IU School of Informatics News

IU School of Informatics announces InformatiCS Chip

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:27:53 EST

Dean Bobby Schnabel announced today the launch of a new School of Informatics tradition: the InformatiCS Chip, an ever-growing wall of tiles bearing the names of Bloomington Informatics and Computer Science (hence the capital CS) alumni, friends and participants. The announcement coincides with the School’s move of its headquarters into the renovated 919 E. 10th Street building on IU’s Bloomington campus. The InformatiCS Chip tiles will be located in the vibrant main space as one enters the building, which is located next door to the current location.“

The primary purpose of the InformatiCS Chip is to build community in the School and a lasting tradition,” explained Dean Schnabel. “The secondary purpose is as a modest fundraiser to support student scholarships.”

Interested individuals or organizations may purchase a 3” by 3” tile for $100, and a 6” by 6” tile at $250.

Newly minted graduates will enjoy a discounted price point. “Each year starting this spring, we’ll invite all new graduates of the School to be a part of the Chip, at a reduced rate,” said Schnabel.

Contributions can be made directly through the (Story Link: http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/ChipGiveNow/) Informatics Give Now program, or by contacting us at (Story Link: mailto:infochip@informatics.indiana.edu) infochip@informatics.indiana.edu for a pledge card.

The Chip will be a permanent feature of the School and will be moved to a new consolidated building in Bloomington that is planned for the coming years.

School undertakes comprehensive strategic planning process.

Thu, 6 Sep 2007 15:14:08 EST

Under the direction of new dean Bobby Schnabel, the School of Informatics has embarked on a comprehensive strategic planning process. The purpose of the process is to quickly establish a high-level view of the School’s key priorities and issues, followed immediately by action and further work on the highest priority issues. Committees have been formed to consider research, undergraduate education, graduate education, diversity, and faculty development. Each committee will address a set of key questions that has been developed related to their area. The committees – co-chaired by faculty from IU-Bloomington Informatics, IU-Bloomington Computer Science, and IUPUI Informatics – each will solicit input from the School’s stakeholders, including faculty, students, staff, alumni and employers. “As the school matures from its start-up phase, it is a natural time to undertake a comprehensive strategic plan,” said Dean Schnabel. “There is an important set of issues that need examination in each of the strategic areas, and I have been delighted by the interest and engagement of all of the School’s constituencies in this process.” The committee co-chairs are: -Research: Beth Plale, Alex Vespignani, Yaoqi Zao -Undergraduate Education: Geoffrey Brown, Danita Forgey, Dennis Groth -Graduate Education: David Leake, Mathew Palakal, Erik Stolterman -Faculty Development: Andy Hanson, Sara Anne Hook, Marty Siegel -Diversity: Bobby Schnabel In addition, several other crucial areas will be explored. A subcommittee of the Dean’s Advisory Committee augmented by the dean and several faculty members will lead the development plan for the School’s role in Indiana economic development and entrepreneurship; the dean and the School’s major gifts officer will lead the planning process for fundraising and development; and the School’s leadership council will consider overarching issues including partnerships and resource management. Each committee will produce an interim report on October 10 and a final report on November 15. “An essential characteristic of this planning process is that it is open and transparent” said Jim Shea, Director of Planning for the School. “We will assure that there are processes to solicit and include input from all interested parties, and frequent communication about the process as it proceeds.” Questions or comments about the planning process and input on any of its topics can be addressed to (Story Link: mailto:jpshea@indiana.edu) jpshea@indiana.edu .

New leadership begins at IU School of Informatics

Mon, 2 Jul 2007 10:38:39 EST

(Story Link: http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/people/profiles.asp?u=schnabel) Robert B. Schnabel , an acclaimed computer scientist and researcher, has assumed leadership of the (Story Link: http://www.informatics.indiana.edu) Indiana University School of Informatics , effective July 1. Dr. Schnabel succeeds J. Michael Dunn, who retired June 30, but remains with the school as dean emeritus.

