Category Archives: Newsletter

A group of Illinois Informatics Institute researchers have proposed adding a fourth branch to the phylogenetic Tree of Life. More…

Informatics PhD candidate Arshan Nasir and his advisor Professor Gustavo Caetano-Anolles, professor of crop sciences, and their collaborator Kyung Mo Kim of the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology were rewarded for their publication of their article “Giant viruses coexisted with the cellular ancestors and represent a distinct supergroup along with superkingdoms Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya” from BioMed Central.  The article is available online at http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/12/156/abstract.  The award will be presented later this month in Boston.

The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) at the University of Illinois is pleased to announce its spring 2013 competition for travel grants to subsidize the presentation of undergraduate research at professional conferences.  Proposals should be submitted at https://illinois.edu/fb/sec/2164154 and the deadline for submission is 1 May 2013.

            In order to apply, students will need to have information on the conference dates and location, evidence that conference participation has been confirmed, estimated expenses, and possible support from mentors and departments.

            Please note that the travel grants are designed for students to present their research during the summer and fall semesters 2013 (another competition will be announced later in 2013).  In addition, these travel grants are not designed to cover the entire cost of student participation (some departmental or college contribution is encouraged) nor can the grant be used to cover post conference participation.

            Questions should be directed to ugresearch@illinois.edu

Purdue is hosting an NSF-sponsored “Science of Information” summer faculty workshop June 5-6. They are looking for instructors that are interested in attending (travel & lodging funds are available). They seem particularly keen on instructors that might be willing to add a section or module related to information theory into their existing courses. Here is the summer program web site:

http://soihub.org/course-workshop.php

Colleen Bushell, eDream fellow and researcher in NCSA visual analytics group specializing in information design and software interface development, will present “Personalized Medicine and the Challenge of Personalizing Communication” at 4pm in room 2100 NCSA bldg March 28.

The full bio/abstract is available on the eDream website. http://edream.illinois.edu/public-engagement/conferences-presentations

Mayo Clinic Internship

See http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/02/ala-seeks-candidates-for-google-policy-fellowship-2/

A new course has been added for Spring and meets for the second 8 weeks.  It does not count as an upper-level course for the informatics minor, BUT it *can* be used for those of you needing an extra hour of informatics credit (for example, if you took CS 105, which is a 3-hour course, as a substitute for INFO 102, which is a 4-hour course).  It also promised to be a good course!

For Informatics, it is listed as INFO 199 JC, CRN 59663.  It Meets With the course described below.

===

Diversity by the Numbers

SOC 196 (CRN 40758) – Spring 2013 (second 8 weeks) 

Cross-listed with LLSP, AAS, AfAm, and AIS

Mon 3:30-5:50 pm (computer lab), Wed 3:30-4:50 (lecture-discussion), and required online module (2 hours per week)

This course is intended to introduce students to the nature, uses, sources and computational analysis of statistical data that can be used and misused to give a perspective on race and ethnicity in the US.  It will also provide an introduction to the social theories and issues that explain the patterns that will be revealed by our analyses.  The class will meet in a computer lab, a seminar room and will require student completion of an on-line module that will teach straightforward techniques in Microsoft Excel and SPSS via online modules.  

The Facebook fellowship supports doctoral students in computer science and related fields, and both American and international students are eligible.  Facebook is interested in a wide range of topical areas including architecture, compilers, data mining, databases, distributed systems, formal methods, graphics, human-computer interaction, internet economics, machine learning, natural language processing, networking, operating systems, programming languages, security/privacy, social computing, theory, and vision.

Benefits:

•$30,000 stipend.

•Coverage of tuition and fees.

•$5,000 toward conference attendance and travel.

•$2,500 toward a personal computer.

•Opportunity for a paid internship at Facebook.

Students apply directly to Facebook, and the deadline is January 7, 2013.  For additional details and application instructions, see  

Facebook Fellowship webpage