It was while she was serving in the Peace Corps that Alex Brown's eyes were opened to the need for reliable access to quality information and education. She didn't realize it at the time, but this experience would one day lead her to the iSchool, where she is now a student in the MS/LIS online (Leep) program.

A paper coauthored by PhD student Lanyu Shang and members of Associate Professor Dong Wang's research group, the Social Sensing and Intelligence Lab, received the best paper award in the research track during the 2022 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Network Analysis and Mining (ASONAM 2022). The conference brings together researchers and practitioners from a broad variety of social media-related fields to promote collaborations and exchange of ideas and practices.

Ved Upadhyay (MS/IM '19) serves as a senior data scientist for Walmart Global Tech. He enjoys working with different teams at the company and "designing impactful data science solutions" for customers.

MS/IM student Niharika Surange wasn't always drawn to a career in data science; like many children around the world, she initially wanted to work in the same occupation as her parent. However, as Surange progressed through school, her interest in information science and technology grew. 

Each year, the Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab hosts thousands of diverse visitors, prompting makers, educators, and researchers across campus and local communities to collaborate as they share the vision of inspiring creativity and discovery through dynamic learning.

Members of Associate Professor Jingrui He's research group, the iSAIL Lab, will present their research at the 36th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2022), which will be held from November 29-December 1 in New Orleans, Louisiana, and also virtually. NeurIPS is one of the most prestigious and competitive international conferences in machine learning and computational neuroscience.  

Professor Emeritus Dan Schiller has authored a new book on the progression of telecommunications systems in the United States. In Crossed Wires: The Conflicted History of U.S. Telecommunications from the Post Office to the Internet, which will be released by Oxford University Press in February 2023, Schiller draws on archival documents to argue that it was not technology but political economy that drove the evolution of the telecommunications industry.

Danielle Wilberg has joined the iSchool as director of corporate and foundation relations. In her new role, Wilberg will be identifying and collaborating with businesses and foundations to develop mutually beneficial partnerships that support the School's mission.

BS/IS student Jules Paoletti discusses her study abroad in Barcelona, Spain, this fall, an experience that has "opened her eyes to new learning styles."

Christine Hopper, assistant to the dean, was named Boss of the Year by Illinois Administrative Professionals (IAP, formerly known as The Secretariat), an organization for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign employees in certain Civil Service classifications. She was recognized at a special IAP event on October 19.