Professor Schnabel comes to IU from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he served most recently as vice provost/associate vice chancellor for academic and campus technology, and professor of computer science. Dr. Schnabel also was the founding director of the Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society (ATLAS) Institute.

"The School of Informatics seems to be at a very special time in its young life where it has great potential, and is unusually welcoming of new leadership that will help it prioritize, set and reach goals, attract resources, and ultimately excel in education and research," said Dr. Schnabel. "It is a wonderful opportunity to work with an excellent group of faculty and staff to move forward in these directions," he added.

Schnabel assumes leadership of the university's newest school, which offers academic programs at IU campuses at (Story Link: http://www.informatics.indiana.edu) Bloomington , (Story Link: http://www.informatics.iupui.edu/) Indianapolis , (Story Link: http://www.informatics.iusb.edu/) South Bend , (Story Link: http://www.informatics.ius.edu/) Southeast (New Albany) and (Story Link: http://www.iuk.edu/~konims/Programs/BS_Info.shtml) Kokomo . The informatics program also has been approved for IU campuses at (Story Link: http://www.iun.edu/) Northwest (Gary) and (Story Link: http://www.iue.edu/) East . Established in 2000, the School of Informatics, which includes the (Story Link: http://www.cs.indiana.edu/) Department of Computer Science (Bloomington) and the (Story Link: http://www.newmedia.iupui.edu/) New Media Program (IUPUI), has 1,500 undergraduate and graduate students, and more than 1,100 alumni.

"The School of Informatics has a combination of size, breadth and quality in the broad areas of computing and information technology, applications and implications that is unparalleled in this country," Schnabel said.

As dean, Schnabel said he recognizes that informatics underlies most if not all of the most important areas to the economy of Indiana, as well as many of the academic priorities of IU.

"It plays a crucial role in the life science and health areas, as well as all other areas of science and business, and also in the arts, media and so many areas of everyday life," said Schnabel.

Dr. Schnabel lauded what he called an excellent base of faculty and staff in a multi-campus set-up that facilitates opportunities in both Bloomington and Indianapolis.

"The school is uniquely positioned to provide national leadership in the broad area of informatics and computer science education, research and service," said Schnabel. "This is a critically important area to the state of Indiana, the nation and world. I look forward to working with the excellent multi-campus faculty, staff and students of the School, in strong partnership with the IU and Indiana communities."

Indiana University President (Story Link: http://www.indiana.edu/~pres/) Michael McRobbie offered these remarks at the time of Schnabel's appointment as dean.

"Professor Schnabel not only brings to IU an outstanding record of research and academic accomplishment in the field of informatics, but also a penetrating vision of how new technologies can accelerate the expansion of knowledge in virtually every discipline. He is ideally suited to provide the leadership we need in this vital arena. I am also personally pleased to welcome someone to IU with such a demonstrated commitment to diversity," McRobbie said.

Schnabel has held a number of positions at the University of Colorado prior to his current roles. He was the associate dean for academic affairs, College of Engineering and Applied Science, and chair of the Department of Computer Science. His research and teaching interests include numerical computation, parallel computation, applications to molecular chemistry, and diversifying participation in computing and information technology, both in the areas of education and workforce development.

A recipient of numerous teaching and professional awards, Schnabel has led three major campus-wide information technology strategic planning initiatives at the University of Colorado since 1998, leading to many significant administrative and academic innovations on the Boulder campus. As founding director of the ATLAS Institute, he has led the development of a campus-wide program providing multidisciplinary curriculum, research, and outreach programs that integrate information technology with a wide variety of disciplines and people, both inside and outside the university, including the recently opened $31 million ATLAS Building. Through ATLAS, he has been particularly active in programs aimed at broadening the participation of women and under-represented minorities in computing.

Schnabel has been principal investigator or co-principal investigator on research projects representing more than $30 million in research funding from the National Science Foundation, the Army Research Office, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and other organizations.

