Not too many medical students would take a year off from their studies to learn more about an area that interests them. Of course, Dipesh Navsaria (MS/LIS '04) was not your average medical student. He entered the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana with three degrees—a BA in biology and English and a master's in public health from Boston University and a master's in physician assistant (PA) studies, from George Washington University.

The iSchool at Illinois announces the appointment of three tenure-track faculty, Jiaqi Ma, Meicen Sun, and Haohan Wang, and four specialized faculty, Brandon Batzloff, David Charles, Renee Hendricks, and Adam Rusch.

Randomized clinical trials are valuable in determining the effectiveness of health treatments. But problems with design, execution or reporting of the trial process can lead to unreliable findings, excessive costs, and, potentially, harm for patients. Associate Professor Halil Kilicoglu and his colleagues seek to address this problem with the help of a $1,328,502 grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Two projects with iSchool connections are among the ten proposals that will receive a total of $14.2 million over the next three years as part of the University of Illinois Investment for Growth program. Since the program was created in 2018, the University has invested more than $78 million to provide seed funding for projects that generate revenue, advance the University's mission, and address areas of high and emerging student demand.

Dean and Professor Eunice E. Santos has been elected chair of the Computing Research Association (CRA) Deans Group. During her two-year term as chair, Santos will also be representing the Deans Group externally as needed. Previously, Santos served on the leadership team as vice chair and secretary. As chair, she will also have a seat on the CRA Board of Directors.

How can current and future generations help to ensure that technologies are created and used ethically? One way is effectively teaching students about cybersecurity and AI ethics. Associate Professor of Information Sciences Yang Wang and colleagues from the University of Illinois and other universities are interested in the topic and have been conducting research into how to improve instruction. Notably, their research team also has two high school students.

Three thousand years ago, Native Americans and pioneers used a trail that stretched across Illinois from Kaskaskia in the south to Peoria in the north. These early travelers used the trail for hunting, trade, and war. Over time, with the development of cities and highways, the trail faded away, but a trace of what it used to be remains. MS/LIS student Anna Sielaff is bringing the history of the trail to life through her project, "Relive the True Mother Road: The Edwards Trace."

The National Science Foundation-funded project aims to reduce online fraud among older adults, who lose billions of dollars each year. The iSchool is co-leading a two-year, $5 million National Science Foundation (NSF) Convergence Accelerator phase 2 project to create digital tools that help older adults better recognize and protect themselves from online deceptions and other forms of disinformation.

Fourteen iSchool instructors were named in the University's List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent for Summer 2022. The rankings are released every semester, and results are based on the Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) questionnaire forms maintained by Measurement and Evaluation in the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning.

It is evident that Hurricane Ian's recent devastation in Florida will impact the state economically for years to come. Tragedies such as this have motivated scientists to gain a better understanding of when such events might occur and how to cope with them once they do.