UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A compilation of recent news, highlights and achievements from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) community.
Identity Talks series continues this spring
IST Identity Talks, a series of panels that highlight alumni as they share their diverse experiences and perspectives gained through their educational and professional journeys, will continue this spring with the first, focused on “Celebrating Black History,” slated for Feb. 8. Find more information on this event and other upcoming Identity Talks this spring at ist.psu.edu/identity-talks.
Honavar to serve as AAAI program chair
Vasant Honavar, Huck Chair in Biomedical Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence, will serve as a program chair for the 36th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, to be held virtually Feb. 22 through March 1. The purpose of the AAAI conference is to promote research in artificial intelligence (AI) and scientific exchange among AI researchers, practitioners, scientists and engineers in affiliated disciplines.
IST research well-represented at AECT
IST was represented in five presentations of four works at the international convention of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology in November:
- “INCLUSIVE ADDIE: An Action-Oriented Framework for Inclusive Pedagogy,” by Chris Gamrat, senior instructional designer at the College of IST; and Sonia Tiwari and Saliha Ozkan-Bekiroglu, both doctoral candidates in the Learning Design and Technology program in the College of Education.
- “Master of Integration: An Intellectual Field Guide for Instructional Designers,” by Gamrat.
- “Changed by Our Journey: Adaptive Thinking, Mustering Courage, and Putting Heart into Teaching and Learning,” by Lisa Lenze, director of IST’s Office of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment; Gamrat; and Edward Glantz, teaching professor.
- “Plan and Pivot: Flexing Instruction Through Crisis Management Techniques,” by Glantz, Gamrat and Lenze.
IST experts in the news
- Hadi Hosseini, assistant professor, shares his expertise in a Forbes article discussing AI trends to watch in 2022. He is quoted as saying, "Conversations around ethical AI and ethical data analytics will attract more attention from academia and industry. Hopefully, this emphasis will work its way toward policymakers and politicians. The recent press coverage on whistleblower documents about giant social media companies could help accelerate meaningful change in 2022.”
- Priya Kumar, assistant professor, who studies how the datafication of family life affects privacy an agency, was recently interviewed for a CBC Kids News production exploring the topic, titled “Are adults trying to block kids from using social media?” Social media apps "aren't necessarily designing their platforms with children's well-being in mind," said Kumar in the interview.
- Prasenjit Mitra, professor, breaks down how 5G cellular network technology works in this piece he authored for The Conversation. The article was republished in The Daily Beast, among others. A follow up Conversation article, “How 5G puts airplanes at risk — an electrical engineer explains,” was picked up by Yahoo! Finance.
“On the Bridge” highlights accomplishments by faculty, staff, students and alumni of the College of Information Sciences and Technology. Share your news with us and the IST community by emailing webmarcom@ist.psu.edu.