From technology that changes room temperature depending on personal preference to search engines that will find music by simply humming a few notes of a song into a computer, IU informatics students are constantly searching for ways to make life more user-friendly through technology.\n"We attempt to challenge real world problems with information technology," said Matt Hottell, a lecturer and former student of the IU informatics program. "Technology doesn't always make life easier, which is where we come in."
Program Expansion and Creativity\nThe IU School of Informatics, created in 1999, is the nation's first school of its type. From 1999, IUB enrollment in the program has increased from 50 to over 1400 students, with 21 new faculty members added to the Bloomington and Indianapolis rosters in the fall of 2004. Already offering bachelor's and master's programs, the school will begin offering a Ph.D. program in the fall with 10 students, and hopes the program will grow to around 35 or 40 students.\n"Students in the (School of Informatics) are very future oriented and our faculty members are among the top experts in their respective fields in the world," said Hottell, who was among the first class of informatics students in 1999. "Our students have a willingness to make an effort to find needed answers, the ability to think logically and compose ideas coherently and a natural curiosity about how things work." These are attributes Hottell feels are necessary to be successful in any field in life.\nSeveral students are striving to make names for themselves with their technological creativity, conducting projects that seem to come right out of a Star Trek movie. When masters student Ben Murphy's plant, affectionately named "Queso," wilted from a lack of water, the 30-year-old graduate student managed to keep the plant alive with a sensor-driven device. "I hooked the plant to a scale and hooked it up to a computer," said Murphy.\nThe scales automatically sensed when his plant was dehydrated, and a monitor displayed whether "Queso" was fine or if it was thirsty. This alerted the sensors, which watered the plant automatically. But despite Murphy's care, the plant eventually died.\n"I needed my plant," said Murphy, who has also close to perfecting a contextual graphical Web browser, which will help people find past Web sites they have visited without repeatedly pressing the back button.
Technological Competitors\nThe School of Informatics also has four teams competing in the Chi 2005 competition in Portland, Ore., for designing technology for social well-being. The competition only invites 11 teams. \n"The prize is prestige among your peers, but it helps with the future," said Kynthia Brunett, part of a team with fellow graduate students Will Ryan, Matt Eisenstadt and Erik Pukinskis. The team designed a program for senior citizens, which enables them to share photographs among each other using simple computer technology. \n"These students want to make life better," said Becky Vianden, career services specialist in the School of Informatics. "The program is not just using technology for the sake of it, but to actually improves society."\nVianden cited that graduates often take careers in several fields, including medicine, security, science and music. With careers that pay up to $50,000 with a bachelor's degree and less danger of their jobs becoming outsourced because of specialization, interest in informatics is growing. \n"Most people don't know what we do," said Hottell. "When I ask potential students what they think informatics is, they usually respond with computers and information," said Hottell, who suggests that informatics is so much more, as it can be combined to enhance virtually any field.\nThe Ph.D. program's start this fall will continue to enhance the school's growth, educators believe. \n"The program will continue to be very interdisciplinary, and will allow students to explore multiple perspectives," said Executive Associate Dean Marty Siegel.\n"The world is so much different than it was just a few years ago," said Hottell. \nStudents at IU's School of Informatics are trying to help society keep up.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Cordell Eddings at ceddings@indiana.edu
