By Anna Larson
4 November 2022, 12pm | Geology Building Room 1050
Each fall, the ILS Doctoral Student Association organizes a mini-conference known as the Doctoral Student Research Forum. This event provides a space for students to gain experience presenting their own research in a professional setting, gather feedback on their work, and learn about the work of their peers. Students are encouraged to present research from the past year, including early reflections or explorations and development of research questions and problems. Faculty are invited to attend and select exceptional presentations to be recognized with awards.
This year the forum was held in a hybrid format, with six student presenters and keynote speaker Dr. Inna Kouper. In her presentation titled “Data Infrastructures and Communities for Openness and Transparency,” Dr. Kouper discussed projects examining data practices and developing tools and recommendations aimed at improving data curation and supporting openness and transparency.
“I was very impressed by the breadth and depth of the research that our doctoral students presented during the Doctoral Research Forum this year,” said Dr. Pnina Fichman, Ph.D. Program Director for Information Science. “Six doctoral students in their first to fourth year in the Ph.D. in Information Science program presented their fascinating, innovative, and rigorous research. These doctoral students conduct cutting edge research in information science that enriches the department and the scholarly community as a whole.”
Each of the six participating students was recognized for their hard work and professionalism.
The top three awards were given to:
Alex Wingate – “From Inventory to Database: Sharing data in Book History” (first place)
Shohana Akter – “Online Political Trolling: A study on 2016 and 2020 U. S. presidential election” (second place)
Haining Wang – “Protecting Author Identity with Artificial Intelligence Trained with the Bible” (second place)
The three students who were given honorary mention for professionalism are:
Megan Vladoiu – “Are Virtual References Color and Gender Blind? Service Equality Revisited”
Meredith Dedema – “Public engagement with science during and about COVID-19 via Twitter: Who, when, what, and how?”
Jieli Liu – “Service Equality in Public Libraries”