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.
People open up more to smart speakers that listen actively
Adding random, short expressions of understanding in a conversation may turn smart speakers, such as Alexa and Siri, into robot therapists that allow people to open up more without violating their privacy, according to a team of researchers.
Researchers propose methods for automatic detection of doxing
A new automated approach to detect doxing — a form of cyberbullying in which certain private or personally identifiable information is publicly shared without an individual's consent or knowledge — may help social media platforms better protect their users, according to researchers from Penn Stat
Novel 3D imaging model may show path to more water-efficient plants
A new computational pipeline for analyzing three-dimensional imaging data can help biologists more accurately and quickly see how the cells in a plant’s leaves respond to the environment and identify plants that more efficiently use water, according to researchers.
On the Bridge — December 2022
A compilation of recent news, highlights, and achievements from the College of Information Sciences and Technology community.
New coding tool could aid computer programmers who are blind or have low vision
A new tool could help make code reading, navigating and editing more accessible and efficient for blind and low-vision computer programmers, according to Penn State researchers.
IST student diversifies wearable tech health data apps through Google internship
This summer, Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology doctoral student Sahiti Kunchay put her knowledge and skills to the test as a research intern at Google.
AI language models show bias against people with disabilities, study finds
The algorithms that drive natural language processing technology — a type of artificial intelligence that allows machines to use text and spoken words in many different applications — often have tendencies that could be offensive or prejudiced toward individuals with disabilities, according to re
IST doctoral student named Scholar of Sexology Fellow by Kinsey Institute
Mia Hua, a Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology doctoral student, is the recent recipient of a competitive Scholars of Sexology Fellowship from the Kinsey Institute — a renowned source at Indiana University for critical issues in sexuality, gender and reproduction.
Aspiring professor pursues dual IST graduate degrees
By the time Antonio Girona receives his doctorate degree, which he expects to earn in 2025, he will have been a student in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) for more than a decade.
Deepfakes expose vulnerabilities in certain facial recognition technology
Mobile devices use facial recognition technology to help users quickly and securely unlock their phones, make a financial transaction or access medical records.
IST intern aids in SiriusXM/Pandora user experience research
Through a summer internship with SiriusXM/Pandora, Renkai Ma is studying how music listeners and creators interact with the company’s product features.
Sharing source-backed information can help reduce COVID-19 misinformation online
If you see fake news about COVID-19 circulating on your social media feeds, say something — if you have a reliable source to back it up.
26-year-old IST student to earn second doctorate this spring
This weekend, as thousands of Penn Staters earn their degrees, one 26-year-old graduate of the College of Information Sciences and Technology will be presented with not her first, but second, doctorate.
Tech designed to aid visually impaired could benefit from human-AI collaboration
Remote sighted assistance technology — which connects visually impaired individuals with human agents through a live video call on their smartphones — helps people with low or no vision navigate tasks that require sight.
Using tweets to predict real-time food shortages
The sentiments and emotions expressed in tweets on Twitter can be used in real time to assess where supply chain disruptions due to a pandemic, war or natural disaster may lead to food shortages, according to researchers at Penn State and the Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar.
New model could have ‘Moneyball’-like impact on baseball players’ value
In the movie “Moneyball,” a young economics graduate and a cash-strapped Major League Baseball general manager introduce a new way to evaluate baseball players’ value.
Facial recognition tech in public could yield perceptions of workplace fairness
Many people use facial recognition technology on their personal devices, to quickly and securely enter a password or complete an online transaction.
Insights from Experts: COVID-19 and the mental health of essential workers
Johnna Blair, IST doctoral candidate at Penn State, is investigating how essential workers used Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic to connect with others about shared experiences, from coping with mental health conditions to voicing workplace concerns.
Doctoral student draws on IST skills in startup for AI-driven diagnostic tool
Thanh Le, doctoral student in the College of Information Sciences and Technology, and his fellow Moichor co-founders are setting out to change old-school veterinary diagnostics through their software that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to leverage data-driven image learning to
IST grad student intern applies data science skills in construction industry
As a College of Information Sciences and Technology student pursuing a master’s degree in informatics, Kristen Williams had the opportunity this past summer to apply what she’s learned through her concentration in data science in a summer internship in the construction manufacturing industry.
Fostering community across geographically dispersed university campuses
Many U.S. universities comprise a main campus and several branch campuses distributed throughout the state. Researchers in the College of Information Sciences and Technology investigated whether students at these various campuses feel that they belong to a unified university community.
What was really the secret behind Van Gogh's success?
Before developing his famed “drip technique,” abstract artist Jackson Pollock dabbled in drawing, print making and surrealist paintings of humans, animals and nature.
New tool fuses expert knowledge and deep learning features to detect sleep apnea
Individuals who suspect they have sleep apnea — and the doctors who diagnose them — could soon have more effective way to automatically detect the condition at home, thanks to a new method developed by researchers at the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology.
COVID-19 study aims to make local policy announcements more culturally dependent
Researchers from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology recently studied a new form of crisis information exchange that has emerged between geographically dispersed areas to facilitate local crisis responses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Honor code established at College of IST
The College of Information Sciences and Technology, in collaboration with IST student government, announced the launch of the IST Honor Code.
Penn State Berks takes first place in the Anthem AI hackathon
The Penn State Berks Data Lions team recently took first place in the Anthem AI ‘Substance Use Disorder and Whole Health of the Person’ Hackathon, a competition to identify risk factors related to substance use, and conditions indicative of underlying substance abuse.
Counting pandemic behaviors to inform public health decisions
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many significant changes to people's lives, but one of the most visible signals of this has been the proliferation of masks and other face-coverings in public spaces.
Honeypot security technique can also stop attacks in natural language processing
As online fake news detectors and spam filters become more sophisticated, so do attackers’ methods to trick them — including attacks through the “universal trigger.” In this learning-based method, an attacker uses a phrase or set of words to fool an indefinite number of inputs, which could lead t
Networking and collaboration lead to best paper award for IST doctoral student
At the College of Information Sciences and Technology, doctoral student Jeongwon Jo has benefited from having access to an interdisciplinary network of experts and scholars to help advance her research.
Women and lower-education users more likely to tweet personal information
When it comes to what users share on Twitter, women and users who never attended college voluntarily disclose more personal information than users from other socioeconomic and demographic backgrounds — potentially making these populations more susceptible to online privacy threats, according to a
IST research well-represented at top Communities and Technologies conference
A research group from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology is well-represented at the virtual 10th International Conference on Communities and Technology, which began June 21.
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 — specificall
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.
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.
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.
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.