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.

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.

Thirteen iSchool master's students were named 2022-2023 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services. This "Spectrum Scholar Spotlight" series highlights the School’s scholars. MS/LIS student Inbar Michael earned her bachelor's degree in history with a minor in humanities and law from the University of California, Irvine.

A project co-led by Emily Knox is one of the twenty-five projects that recently received funding through the Chancellor's Call to Action Research Program to Address Racism and Social Injustice. The program is a $2 million annual commitment by the University of Illinois to respond to the critical need for universities across the nation to prioritize research focused on systemic racial inequities and injustices that exist not only in communities but in higher education itself. For 2022, the funded projects will focus on systemic racism and social justice, law enforcement and criminal justice reform, and disparities in health and health care.

Forty-four iSchool instructors were named in the University's List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent for Spring 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. Only those instructors who gave out ICES forms during the semester and who released their data for publication are included in the list.

A new project led by Associate Professor Halil Kilicoglu and Associate Professor Jodi Schneider will assist researchers and journals in evaluating citation behavior in biomedical publications. They recently received a two-year, $300,000 grant from the Office of Research Integrity of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for their project, "Natural Language Processing to Assess and Improve Citation Integrity in Biomedical Publications."

A new project led by Associate Professor Kate McDowell and Assistant Professor Matthew Turk will help libraries tell data stories that connect with their audiences. Their project, "Data Storytelling Toolkit for Librarians," has received a two-year, $99,330 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS grant RE-250094-OLS-21), under the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, which supports innovative research by untenured, tenure-track faculty.

MS/LIS online (Leep) student Jamie Flood has been awarded a 2022 Paul Evan Peters Fellowship from the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI). The fellowship, established in honor of CNI's founding director, recognizes outstanding scholarship and intellectual rigor, a commitment to civic responsibility and democratic values, and imagination. CNI annually provides two awards: one to a doctoral student in the amount of $5,000 per year, and one to a master's student in the amount of $2,500 per year.

Master's students Amina Malik and Inbar Michael have been selected to participate in the 2022-2024 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Kaleidoscope Diversity Scholars Program. With the goal of attracting MS/LIS students from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups to careers in research libraries and archives, the Kaleidoscope Program offers financial support to scholars as well as leadership development through the ARL Annual Leadership Symposium, a formal mentoring program, career placement assistance, and a site visit to an ARL member library.

The iSchool is proud to announce the promotions of Yun Huang and Jodi Schneider to associate professor with indefinite tenure. Their new appointments became effective August 16, 2022.

Students often have difficulty estimating how well they know a topic, which can lead to inefficient learning or suboptimal educational outcomes. A new project led by Associate Professor Dong Wang and Assistant Professor Nigel Bosch aims to improve students' ability to estimate their knowledge using artificial intelligence (AI) methods. The researchers were recently awarded a three-year, $850,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for their project, "A Metacognitive Calibration Intervention Powered by Fair and Private Machine Learning."

Thirteen iSchool master's students have been named 2022-2023 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services. Since 1997, the Spectrum Scholarship Program has promoted diversity among graduate-level students pursuing degrees in library and information studies through ALA-accredited programs.

Library makerspaces offer community members the opportunity to tinker, design, experiment, and create with a range of technology in an informal learning space. However, because current makerspaces and maker tools are highly vision oriented, blind and visually impaired (BVI) people have limited access to these learning opportunities. A new project led by Assistant Professor JooYoung Seo and Associate Professor Kyungwon Koh, director of the CU Community Fab Lab, seeks to address this problem by creating accessible maker programs for BVI learners and developing training materials for librarians and maker professionals on accessible making. The researchers were recently awarded a three-year, $498,638 National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS grant LG-252360-OLS-22) for their project, "Promoting Computational Thinking Skills for Blind and Visually Impaired Teens Through Accessible Library Makerspaces."

Penny Ames, admissions and records coordinator, is among the eight civil service employees from across the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who have been named recipients of the 2022 Chancellor's Distinguished Staff Award. Each recipient of the Chancellor's Distinguished Staff Award receives $1,000 and a plaque. Recipients' names also are engraved on a plaque displayed in the Illinois Human Resources Office.

Assistant Professor Yun Huang has been awarded a three-year, $399,996 Early Career Development grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS grant RE-252329-OLS-22), under the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, which supports innovative research by untenured, tenure-track faculty.

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), an alliance of 59 national nonprofit organizations that is committed to the non-partisan defense of free expression, has elected Associate Professor Emily Knox as chair of its Board of Directors.