Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit

iSchool team receives NSF grant to create ‘new breed of information professional’

Thursday, October 9, 2008, By News Staff
Share

Margaret Spillett
(315) 443-1069

A biologist studying the way chemotherapy interacts with a tumor at the cellular level works years to develop the expertise needed to assess those changes. Meanwhile, advances in technology that enable the biologist to store, retrieve, manipulate and analyze the large amounts of data she collects are developing at a rate faster than she can keep up.

Likewise, international researchers working in Switzerland on the world’s largest and most advanced particle physics lab, CERN, need to send new data, access their previous research, and collaborate with colleagues back in their home countries. But again, their expertise is not in developing the technical infrastructure to ensure this process happens smoothly.

Who are the experts? Researchers at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University (iSchool) are hoping to define this new group of workers that they’re calling cyberinfrastructure facilitators, or CI-facilitators.

Funded by a two-year, $244,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Office of CyberInfrastructure, the iSchool team will investigate “CI-Facilitators: Information Architects across the STEM Disciplines.” The team is headed by Associate Dean for Research Jeff Stanton, Dean Elizabeth D. Liddy, professor SU Chief Information Officer Paul Gandel, and professors Derrick L. Cogburn, R. David Lankes and Megan Oakleaf.

“The rapid pace in the development of information infrastructure implies that only individuals who dedicate their professional lives to it can truly keep up,” Stanton says. “Our proposal hopes to define the education and training of a new breed of information professionals called CI-facilitators. These individuals will ensure that researchers in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines can utilize the large-scale datasets, images, databases and other information collections they need to advance their work.”

The team will design an educational program at the graduate and undergraduate levels that will teach a set of focused skills, knowledge and capabilities. This program will include current courses, new courses, internships, technical training and a variety of other learning modules.

These students will graduate knowing how to:

  • assess and identify socio-technical needs;
  • set up technology/collaborative tools and facilitate their use;
  • archive results of work; and
  • act as the catalyst between researcher and technologies needed to facilitate the research process.

The iSchool researchers believe this skill set will shorten the time it takes to achieve a goal. “We see CI-facilitators excelling in the three ‘I’s’-information, infrastructure and improvisation,” Stanton says. “They will have the research skills to discover the needs of information users and will be able to adapt available technology to satisfy those needs.”

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • Providing a Voice for the Systemically Suppressed With Erykah Pasha ’24 on the ‘’Cuse Conversations’ Podcast
    Monday, June 5, 2023, By John Boccacino
  • Men’s Soccer Team Gives Back to Syracuse Community for Season of Support
    Friday, June 2, 2023, By Kathleen Haley
  • June 30 Deadline Set for Fiscal 2023 Year End Business
    Wednesday, May 31, 2023, By News Staff
  • DPS Accepting Sign-Ups for R.A.D. Summer Session
    Wednesday, May 31, 2023, By Alex Haessig
  • Syracuse Stage Adds 2 Musicals to 50th Anniversary Season
    Wednesday, May 31, 2023, By Joanna Penalva

More In Uncategorized

Syracuse Views Spring 2023

We want to know how you experience Syracuse University. Take a photo and share it with us. We select photos from a variety of sources. Submit photos of your University experience using #SyracuseU on social media, fill out a submission…

Awards of Excellence Honoree: Maxwell has Been ‘a Guiding Hand’ in Public Service Career

Standing before an audience of fellow Maxwell School alumni gathered in Washington, D.C., for the second annual Maxwell Awards of Excellence, CNN anchor Boris Sanchez ’09 shared the motivation behind his work as a journalist. Sanchez emigrated from Cuba as…

NASA Honoring Those Who Were Aboard Space Shuttle Columbia And Other Late Astronauts

Sean O’Keefe, University Professor in the Maxwell School, was interviewed for the USA Today article “Twenty years later, loss of space shuttle Columbia still teaches us lessons.” The article emphasizes how NASA’s Memorial Grove is used to honor late astronauts,…

NFL, Eagles and Chiefs All Set To Win The Economics Game In Super Bowl LVII

Rodney Paul, director and professor of sport analytics in the Falk School, was quoted in the Washington Examiner story “The economics of the Super Bowl: Hosting, gambling, ads, and more.” The article talks in-depth about all of the economics that…

CEOs Requiring In Person Work Is Hurting Diversity

Arlene Kanter, director of the Disability and Policy Program and professor in the College of Law, was interviewed for the Business Insider article “Some CEOs are pushing workers to return to the office, but it could come with a cost:…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2023 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.