Non-Western cultures misrepresented, harmed by generative AI, researchers say
Penn State and University of Washington researchers found that AI models may cause cultural harms that go beyond surface-level biases
Media Mention: Lizhen Zhu
Where: Psychology Today, ’AI Performance Enhanced With Human Developmental Psychology’
Graduate Student Presents at HammerCon 2024
Jeffrey Schulman, a graduate student pursuing a doctorate in informatics in the College of IST, recently presented at HammerCon 2024, the national convention of the Military Cyber Professionals Association.
Three IST doctoral students accepted to linguistic diversity fellowship
Human technology, such as smart voice assistants or computer-based intelligent tutoring systems, is largely based on standard American English and the misconception that there is a single, idealized variety of American English.
Claim replicability may help prevent harms caused by ML
The ability of a model to duplicate its performance is how machine learning (ML) scientists traditionally justify the validity of their research claims.
Major Gift Creates Student Success Center in IST
Thanks to the generosity of Penn State benefactors Gene and Roz Chaiken, the College of Information Sciences and Technology is gaining a new student success center.
Dongwon Lee featured in National Academies workshop
Professor Dongwon Lee, acting interim associate dean for research and director of doctoral programs in the College of IST, participated in a virtual National Academies workshop on April 11.
Doctoral student story discusses digital privacy and data ethics
A story by Sanjana Gautam, a doctoral student of informatics in the College of IST, appeared in Medium on April 27.
IST students attend national Women in Cybersecurity Conference
For the first time, the College of IST sent students to the national Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) Conference.
Informatics student to attend MIDAS future leaders summit
Siyu Wu, a graduate student pursuing a doctorate in information in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology, was selected to attend the Future Leaders Summit hosted by the Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS).
Annual IST summit celebrates diversity and authenticity in tech
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) hosted its third annual Be You in Tech Summit on February 7 at the Eric J. Barron Innovation Hub in State College.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Nittany AI Challenge Ideation Workshop set for Nov. 30
The Nittany AI Challenge Ideation Workshop: Agriculture and Environmental Sustainability on Nov.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
New course examines opportunities, challenges, concerns around generative AI
“Emerging Technologies in Popular Culture,” a new course offered by the Penn State College of Information Systems and Technology, invites undergraduates to explore the questions, opportunities and challenges related to generative artificial intelligence.
College of IST announces Office of Enrollment, Engagement and Belonging
The Office of Enrollment, Engagement and Belonging is the new name of a collaborative unit in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology. The new unit includes three offices: inclusion and diversity engagement, undergraduate recruiting and student engagement.
IST, World Campus graduate student named cybersecurity scholar
Joshua D'Ottavio, a College of Information Sciences and Technology and World Campus student at Penn State, was named an RSA Conference Security Scholar. He joined thousands of cybersecurity professionals at the 32nd annual RSAC in San Francisco.
IST doctoral student receives NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Jeff Brozena, a second-year doctoral student in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State, was selected as a 2023 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program awardee. With a focus on human-computer interaction for mental health, Brozena plans to use his
Congratulations Graduates
A gallery of photos providing a look at just a few of the more than 14,000 newest Penn State graduates as they complete their successful journey at spring 2023 commencement ceremonies.
Student team places 3rd in Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition regional finals
A team of Penn State students recently took third place in the regional finals of the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition.
Head of FEMA set as College of IST commencement speaker
Deanne Criswell, the 12th administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will present the commencement address for the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology on May 6. The ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. in Pegula Ice Arena.
Positive triggering method reduces nationality bias in large text generators
Large language models that use internet files to learn how to respond to user prompts about different countries worldwide repeat biased ideas – both positive and negative – found online.
AI lab for low-resource communities earns 2023 Engagement and Scholarship Award
The RAISE Lab in the College of Information Sciences and Technology, which focuses on leveraging artificial intelligence to imagine a brighter future for low-resource communities around the globe, has received the 2023 Penn State Award for Community Engagement and Scholarship.
Forty graduate students recognized with prestigious University awards
Forty Penn State graduate students were named recipients of Penn State’s most prestigious annual graduate student awards, administered by the Graduate School in collaboration with several Penn State units.
Entrepreneurs share strategies during Penn State Startup Week powered by PNC
Each spring, Penn State Startup Week powered by PNC brings together the best and brightest Penn State student and alumni entrepreneurs and innovators for a weeklong celebration of what happens when Penn State’s inspired doers put their ideas into action.
College of IST awards seed grants to 8 projects
The Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology recently announced eight projects that will receive funding from the college’s seed grant program.
Center issues seed grant call for 'Big Ideas' in socially responsible AI
Penn State’s Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence is inviting short proposals for a special off-cycle round of "Big Idea Grant" seed funding earmarked for early concepts and research that has transformational potential.
Thought leaders headline TechCon at Penn State Abington
Technology thought leaders will share their vision for building smart, sustainable communities at the TechCon and Innovation Challenge at Penn State Abington on Saturday, March 25. The event is open to the public.
Beyond memorization: Text generators may plagiarize beyond 'copy and paste'
Language models, possibly including ChatGPT, paraphrase and reuse ideas from training data without citing the source, raising plagiarism concerns, according to a Penn State-led research team that conducted the first study to directly examine the phenomenon.
Information Sciences and Technology faculty, staff recognized with annual awards
Faculty and staff in the College of Information Sciences and Technology were recognized at the college’s annual awards event this week. Recipients were nominated by their IST colleagues and selected by a review committee for their excellence in teaching, research and service.
New AI tool helps provide better care to pregnant women in Kenya
A new AI-based tool developed by a team of researchers from Penn State and Jacaranda Health has been shown to improve health outcomes for new and expectant mothers in Kenya by providing better and more immediate access to maternal health care services.