Backgrounder: Indiana University's School of Informatics

WHAT: New School of Informatics at Indiana University's Bloomington (IUB) and Indianapolis (IUPUI) campuses.

"Informatics" is a term of European origin having to do with the collection, classification, storage, retrieval and dissemination of recorded knowledge treated as a pure and applied science. IU defines informatics as the art, science and human dimensions of information technology. It is information technology applied to human problems.

Informatics differs from related disciplines such as library and information science, computer science and cognitive science in that it includes core aspects of all of these fields. However, informatics is more general, basic and applied than any of these related disciplines. It is more general in that it emphasizes breadth across issues in all of the related disciplines, and also includes social and ethical issues regarding the "information revolution." It is more basic in that it examines foundational questions about the very nature of information and computation. It is more applied since the aim is to produce qualified information technology professionals to meet the rapidly rising need in this area.

The School of Informatics will educate students broadly in the technical, psychological and social aspects of information technology and will help them apply this knowledge to their chosen area of study. For example, a student might combine informatics with journalism and be well prepared for a career in digital media, or combine informatics with psychology and be well prepared for a career in designing computer interfaces. The School of Informatics will include the recently created New Media Program at IUPUI.

HOW: Two faculty committees issued reports and developed the outline for the new School of Informatics. A group of deans and other interested parties discussed and approved the basic parameters. A formal recommendation was made to the IU Trustees requesting their approval of the new school. Finally, the proposed new school was presented to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education for its approval.

A one-time grant of approximately $1 million from the third round of IU's Strategic Directions Initiatives funding will provide start-up funds for the new school. This is consistent with the initiative's purpose of advancing areas of academic and research excellence. In addition, the School of Informatics will receive some funding as an integral, educational component of the Indiana Pervasive Computing Research Initiative, a program recently created with a $29.8 million grant from the Lilly Endowment. Additional funding will be sought from other foundations, donors and grants. Permanent funding will be requested from the Indiana State Legislature starting with the 2001-03 biennium.

WHERE: The School of Informatics will have its primary location at IUB, as well as a strong presence at IUPUI. There are no immediate plans to extend it to other campuses, but this may happen in the future.

WHY: IU has more than a dozen well-regarded academic units studying science, technology, information, society and behavior. Recent research identified a great demand by employers and students for further coordination and offerings in that area of information technology. Undergraduate students now fill every available class on this subject. A current estimate from the Information Technology Association of America indicates that more than 300,000 positions in the information technology sector of our economy went unfilled this year. Corporate recruiters visiting IU indicate that they could hire five times as many people if they could find more technically proficient graduates. Based on the fundamental changes currently transforming our information-based economy, this demand is not expected to lessen any time soon.

WHO: J. Michael Dunn, the Oscar Ewing professor of philosophy and a professor of computer science at IU Bloomington, has agreed to serve as IU director of informatics and dean. Dunn brings a wealth of relevant experience to this task. His own research has been on information-based logics; he has recently chaired the University Information Technology Committee and oversaw the creation of a five-year plan for information technology at IU; he has served as a department chairman and as executive associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences; and he has served in various faculty governance roles, including the Bloomington and University Faculty Councils (where he was co-chair of the Budgetary Affairs Committee) and the Policy Committee of the College. Dunn can be reached by phone at 812-856-5418 or e-mail at dunn@indiana.edu

Darrell Bailey, IU associate professor of music and director of the New Media Program at IUPUI, will serve as associate director of informatics and associate dean. Bailey, who is director of the IU School of Music at IUPUI, managed the approval and implementation of the School of Music's master of science degree in music technology at IUPUI, where he designed a state-of-the-art computer music facility. He is an organist, and his research is on the effect of computer-based music instruction on college student learning. Bailey can be reached by phone at 317-278-7666 or e-mail at dbailey@iupui.edu

WHEN: The New Media Program at IUPUI was created in 1998 and already has more than 200 undergraduate students and 50 graduate students. The School of Informatics will admit undergraduates in the fall of 2000. The graduate programs will debut the following year.