School of Information Sciences

GSLIS faculty, students honored at 2012 iConference

GSLIS faculty and doctoral students were honored at the 2012 iConference that was held from February 7-10, 2012, and was hosted by the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto.

A Best Paper Award was given to doctoral student Noah Lenstra and Professor Abdul Alkalimat for their paper, “Networked Cultural Heritage and Socio-Digital Inequalities: A Case Study in an African-American Community.” Also receiving honors were doctoral student Karen Wickett and Professor and Interim Dean Designate Allen Renear who were named runners-up in the Best Poster category for their poster, “Towards a Logical Form for Descriptive Metadata.”

Papers delivered by GSLIS faculty and students included:

Dissecting the Rhythms of Scientific Data Use
Author: Tiffany C. Chao, doctoral student

Networked Cultural Heritage and Socio-Digital Inequalites: A Case Study in an African-American Community
Authors: Noah Lenstra, doctoral student; Abdul Alkalimat, professor

Metadatapedia: A proposal for aggregating metadata on data archiving
Authors: David M. Nichols (University of Waikato, New Zealand); Michael B. Twidale, professor; Sally Jo Cunningham (University of Waikato, New Zealand)

Posters presented by GSLIS faculty and students included:

Education for Data Professionals: A Study of Current Courses and Programs
Presenters: Virgil Eugene Varvel Jr., research analyst; Elin J. Bammerlin, certificate of advanced study student; Carole L. Palmer, professor

Significant properties of complex digital artifacts: Open issues from a video game case study
Presenters: Simone Sacchi, doctoral student; Jerome P. McDonough, associate professor

Towards a Logical Form for Descriptive Metadata
Presenters: Karen Wickett, doctoral student; Richard Urban (MS ’06, PhD ’12); Allen Renear, professor and interim dean designate

What is Community Informatics? A Global and Empirical Answer
Presenters: Kate Williams, assistant professor; Shameem Ahmed, doctoral student; Noah Lenstra, doctoral student; Qiyuan Liu, master’s student

Rainmakers, Space Mirrors and Atmospheric Vacuums: A Bibliometric Mapping of Geoengineering Research
Presenter: Nicholas Weber, doctoral student

The official iConference 2012 program consisted of 53 papers, 95 posters, and 20 alternative events, all offered the course of three days. As was the case last year, all papers and poster abstracts have been published in the ACM Digital Library. More than 480 information scholars and professionals flocked to this seventh annual presentation of the iCaucus. The event opened with a series of workshops and concluded with its annual doctoral colloquium, the latter sponsored by the National Science Foundation. In between, an array of thought-provoking papers, posters, and special sessions helped push the boundaries of information studies.

A full conference wrap up is available on the iSchools website.

 

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Dahlen selected as juror for 2026 Kirkus Prize

Associate Professor Sarah Park Dahlen has been selected as one of six jurors for the 2026 Kirkus Prize, given annually in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, and young readers' literature. The prize is one of the richest in the literary world, with awards of $50,000 in each category.

Sarah Park Dahlen

Liu receives support for AI project through NVIDIA Academic Grant Program

Assistant Professor Yaoyao Liu has been awarded a grant through the NVIDIA Academic Grant Program. NVIDIA, a world leader in accelerated computing and AI, established the program to advance academic research by providing world-class computing access and resources to researchers. Liu has received 32,000 A100 GPU-hours on Brev, an AI and machine learning platform that empowers developers to run, build, train, deploy, and scale AI models with GPU in the cloud. 

Yaoyao Liu

Uba receives 2026 Illinois International Graduate Achievement Award

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Illinois International are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026 International Achievement Awards. The International Achievement Awards recognize outstanding alumni, faculty, and students whose exceptional work, service, and/or scholarship have made a significant, global impact.

Ebubechukwu Uba

American Library Association names Barbara J. Ford Honorary Member

CHICAGO – The American Library Association is set to confer an honorary lifetime membership upon former ALA President Barbara J. Ford. Recommended by the ALA Executive Board and elected by the ALA Council, honorary membership is the highest honor given by the Association and conferred upon a living person whose outstanding contributions have made a lasting impact on librarianship, libraries, and the communities they serve.

Barbara Ford smiles in her doorway

Seo selected as CAS Beckman Fellow

Assistant Professor JooYoung Seo has been selected as a Center for Advanced Study (CAS) Beckman Fellow for the 2026-2027 academic year. CAS is one of the most prestigious faculty recognition programs at the University of Illinois. Its primary mission is to identify and support the most productive and innovative faculty across all disciplines. CAS Fellows are nominated by their unit heads and selected by the Center's permanent faculty through a competitive review process, with final approval by the Board of Trustees. 

JooYoung Seo

School of Information Sciences

501 E. Daniel St.

MC-493

Champaign, IL

61820-6211

Voice: (217) 333-3280

Email: ischool@illinois.edu

Back to top