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School of Informatics New Media Program |
Mary Cable Building (SI) Room
115 525 North Blackford Street Indianapolis, Indiana 46202 (317) 278-7666 School of Informatics Website |
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The School of Informatics has the academic purpose of developing and applying frameworks that bring unity to the study of information within a human perspective. The School of Informatics provides students a broad education in the use and management of information, particularly in digital form. The scope of informatics research and study can be defined by two axes: the technical dimension and the human dimension. The main areas of informatics are mathematical foundations of information, distributed information and collaborative computing, human computer interaction, social and organizational informatics, and new media.
Degrees in informatics not only combine existing course offerings, but also
create innovative courses and curricula in new and emerging aspects of
information technology. The School of Informatics forms the point of
intersection where existing courses in various academic programs meet new course
offerings created to enhance the practice and theory knowledge base.
In the summer of 1998, President Myles Brand created an Informatics Planning
Committee chaired by Dennis Gannon (Chair of Computer Science, IUB). The
committee was charged with developing a detailed implementation plan for this
meta-school. The Gannon Committee document outlined how an undergraduate degree
in informatics could fruitfully require a substantial number of courses in an
area outside of the core informatics courses. It also called for the creation of
a research institute and for a small core faculty. The Planning Committee gave
the following motivation for the new school:
The IUPUI library is a technology learning center that symbolizes the
university’s real and virtual information resources. It supports teaching and
learning in classrooms, in faculty offices, at the hundreds of workstations in
the library, in the 18 centrally supported campus learning centers, and in the
home workstations and offices of students. The IUPUI University Library includes
excellent resources, a powerful communications infrastructure, and widely
deployed workstations for students. There are 1,760 data connections in the
building which are run throughout the building to 640 individual carrels for
laptop connectivity, 8 computer clusters, 42 group study rooms, 40 faculty study
rooms, a 50-seat general classroom, 2 computer classrooms, a 100-seat
auditorium, and an adaptive educational services center.
University Information Technology Services at IUPUI supports the application,
use, and development of information technology for research, teaching and
learning. Students have access to over 500 public workstations on campus. UITS
partners with academic schools on campus to provide consulting support in 16
student technology centers, and operates another two centers as campus-wide
resources. The network operations center for Abilene, the high-speed Internet2
backbone network, is located on the IUPUI campus, as is the network operations
center for TransPAC, a high-speed network connecting the U.S. to countries in
Asia and the Pacific Rim. The IUPUI campus is also home to the Cisco Networking
Academy Training Center, and the Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE)
Practice Lab. One of two such labs in the nation, the CCIE lab provides a
testing environment for networking professionals worldwide who are candidates
for certification as Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts.
Because Indiana’s government, business, industry, finance, health, service,
and non-profit organizations are centered in Indianapolis, the urban environment
will play an important role as a learning resource for students enrolled in the
proposed degree programs. Many of the state’s communication industries are
concentrated in the capital city, and the larger organizations based here have
made commitments to improve their communication and business processes through
the use of information and information technology. IUPUI has established strong
working relationships with both industry and government agencies in
communications, information technology, and media arts and sciences. These
relationships will be important in working with new and emerging technologies.
The University Libraries at IUB rank third in collection size among the Big
Ten universities, fourth in the CIC (Committee on Institutional Cooperation),
and thirteenth in the nation among major research libraries. The Libraries’
collections include six million bound volumes, four million microforms, and over
40,000 current serials. The Main Library houses the undergraduate library and
extensive graduate research collections as well as reference services, technical
services, government publications, and other essential library services. The
Main Library is also home to 4 student computing centers which provide access to
more than 200 computer workstations. These facilities are complemented by the 13
campus libraries serving diverse disciplines, such as music, optometry,
chemistry, geology, education, business, journalism, and other areas.
