have developed an Amazon Alexa skill to remotely deliver validated interventions to metastatic breast cancer patients in the comfort of their own homes. Named Nurse AMIE, which stands for Addressing Metastatic Individuals Everyday, the platform is aimed at providing supportive care interventions to supplement medical treatment and improve the quality of life for its users.
AI Hub to help enhance Penn State's global leadership in artificial intelligence
Penn State has launched an expanded initiative in Artificial Intelligence (AI), termed the AI Hub, which will bring together the University’s considerable resources and talent in AI to further advance its position as a global leader developing fundamental innovations in AI, in using AI and machine learning (ML) to solve the hardest challenges, and to create unique applications of AI and ML in unforeseen areas.
Penn State center to advance AI tools to accelerate scientific progress
A new research center, the Center for Artificial Intelligence Foundations and Scientific Applications, or CENSAI, will unite Penn State researchers to explore the use of artificial intelligence as a tool to dramatically accelerate the scientific process, an initiative that the center’s organizers say could rapidly accelerate scientific progress.
Penn State launches new artificial intelligence center for engineered systems
A newly founded, interdisciplinary research center established to further foundational and applied artificial intelligence in engineered systems will be housed in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the Penn State College of Engineering.
Dual degrees shape research interests for IST assistant professor
Justin Silverman, who joined the College of Information Sciences and Technology last year as an assistant professor with a focus in biomedical statistics, made global headlines last summer for his study suggesting that 80% of U.S. COVID-19 cases went undetected in March 2020. Silverman recently talked to the college about his motivations and his research.
Erin Flannery to represent College of IST as student marshal
For College of Information Sciences and Technology student marshal Erin Flannery, Penn State gave her the opportunity to explore a number of diverse degree pathways and research activities. After exploring many topics of interest during her first year, she found that the programs within the College of IST would uniquely allow her to explore those interests through a multidisciplinary lens.
Explanations in online symptom checkers could improve user trust
Have you recently turned to your mobile device or computer to find out if your cough, sniffle or fever could be caused by COVID-19? The online symptom checker you used may have advised you to stay home and call your medical provider if symptoms worsen, or perhaps told you that you may be eligible for COVID-19 testing. But why did it make the recommendation it did? And how should you know if you can trust it?
Shortened internship leads to rewarding gig archiving pandemic perspectives
Like many college students across the country, Nick Alico saw his summer internship cut short last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. So he used his newfound time to address COVID-19 in a new light: as a data analytics intern for the Penn State Viral Imaginations: COVID-19 initiative — an online gallery and archive that showcases Pennsylvanians’ experiences during the pandemic.
New AI framework introduced for cutting a 'multi-layered cake'
Expanding on an established problem in mathematics and computer science known as fair cake-cutting — a metaphor for cutting a cake in a way that each participant receives a slice that they believes to be fair — Hadi Hosseini, assistant professor at the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology, and his team have introduced a novel concept of "multi-layered cake-cutting" to achieve fairness when distributing access time over multiple resources.
Global alumni profile: Bimal Balakrishnan
Bimal Balakrishnan, who spent seven years at the university as a master and doctoral degree student from 2001-08, credits the mentorship he received at the University for putting him on his life’s path. He is currently an associate professor and department chair in the Department of Architectural Studies, as well as the director of the Immersive Visualization Lab, at the University of Missouri.
Graduate School alumnus recognized for lifetime achievements
Edward Frymoyer has received the Penn State Graduate School Alumni Society Lifetime Achievement Award. This award recognizes alumni who have achieved exceptional success throughout the course of their career and have demonstrated loyalty to the University and the Alumni Association.
IST faculty tips for post-pandemic instruction appear in EDUCAUSE Review
When remote teaching and learning abruptly replaced traditional classroom instruction at the start of the pandemic, innovations and adaptations were introduced that could be considered to continue in post-pandemic education, according to experts from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology.
Educational equity scholarship honors family legacy for IST alumni couple
For Angela Govila and Ankur Tarnacha, the College of Information Sciences and Technology is the foundation for everything they have. The two first met as students in 2003, and Tarnacha soon after asked Govila out for a cup of coffee. The rest, they say, is history.
