Doctoral Research and Education for
Informaticians at IST@PennState
John Yen, Mary Beth Rosson, and Henry C. Foley
College of Information Sciences and Technology
The Pennsylvania State University
NSF Workshop on The Future of iSchool Doctoral Education
May 29, 2009
IST@PENNSTATE
Mission
• Opened in 1999, the College
of IST is the newest college
at Penn State.
• It was a response to the
rapidly-growing need for
innovation and leadership in
the information technology
field.
• Our mission is to change the
world with inspired solutions,
humanized technologies, and
informed people.
IST@PENNSTATE
The Tree of Doctoral Program
IST@PENNSTATE
Root: Core Requirements
• A foundation course
• One of two courses on Information
Technology
• One of two courses on HCI
• One of two courses on Social/Enterprise
Informatics
• Graduate Colloquium
IST@PENNSTATE
Branches: Tracks
• Provide a flexible curriculum with an
emphasis
• Guide each student’s planning of his/her
doctoral study
• Help students to articulate concentration
areas to external communities
IST@PENNSTATE
Five Tracks
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Artificial Intelligence & Cognitive Science
Computational Informatics
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
Social & Enterprise Informatics
Security Informatics
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An Example: HCI Track
• This track seeks to produce researchers
who can integrate, apply, and develop
social-cognitive theory within a systematic
design framework for creating and
evaluating interactive systems.
• It fosters collaboration between students
who have background and interests in the
social and computer sciences.
• Example research projects include
wireless community networks;
collaborative activity awareness; multiscale visualization.
IST@PENNSTATE
Coursework in the HCI Track
Three selections from IST courses covering HCI topics
– Computer-Supported Cooperative Work; Development Tools
and Visualizations for HCI; IST 541: Qualitative Research in
Information Sciences and Technology; Colloquium on HCI;
Medical Informatics; Simulating Human Behaviors
Four additional selections from complementary areas in
IST or other colleges
– Engineering of Cognitive Work (IE); Introduction to Data Analysis
in Communications (Comm; Psychological Aspects of
Communication Technology (Comm); Media Effects (Comm);
Seminar in Cognitive Psychology
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Artificial Intelligence and
Cognitive Science Track
• This track trains students in
use of AI and computational
cognitive models to improve
the understanding about
human cognition.
• Example research projects
include computer analysis of
van Gogh brushstrokes to
detect authenticity; cognitive
models of caffeine’s impact on
learning and performance.
IST@PENNSTATE
Security Informatics Track
• This track aims to improve
the cyber security of
individuals, enterprises, and
cyber space through
innovative solutions for
detecting cyber attacks,
enhancing privacy, and
mitigating risks.
• Example projects include
self-healing sofware
systems; comparison of
privacy-assurance methods.
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Computational Informatics Track
• This track aims to produce informaticians who
can create innovative algorithms and
cyberinfrastructure for storing, accessing,
processing, interpreting, mining, and
synthesizing large-scale information from data,
texts, images, video, and social networks.
• Example research projects include next
generation of CiteSeer, building novel
cyberinfrastructure for chemists, and text mining.
IST@PENNSTATE
Social/Enterprise Informatics Track
• This track’s focus is improved understanding of
the social and organizational context of
technological actions, as well as the co-evolution
of technologies, enterprises, organizations, and
society.
• Example research projects include
understanding and improving knowledge
management; modeling coordination behaviors
of NGO’s for disaster relief.
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Cross-Track Research Theme:
Extreme Events Systems Science
• This research area
aims to develop a
new kind of science to
better detect, prevent,
and mitigate extreme
events; by
synthesizing real-time
data, text, and images
for better response.
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Cross-cutting Research Themes
AI and
Cognitive
Science
Computational
Informatics
HCI
Social and
Enterprise
Informatics
Security
Informatics
Extreme
Events
System
Science
Heuristics
Entity
Extraction
Multi-scale
Visualization
Crowd
Behaviors
Cyber
Situation
Awareness
Relational
Networks
Network
Taxonomy
Community
Detection
Virtual
community
Social
Networks
Trust in
Networks
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The Faculty Research Context
• Total number of PhD students: 90
– Most PhD students supported by a combination of RA
and TA throughout their program
• Faculty pursue research grants to support their
own and other PhD students
– Annual research funding: +$7 million
• Working to build diverse research partnerships
– With other faculty and colleges across Penn State
– With other i-Schools
– With community, corporate, government, and NGO
partners
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Other Research Training
• Brown bag lunches (research centers)
• Research Seminars
– Ex: Social Network and Network Science
• Interdisciplinary course projects
– Bring students with different background
together
– Students with different advisors learn from
each other, collaborate
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Graduate Symposium
• Organized and hosted by PhD students
– Experience creating vision, planning, scheduling,
handling logistics, etc.
– Faculty advisor, support staff, Industry Research Office
• Invited speakers from 2008/2009 symposium
– Information Search (Google); Creativity and IT (NSF);
Social Network (LinkedIn); Microblogging (Twitter);
Information Vis. (IBM); Energy & IT (ExxonMobil)
• Students and faculty submit research papers
– Program committee reviews, selects, schedules,
awards best papers, etc.
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Summary
• Evolved from I-T-P as foundation to Tracks for
concentration and articulation.
• Research areas contribute to the mission of
“change the world with inspired solutions,
humanized technologies, and informed people”
• Cross-cutting research themes integrate
research in different tracks to create values
• Faculty pursue research grants to support PhD
students
• Enrich the experience of doctoral students
through a range of research training
opportunities.
IST@PENNSTATE