The strength of the College of IST is demonstrated through the successes and accomplishments of its students, faculty, alumni, and programs. Read more about how the college and its people are driving innovative change and taking on the challenges of the Information Age.
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When Jacob Sisko first accepted his offer from Penn State to study forensic science, he never imagined that he’d one day work for the Department of the Army and its Command, Control, Computers, Communications, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center. But, just before he started at University Park, Sisko learned about the security and risk analysis program at the College of Information Sciences and Technology and changed his major.
Despite the inherent challenges that voice-interaction may create, researchers recently found that deaf and hard-of-hearing users regularly use smart assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri in homes, workplaces and mobile devices — highlighting a clear need for more inclusive design.
A team made up of three students from the Penn State Smeal College of Business and another from the College of Information Sciences and Technology collaborated to win the top prize in the Kohl’s Busines with Integrity Case Competition. Sponsored by the Tarriff Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility at Penn State and Kohl’s, the competition drew 26 teams.
When the COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly turned College of Information Sciences and Technology student Trevor Baptiste’s summer internship into a virtual experience, he used his newly found time to achieve his dream: becoming a pilot.
Ryan DeGrendel, 45, first enrolled in college classes while he was still in high school and playing junior hockey in Detroit. Three decades, 17 surgeries and one near-death experience later, he is earning a degree in security and risk analysis through Penn State World Campus.
Mark Viglione, a 2015 graduate and founder of Enigma Networkz, has finalized a software licensing agreement with the University to make his company’s security information and event management platform, Enigma Glass, available to students at all Penn State campuses.
The College of Information Sciences and Technology will honor Kylie Dunmire as student marshal at fall 2020 commencement, which will be held virtually at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 19.
Richard Canevez, a doctoral student in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State, has been named to the 2020 Class of Computing Innovation Fellows by the Computing Research Association (CRA) and its Computing Community Consortium (CCC).
Madison Reddie, an accomplished student graduating with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, has been named the fall 2020 student marshal for the Penn State College of Engineering.
Penn State Scranton Associate Professor of Information Sciences and Technology Debra Smarkusky, recently received high honor from her colleagues within the University’s College of IST -- the University's Statewide Faculty Member of the Year Award at the Fall IST Statewide Faculty Meeting.
Imagine changing the TV channel with a wave of your hand or turning on the car radio with a twist of your wrist. Freehand gesture-based interfaces in interactive systems are becoming more common, but what if your preferred way to gesture a command — say, changing the TV to channel 10 — significantly differed from that of a user from another culture? Would the system recognize your command?
In a recent survey at Penn State, nearly a quarter of students said that they have decreased the size of their meals, or have skipped meals altogether, because they didn’t have enough money to eat. Lion's Pantry student president Spencer Wallace is on the front lines to combat food insecurity on campus, overseeing the campus food bank and the student organization that operates it, with the mission of addressing and mitigating student hunger.
For many residential Penn State students, leaving campus and navigating the world of online education was a new concept, and an adjustment. For College of Information Sciences and Technology student Nathan Tack, it landed him in a familiar situation, and he’s poised and ready for classes to move back to a remote environment after Thanksgiving break.
Students across Penn State can now easily access information about on-campus dining options thanks, in part, to the work of members of the User Experience Professional Association (UXPA).
Alan Peslak, professor of information sciences and technology at Penn State Scranton, has been recognized by his fellow members of the information systems community with the International Association for Computer Information Systems’ 2020 Ben Bauman Award for Excellence.
Penn State students, faculty and staff, along with nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations, are invited to learn more about how artificial intelligence can be used to address challenges facing organizations during the next Nittany AI Inspire virtual event, “Nonprofits, AI and the Greater Good,” from 4-5:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 13.
Electronic health records contain critical information for both medical providers and patients. But these records also contain information that could interfere with an artificial intelligence algorithm’s ability to predict patients’ risk for future disease. Researchers at the College of Information Sciences and Technology are aiming to eliminate some of this noise — or unnecessary data — through a new machine learning model.
In the College of Information Sciences and Technology's annual George McMurtry Award Lecture next week, Alison Murphy, assistant professor, will talk about how her experience of using empathy to design systems when she worked in industry an information technology project manager, and how it drives her lessons as a teacher.
With the video game industry expected to near $200 billion in revenue by 2022, game designers have expanded their reach to interest different types of players. And while genres now range from science fiction to fantasy to military, there are few game designers focused on using the medium as a platform to encourage social change. That’s where College of Information Sciences and Technology alumna Ashlyn Sparrow comes in.
New research from a team at Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology shows how fake news detectors can be manipulated through user comments to flag true news as false and false news as true, even if the adversary is not the story’s original author.
Penn State students now have an easier way to connect with campus organizations that match their backgrounds and interests through a new app designed by a team of students, Vybrnt, which was launched to help students from underrepresented backgrounds to build community on campus.
When images are uploaded to online platforms, they are often tagged with automatically generated labels that indicate what is shown, such as a dog, tree or car. While these labeling systems are often accurate, sometimes the computer makes a mistake. Providing explanations to users to interpret these mistakes can be helpful, or sometimes even necessary.
Held virtually this year from Sept. 26-29, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing connected 30,000 attendees from more around the world to learn, network and be inspired in working together to achieve intersectional gender and pay parity in tech — and female students from the College of Information Sciences and Technology had the opportunity to be a part of it.
Jack Carroll, distinguished professor in Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology, has been named a Fellow of the International Federation for Information Processing for his contributions to the information and communications technologies and sciences.