Subscription database for dancers pitch wins 2021 IdeaMakers Challenge
The winning idea in the 2021 IdeaMakers Challenge, as part of Penn State Startup Week sponsored by PNC, was a digital subscription service to a database that helps dancers find hundreds of programs, schools and jobs to develop their skills. An interdisciplinary team of undergraduate students from the Smeal College of Business, the College of Information Sciences and Technology and the College of Engineering pitched the idea on March 24.
All-woman Nittany AI Challenge team creates solution to reach tech-life balance
Screen time burnout? Many people are feeling it these days because of extended use of technology due to remote learning and remote working situations. But excessive screen time did not start with the COVID-19 pandemic, and one Nittany AI Challenge student team is virtually stepping into the user’s world to suggest a life-tech balance that is as easy as a walk in the park.
Startup Week Competition winners congratulated by President Barron
Penn State Startup Week powered by PNC culminated with a celebration of student entrepreneurs and innovators in technology, health, sustainability, the arts and global impact categories during the virtual student recognition reception on March 25.
'Decoding Big Tech' webinar to offer conversations around policy and big tech
To initiate productive conversations centered around policy and big tech, the Penn State Law, Policy, and Engineering initiative and the Penn State Science Policy Society student organization have collaborated to host a webinar, "Decoding Big Tech," on April 2.
Students from around the world participate in a virtual version of HackPSU
The COVID-19 pandemic did not stop 644 students from around the world from participating in a virtual version of HackPSU. The 48-hour hackathon was held entirely online for 45 teams of students, some as close as University Park and others as far as West Bengal, India.
Shaowen Bardzell presents keynote at New Materialist Informatics 2021
Shaowen Bardzell, professor of information sciences and technology, presented a keynote address on March 23 at the virtual New Materialist Informatics 2021 conference.
Bardusch family establishes endowment to support IdeaMakers Challenge
Bob and Susan Bardusch have made a gift to establish the Bardusch Family IdeaMakers Challenge Endowment at the College of Information Sciences and Technology. The endowment will support the IdeaMakers Challenge, an annual entrepreneurial pitch competition held annually as part of Penn State Startup Week powered by PNC and sponsored by IST.
IST researchers' book teaches how to build better complex systems interfaces
In a new book, "Building Better Interfaces for Remote Autonomous Systems: An Introduction for Systems Engineers," authors from the College of Information Sciences and Technology present a broad review of important design frameworks and concepts of human-computer interaction so that systems engineers can make better decisions and better interfaces.
New tool could help lessen bias in live television broadcasts
From Sunday morning news shows to on-air pregame commentary in sports, live telecasts draw viewers into real-time content on televisions around the world. But in these often-unscripted productions, what the audience sees is not always what the producer intends — especially in regard to equity of on-air time for subjects based on their race or gender.
Center for Socially Responsible AI announces inaugural seed funding awards
The Penn State Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence recently announced the recipients of its inaugural round of seed funding. The center awarded more than $93,000 to five interdisciplinary research projects.
CESU workshop to highlight opportunities to work with federal agencies
Researchers whose work addresses natural and cultural resource management topics can learn about partnering opportunities with federal agencies at the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units Program Workshop on March 30.
Lees establish educational equity scholarship at IST
Corey and Leteace Lee have established an educational equity scholarship in the College of Information Sciences and Technology to support students with financial need who are first-generation or from underrepresented backgrounds.
Researchers encouraged to apply for AI center affiliate status
Penn State faculty pursuing research, education and outreach related to socially responsible AI are encouraged to apply for affiliate status with the Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence.
IST Alumni Identity Talks spark dialogue on diversity between students, alumni
“Be intentional.” “Remember your why.” “Be clear on who you are.” “You’re not alone.” Those were a few of the main takeaways shared by panelists with students during the first IST Alumni Identity Talks event, hosted virtually by the College of Information Sciences and Technology last month.
New machine learning model could remove bias from social network connections
Did you ever wonder how social networking applications like Facebook and LinkedIn make recommendations on the people you should friend or pages you should follow? Researchers in the College of IST have developed a novel framework to lessen the bias in connection recommendations made by machine learning models in social networking applications.