News Category: information-science

In the wake of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, thousands of open source COVID data projects were launched in an attempt to organize the chaos of information emerging about this new infectious disease. These COVID data infrastructure projects were crucial in enabling policy-makers and the public to understand the impact of the virus in communities around the world.

Several faculty members, PhD students, and a postdoctoral researcher will be representing The University of Texas at Austin School of Information at the 2020 ASIS&T Annual Meeting, which is being held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, from October 22^nd to November 1st. The theme of the conference is Information for a Sustainable World: Addressing Society’s Grand Challenges.

Health information has never been as accessible as it is now, thanks to the increasing prevalence of internet-connected devices. “More than 70% of American adults who are on the internet search for health information,” said Dr. Yan Zhang, an Associate Professor who studies consumer online health information-seeking behavior at the University of Texas at Austin School of Information.

Seven University of TexasSchool of Information faculty members were recently notified that they would receive approximately $100,000 in funding from Good Systems through The Good Systems Grand Challenge Initiative to support the first year of new projects.