It was a bit unexpected for me to know my college, our college, the College of Information Science and Technology was created in 1997. It took two years to make the new college open its door and admit the first students for the Fall 1999 semester. Maybe at the point of facing a new century, information technology is so important for people and society. Research should not only focus on developing technology itself, but also take care of changes in our everyday lives following the revolution of information. Penn State realized this. Unlike other iSchools mostly succeed to their library schools, IST is built from white paper. It was a lot of money to found this new school. The construction of an IST building cost $58.8 million dollars to complete. While IST's overall research funding is in excess of $36 million dollars as for 2007.
When applying for Phd program, I was not aware that IST did not have departments in its college - I thought it was an "IST "department". But at the time I actually study here, I notice research area in IST is quite broad. It is very rare that HCI and cyber security researchers belong to a same "department", and do research project together. In my point of view, this kind of parallel structure is very helpful for inter- and multi- disciplinary research work. Although the organizing problem may arise along with its expansion, it is still necessary to keep this broad research surface and to limit restrictions followed by dividing organizations.
I benefit from this flat structure during the time in IST. This let me get in touch with many areas I am interested. My research is mainly on HCI. In IST there is a superb HCI research team. All of professors cooperate frequently, in spite of the "HCI center" is loosely organized. Currently I am working with Dr. Zhang specifically on information visualization. In my first year I may reach as many fields as possible during courses to fix on my best research topic. I have to say IST is providing an appropriate platform for me to achieve this.
When applying for Phd program, I was not aware that IST did not have departments in its college - I thought it was an "IST "department". But at the time I actually study here, I notice research area in IST is quite broad. It is very rare that HCI and cyber security researchers belong to a same "department", and do research project together. In my point of view, this kind of parallel structure is very helpful for inter- and multi- disciplinary research work. Although the organizing problem may arise along with its expansion, it is still necessary to keep this broad research surface and to limit restrictions followed by dividing organizations.
I benefit from this flat structure during the time in IST. This let me get in touch with many areas I am interested. My research is mainly on HCI. In IST there is a superb HCI research team. All of professors cooperate frequently, in spite of the "HCI center" is loosely organized. Currently I am working with Dr. Zhang specifically on information visualization. In my first year I may reach as many fields as possible during courses to fix on my best research topic. I have to say IST is providing an appropriate platform for me to achieve this.
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