He has served as associate editor or co-editor of five journals and on many professional committees and boards. Currently he serves as editor-in-chief of SIAM Review, the flagship journal of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Schnabel is on the board of directors of the Computing Research Association and serves as chair of the Information Technology Deans group of CRA and of the Education Policy Committee of the Association for Computing Machinery. He is co-founder and a member of the executive team of the National Center for Women & Information Technology, and is active in a number of committees and alliances involving minority-serving institutions.

Schnabel earned his doctorate and master's degrees in computer science from Cornell University and his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Dartmouth College.

Robert B. Schnabel selected dean of IU School of Informatics

Tue, 3 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST

Story Link: (Story Link: http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/5281.html) http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/5281.html

$1.2 million NIH project will help track and predict epidemics

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:50:53 EST

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The National Institutes of Health has given $1.2 million to Indiana University researchers to build the ultimate international epidemic research tool.

Principle investigators Katy Börner, Steven J. Sherman and Alessandro Vespignani will oversee the project, EpiC, which they hope will make the sharing and re-using of epidemics datasets and algorithms as easy as sharing videos via YouTube. The three researchers come from three distinct areas of the campus -- the School of Library and Information Science, the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Informatics, respectively. Additional members of the evolving team are IU researchers Duygu Balcan, Weixia Huang and Bruce W. Herr.

"This project brings together a team of epidemics and computer science researchers to create an infrastructure that will allow researchers to 'plug and play' their datasets and software," said Börner, Victor H. Yngve associate professor of information science. "Ultimately we want to improve and facilitate data analysis."

EpiC, short for Epidemics Cyberinfrastructure, will at least initially be maintained at the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center at IU Bloomington. A Web portal will allow scientists anywhere in the world not only to upload their epidemiological data for colleagues to see, but also have their numbers "crunched" through models of their choosing. EpiC isn't merely a data repository but will also provide services to researchers who may not have easy access to sophisticated analysis and visualization tools.

The system will be designed to handle all sorts of epidemics, from the pathogen-based SARS to human behavioral epidemics.

"The study of epidemics is crucial for the understanding, prediction and prevention of many phenomena affecting public health, such as infectious diseases, alcohol use and smoking habits," said Vespignani. "EpiC will provide improvement and facilitation of the multi-scale analysis of social data and their integration in systems dynamic modeling, agent-based modeling, and other simulation techniques for epidemic processes."

Börner, Vespignani, and their teams have worked together before. In 2005, they received a $1.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to build a similar tool for network scientists called "Network Workbench," online at http://nwb.slis.indiana.edu/. EpiC will build on this effort but will provide services specifically tailored to epidemiology.

In addition to facilitating research, collaborative projects that use EpiC could help identify epidemiological "hot spots" so that policymakers and public health agencies can act in timely fashion.

"Once we can better understand and predict the spread of these kinds of behaviors, the next step is to develop programs and interventions that can lead to desirable health and mental health outcomes," Sherman said. "We believe that our project has important public health implications."

Börner is also director of the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center at the School of Library and Information Science. Vespignani is a professor of informatics and of cognitive science at IU Bloomington, and Sherman is Chancellor's Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at IU Bloomington.

To speak with Vespignani, Sherman, or Börner, please contact David Bricker, University Communications, at 812-856-9035 or brickerd@indiana.edu.

IU School of Informatics awarded grant to develop hands-on computing initiative for K-12 students in Indiana

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:14:39 EST

§ Girls comprise fewer than 15 percent of all Advanced Placement (AP) computer science exam-takers, the lowest representation of any AP discipline?

Just Be: Keeping IT Real, contact Lisa J. Herrmann, 812.855.4125, ljherrma@indiana.edu.

Informatics professor’s book receives Outstanding Academic Title distinction

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:14:39 EST

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – William Aspray, Rudy Professor of informatics, IU School of Informatics, has co-edited a book selected by Choice Magazine as one of its Outstanding Academic Titles.

