I-School

Be honesely, I never thougth about the essential differences between information science and computer science before I applied for my Ph.d study.

When I was applying for Ph.d study, I did some research. At the begining, I always looked for computer science department or computer engineering department. However, I found most of them are focusing on very technical and theoretical computer related areas that are not attracted me so much.  And in the meanwhile, I noticed there is another kind of college call information school. From that time, I gradually paied attentions to I-Schools.

I found the main difference is, I-School concentrates on interdiscipline research. The research of traditional departments or colleges generally restrict within their own areas, for example mathmatic, physics. computer science, most of them just collaborate with their own peers. But in I-Shool, I found there are many people have many different backgrounds, and I nearly can find any primary subjects here. They are willing to work with each other.

It is true, nowadays, the society has become more complex. Many issues can not be solved by only one discipline. People from different fields need to collaborate. So, I-Shool is a great place to integrate these expertise. But the research interests of I-Schools in different universities are not the same. E.g. I-School in University of Texas, they said "Our focus is on information in its social context, from a single user searching for a document, to a government determining the access of its citizenry to public records." And I-School in University of Washington said that, "We are interested in the relationship between information, technology, and people. Expertise in all areas of information is required for the advancement of science, business, education, and culture." And I-School in UC Berkely said "Our work takes us wherever information touches lives, often bringing us into participant with diverse disciplines, from law, sociology, and business to publishing, linguistics, and computer science."

The main reason that I choose join I-School eventually is because my advisor Prof. Chu, and his program. I contacted with Prof. Chu, he introduced his RFID program to me in detail. And explain the benefits and challenges to me that inspired my interests. Thus, I decided to join his very promising program, and I really believed that this is the best choice for me.