Artificial intelligence is being used to aid cities in an effort for its residents to live in a more sustainable way. This topic will be examined during the next Nittany AI Inspire virtual event “Smart Cities, AI and the Greater Good” from 6-8 p.m. on Oct. 23.
A new tool created by researchers at Penn State and Houston Methodist Hospital could diagnose a stroke based on abnormalities in a patient’s speech ability and facial muscular movements, and with the accuracy of an emergency room physician — all within minutes from an interaction with a smartphone.
Amulya Yadav, assistant professor at Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology, has been awarded the college’s PNC Technologies Career Development Professorship.
With the return of Penn State football this weekend, brothers and Penn Staters Drew and Kyle Bennison are poised and ready to help fans learn more about the science behind the game through a weekly podcast.
The Multi-Disciplinary Research Grants were recently awarded to eight research groups from across Penn State’s colleges and campuses conducting research related to artificial intelligence and machine learning.
A new Penn State online bachelor’s degree program and a Penn State finance professor have been recognized with awards from the Mid-Atlantic Region of UPCEA, a leading higher education association.
While this year’s Homecoming events are different from past years, one thing hasn’t changed: the positivity and excitement that Homecoming emcee Brett Randby has for the event.
According to researchers at Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology, a new, post-pandemic normal is likely to emerge in higher education. Instructors can utilize some tools and concepts that became common during remote learning to further advance learner engagement in this new normal when students return to the traditional classroom.
Stuart Selber, associate professor of English at Penn State, has published a book titled “Institutional Literacies: Engaging Academic IT Contexts for Writing and Communication” (University of Chicago Press).
In recognition of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the Penn State Small Business Development Center is partnering with the Harrisburg LaunchBox to host a free, virtual event, “Cybersecurity: Safeguarding Your Small Business," on Oct. 15.
Graduate students Yueqi Chen and Wenbo Guo, both doctoral candidates in the College of Information Sciences and Technology, have earned the IBM Ph.D. Fellowship award in recognition and support of their work in cybersecurity. Penn State is one of only two institutions, along with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to receive multiple fellowships this year.
Penn State community members interested in data science are invited to the next Data Science Community meeting — scheduled for 1:30 to 2:30 on Monday, Oct. 12 — which will be a group discussion on the use of machine learning to improve learning analytics.
In mid-September, 17 College of Information Sciences and Technology students attended the annual ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference, an event celebrating diversity in the technology field.
The College of IST is helping to fill a global demand through the cybersecurity analytics and operations bachelor’s degree program, launched in 2017. Its first class of graduates, having earned their degrees in May, are ready to tackle cybersecurity challenges that individuals and organizations around the world face.
Penn State students involved in the Nittany AI Associates program, working alongside TEAMology — a startup exploring emotional health as a way to enhance a child’s ability to succeed in school — explored best pathways in the use of artificial intelligence to test resilience in students learning remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Six educational equity scholarships have recently been established to benefit students in the College of Information Sciences and Technology. Matched 1:1 by the University's Educational Equity Matching Program, the scholarship funds will support the financial needs of underrepresented students and contribute to the diversity of the student body at the college and at Penn State.
A panel of Penn State researchers will offer insights into how researchers can tap artificial intelligence — AI — to be a powerful tool for scientific discovery.
The NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium is currently accepting applications to its undergraduate research internship programs. The programs offer first-year and minority students a two-semester, faculty-mentored internship in a research laboratory at University Park. The deadline to apply is Nov. 1.
If you haven’t recently talked with your family about health topics like sleep or medication, you’re not alone, according to a study by researchers in Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology.
Nyansapo, OpenVessel, AI Guide and Cyclone are the winners of the 2020 Nittany AI Challenge. Each of the student teams created a minimum viable product using artificial intelligence for good and were selected by a panel of judges to share a pool of $25,000 to continue to move their solutions forward.
The Institute for Computational and Data Sciences is hosting a panel discussion with researchers from four Penn State colleges who will be discussing their work and experience using artificial intelligence, as well as some ethical considerations.
In response to financial challenges students face when pursuing a college degree, and motivated in part by the significant social justice issues across the country, Andrew Sears, dean of the College of Information Sciences and Technology, and his wife, Beth, have made a gift to establish the Andrew and Beth Sears Educational Equity Scholarship in the College of IST.
As the daughter of small-business owners, College of IST student Erica Mi knew the challenges these companies were facing firsthand. When she learned about Novaris, an IT consulting organization started by a group of undergraduate students from across the country, and the students’ plans to help small businesses with their technical needs during the pandemic, she wanted to get involved to help those who were struggling.
Researchers in the College of Information Sciences and Technology have designed an algorithm that was trained to defeat a world-class bot — an AI-driven program that plays on behalf of a human — in the award-winning computer game StarCraft II. Their work highlights vulnerabilities in bots that are created using deep reinforcement learning.
Wastewater sampling for coronavirus on campus and in the surrounding community could alert University decision makers to a potential outbreak several days before individuals exhibit symptoms of an infection. The initiative — part of Penn State’s multilayered approach to test, monitor and mitigate for COVID-19 — could enable leaders to take swift actions to minimize the virus’s spread with the goal of helping to protect the health and safety of the community.
As chief data officer for the City and County of San Francisco, Jason Lally carries the daily responsibility to help each of the city’s approximately 50 departments make the best use of its data. And that responsibility becomes especially critical in the middle of a global pandemic.