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Top IT Schools to Watch

With new students arriving in Bloomington for next week’s orientation, the IU School of Informatics gets welcome national recognition.

The Indiana University School of Informatics community got a pleasant surprise today when news came of our program’s inclusion in the Computerworld Magazine’s Top 10 IT Schools to Watch. We are listed in a select group that includes Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, Georgia State University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Indiana makes the Computerworld top IT schools to watch
IU Informatics makes the Computerworld Top IT Schools to Watch

The news comes at a particularly great time, with new students arriving in Bloomington in advance of next week’s orientation.

The article profiling the School included quotes from Marty Siegel—the heart of the the Informatics department—and fellow HCI/d alum Josh Evnin.

The school’s master’s program, launched in 2001, offers students specialized degrees in disciplines ranging from chemical informatics to bioinformatics and even music informatics. “One of the things we did in the creation of the school was to come at it from an interdisciplinary approach,” says Marty Siegel, a professor in the school’s Department of Informatics, which claims to have launched the nation’s first doctoral program in informatics in 2005.

[…]

“I felt we were practically applying our thoughts and research to difficult problems. It was the creative aspect that stood out for me,” says Evnin, who received a full scholarship to pursue a master’s degree at IU.

Prior to studying at IU, Evnin received a bachelor’s degree in cognitive science with a specialization in HCI from the University of California, San Diego, in 2004. “As an undergraduate, I looked into jobs at places like Yahoo, and I don’t think I qualified for those sorts of roles,” he says. “Now, when I send résumés to places like that, I’m taken fairly seriously.”

Way to go, SOI. Exciting times ahead.

By Kevin Makice

A Ph.D student in informatics at Indiana University, Kevin is rich in spirit. He wrestles and reads with his kids, does a hilarious Christian Slater imitation and lights up his wife's days. He thinks deeply about many things, including but not limited to basketball, politics, microblogging, parenting, online communities, complex systems and design theory. He didn't, however, think up this profile.