University Information Technology Services (UITS) at IUB supports the
application, use and development of information technology for research,
teaching and learning. UITS makes available more than 1,200 computer
workstations located in 43 Student Technology Centers for both scheduled
instruction and individual study and more than 200 "InfoStations" and
other limited-use workstations in locations across campus for access to e-mail
and the Web. The Assistive Technology Lab, located in the Main Library, offers
programs and specialized information technology services for students with
disabilities. Research computing facilities on campus include the CAVE virtual
reality lab, 2 high-performance supercomputers (a 47-processor IBM SP and a
64-processor SGI/Cray Origin2000), a multi-terabyte massive data storage system,
and a state-of-the-art campus backbone network. Another strength UITS brings is
the Network Operations Centers for both Abilene (Internet 2) and TransPac. These
(a more fully described in the next section) are housed on the IUPUI campus, but
scholars and students in Bloomington will also benefit from these high-speed
communication links.
In its annual list of America’s 100 most wired colleges, Yahoo! Internet
Life has ranked IUB the ninth most "wired" campus in the country,
and for the third year in a row has ranked it second among public institutions
of higher education. This ranking considers the categories of computer
availability and type; undergraduate personal computer use; e-mail use and
access; Web space use and access; networking; degree and distance learning; and
educational and administrative uses.
The School of Informatics offers a bachelor’s degree in informatics, an
Associate of Science in Media Arts and Technology, a Bachelor of Science in
Media Arts and Science and five specialized master’s degrees: Master of
Science in Health Informatics (at IUPUI only), Master of Science in
Bioinformatics, Master of Science in Chemical Informatics, Master of Science in
Human Computer Interaction (initially only available in Bloomington) and the
Master of Science in Media Arts and Science (IUPUI only). For detailed
information about these degrees, please see the School of Informatics Bulletin.
The very nature of these degrees, with the changing technologies and
applications, require that the content of each degree be continuously assessed
and revised. The faculty of the School of Informatics, therefore, will
periodically review and revise the curricula to ensure that students are being
prepared to meet contemporary workplace and intellectual demands. Therefore,
students are advised to contact the School of Informatics office to confirm
current program requirements.
One School, Two Campuses
The School of Informatics spans two campuses, IUPUI in Indianapolis and IU
Bloomington. IUPUI and IUB have the unique environment necessary to support the
School of Informatics as an academic structure that enable students to earn
degrees with a strong information technology component in arts, humanities, and
science. A school creates the systematic means of collaboration and integration
for faculty as well as students. The faculties from varied departments share
developments in the fast-moving information technology areas through the School
of Informatics. The school is forging cooperative arrangements with employers in
the state and region, creating internships, cooperative education programs, and
learning opportunities through service.
The Development of the School of Informatics
The School of Informatics has evolved from years of planning and discussion,
both at IUB and IUPUI. In the fall of 1997 a Taskforce on Informatics, chaired
by Richard Shiffrin (Director of the Cognitive Science Program, IUB), was formed
to study ways in which the university could capitalize on its strengths in
information technology and to make a recommendation for further development. The
membership of that taskforce came from both the IUB and IUPUI campuses and
represented a wide range of units involved in information technology. This
taskforce report recommended that IU establish a School of Informatics.
The IUPUI campus
Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis is an urban campus that
combines IU and Purdue programs. In the fall semester of 1998 its schools had a
total enrollment of 27,821, including 20,667 undergraduates, and 7,154 students
in graduate and professional programs. The student population of IUPUI
represents the "new majority" of older, part-time enrollees and
reflects the urban character and mission of the campus. IUPUI currently ranks
among the ten largest campuses in the nation in offering first graduate
professional degrees.
The Bloomington Campus
Indiana University Bloomington is a residential campus that offers
undergraduate, professional, and graduate degrees in more than seventy fields of
study. In the fall semester of 1998 the campus had a total enrollment of 35,600,
including 27,836 undergraduates, and 7,774 students in graduate and professional
programs. More than a dozen schools and departments at IUB are nationally ranked
among the top ten or top twenty in their respective fields.
Degrees Offered
The instructional mission of the School of Informatics is twofold: to offer
interrelated degrees that complement other academic programs at IU, and to
expand opportunities for careers involving information technology. The School of
Informatics educates for lifelong learning and offers career education in
mathematical foundations of information, distributed information and knowledge
systems, human computer interaction, social informatics, and new media.
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INDIANA UNIVERSITY
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PURDUE UNIVERSITY
INDIANAPOLIS |