Research program helps Informatics students

The School of Informatics has created a new research institute for data analysis that will give students additional skills to make them more attractive to prospective employers.\nThe Data and Search Institute will speed the processing of data into industry and give scientists interested in the field a better place to conduct their research, according to a press release.\n"I feel that one of the strongest benefits of the institute is what it brings to students," DSI Director Beth Plale said in an e-mail. "Students stand to gain the most from the institute because students gain valuable experience conducting research on real-world problems."\nThe DSI is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, which has expressed interest in making IU the leading data research university in the country, Plale said. Currently IU is partnered with Florida International University for the project, but other schools are expected to follow suit soon.\n"The DSI brings together a group of faculty with multidisciplinary interests relevant to the important issues of data -- how to format it, store it, etc. -- and search -- how to find it, interpret it, etc.," School of Informatics Dean J. Michael Dunn said in an e-mail. "This continues an important extension of human capabilities that began when humans first began to write but becomes increasingly important with the exponential flood of data made possible by information technology."\nDSI also has the potential to attract more faculty and students interested in the field.\n"The companies that partner with us will fund interesting research problems, technologies and hardware that will give students an opportunity to gain experience in real-world problems and technologies," Plale said. "On the faculty side, the presence of the institute and its excellent faculty research will draw other faculty to IU."\nPlale said it was too early to name specific companies involved in the project.\nIt's also possible that DSI will have a positive economic impact on Indiana, Plale said. \n"To the extent that we can attract people and grow our 'critical mass' in the area of data and search, that increases the likelihood that our national center will spawn new companies," Plale said. "Also, by looking at life science-rooted problems we hope to help Indiana's strong initiative in this area."\nCurrently the institute employs just more than a dozen data researchers, but the students there have especially piqued the interest of some companies.\n"The corporate partners of the institute have already expressed great interest in recruiting graduates who have had experience working on problems that define the future of their industry," Plale said.