Only about ten percent of all books reviewed receive the Outstanding Academic Title distinction. BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Rick Rashid, senior vice president, research for Microsoft Corporation, will give a forward-looking talk entitled “10 Years Into the Future” on Thursday, January 24 at 4 p.m. in Jordan Hall, Room A100 on the IU Bloomington campus. His campus visit is by invitation of IU’s School of Informatics, and the lecture is free and open to the public. Rashid, who is charged with oversight of Microsoft Research's worldwide operations, explains that by looking at technologies being developed in research labs today you get insights into what opportunities technology will enable during the next 10 years. “In this talk I will look at some exciting research technologies and their implications on the world in 2017,” said Rashid. Rashid joined Microsoft in 1991, responsible for managing work on key technologies leading to the development of Microsoft's interactive TV system and authoring a number of patents in areas such as data compression, networking and operating systems. He also was instrumental in creating the team that eventually became Microsoft’s Digital Media Division, and directing Microsoft’s first e-commerce group. “We are privileged to host Rick Rashid who probably holds the most influential position in computer science research in the nation,” said Bobby Schnabel, dean, IU School of Informatics. “He is passionate about the role and future of computer science, and is an engaging speaker.” Rashid’s earlier career as a well-known computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University included the design and implementation of several influential network operating systems, and publishing of dozens of papers about computer vision, operating systems, programming languages for distributed processing, network protocols and communications security. Rashid earned his Master of Science (1977) and Doctoral (1980) degrees in computer science from the University of Rochester. He graduated with honors in mathematics and comparative literature from Stanford University in 1974.

INDIANA WOMEN IN COMPUTING CONFERENCE COMING TO MCCORMICK’S CREEK

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:35:47 EST

The latest trends in computing, education, and career opportunities will be in the spotlight at InWIC 2008, the Indiana Celebration of Women in Computing conference, January 25 and 26. The event brings together female students, instructors, and researchers from universities around Indiana for an overnight retreat at the rustic Canyon Inn at McCormick’s Creek State Park in Spencer, Indiana. Raquel Hill, assistant professor of computer science and informatics, will deliver the keynote address. The major sponsor of the event is WIC@IU (Women in Computing at Indiana University), an IU School of Informatics-sponsored grassroots organization providing mentoring and leadership opportunities to graduate and undergraduate women students in computing-related fields. The event includes poster and research presentations, five-minute lightning talk sessions, and programming tracks covering material of interest to high-school students, undergraduates and graduate students. Participants also will have the opportunity to learn career-building techniques and network with other women from throughout the state. One session will focus on K-12 outreach activities and WIC@IU members will present information about their successful Just Be program, which strives to educate youngsters about the true nature of computing and its education and career opportunities. It also helps to dispel common stereotypes about those working in computing fields. Other participating academic institutions include DePauw University, Purdue University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and Butler University. “InWIC is a regionally tailored conference focused exclusively on women in computing, and it provides a venue for female undergraduate and graduate students to present their work and network with peers in the region,” says IU coordinator Yuqing Melanie Wu, assistant professor of computer science. More information about InWIC 2008 and WIC@IU can be found at (Story Link: http://www.cs.indiana.edu/cgi-pub/wic) http://www.cs.indiana.edu/cgi-pub/wic . The registration deadline is January 21. Scholarships are available for women students in the School of Informatics at all levels of study. For more information about InWIC 2008, visit (Story Link: http://www.cs.indiana.edu/cgi-pub/wic) http://www.cs.indiana.edu/cgi-pub/wic or contact Yuqing Melanie Wu (yuqwu@indiana.edu). To apply for a scholarship, contact Suzanne Menzel (menzel@indiana.edu).

IU informatics students learning the ropes about starting a business from some of Indiana’s most successful technology entrepreneurs

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:17:16 EST

Career News: Silicon Valley high-tech firms open doors to IU informatics students

Wed, 9 Jan 2008 14:58:35 EST