iConnect Winter 2022

Winter 2022

Identity Talks IST alumni use their experiences to inspire and empower others.

DEAN’S MESSAGE

Tipping the Scales

Andrew Sears, dean

College of Information Sciences and Technology

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Information technologies continue to advance, with the goal of building a new cross-cutting connect, and inspire us in meaningful ways. research focus that connects to all of the colBut they can also divide us and impede our lege’s research. progress as a society.

We continue to seek opportunities to inteThese technologies have changed how we grate these critical issues into all levels of our live and work, and artificial intelligence is curriculum, as we aim to produce well-inallowing us to do the previously impossible. formed alumni who bring an understandWith the arrival of the pandemic, we experiing and solutions-oriented approach to the enced a shift to remote work, changing how workforce. we interact with colleagues, build commuAnd we are committed to embedding divernity, and tackle work-related issues. Howsity, equity, and inclusion into all the college’s ever, issues of privacy, ethics, and algorithactivities—a key goal in our 2021-2025 stramic bias in hiring, health care, policing, and tegic plan. Along with providing more stuother areas are raising justifiable concerns. dent programming and scholarship funds, Information technologies support the rapid we’re creating a more diverse and equitable exchange of ideas, but they also contribute to community by improving our recruiting and the spread of misinformaretention practices. tion—look no further than To be successful in these how misinformation cam- “The College of IST’s endeavors, we need your paigns have politicized the strength lies not only help. Together, we have pandemic and, for some, the collective power to take in how we identify eroded trust in our public simple actions that can elections. and analyze difficult enact big change.

And while research has You can … proven that a more diverse problems, but also in … recruit diverse talent, workforce leads to more develop diverse teams, and how we take action to creativity and better solubuild inclusive values into address them.” tions, the IT industry conyour organization. tinues to grapple with a … consider the ethical lack of diversity. implications of the technologies your organDespite the complexity of these challenges, izations deploy—not only in their possibiliIST is well positioned to address them through ties but also their intended and unintended the work of our students, scholars, and alumni. consequences.

We have faculty tackling many of these … emphasize to our students that these problems, including the spread of misinforactions are not merely performative, but those mation; the critical need to ensure privacy that require deliberate intent and measurain an increasingly complex and connected ble impact. world; the responsible use of AI; the chal… give back to IST and Penn State. Menlenges created by and solutions for a lack of tor a student, recruit interns and employees, diversity in IT; and how information technoland share your expertise with a class. Help ogies change how we work, live, communiprovide scholarship support to first-generacate, and collaborate. tion students, students with high financial We’ve strengthened our expertise in ethics, need, and students from underrepresented both through co-hiring of faculty with partbackgrounds. ners like the Rock Ethics Institute and IST’s The College of IST’s strength lies not only leadership with initiatives like the Center for in how we identify and analyze difficult probSocially Responsible AI. lems, but also in how we take action to address We’ve also initiated searches for scholars them. Thank you for your help in continuing with expertise in social justice informatics, to tip the scales in the right direction.

WHAT'S INSIDE

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IDENTITY TALKS

WHAT'S IT LIKE TO...?

CROSSING THE LINE

IST alumni from underrepresented backgrounds are using their voices to inspire and empower others.

From Olympic medals and skincare startups to cryptocurrency and wood-fired pizza, the IST community has some unique stories to tell.

Exploring the interdisciplinary collaborations that are the hallmark of the college's research.

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ON THE BRIDGE

YOUR IMPACT

04 The Big Picture

30 Aiming to Inspire

06 Highlights

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08 Academics

32 Supporting Bright Futures

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Student Success

33 Data Privacy at Penn State

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Expertise

34 For the Love of Food

A Supporting Match

35 News & Notes

Winter 2022

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THE BIG PICTURE

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All in a Day's Work

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Allison Denenberg, Accenture Drew Ronk, Alarm.com Erica Mi, IBM Francesca Ansell, Merck Nick Alico, Rockwell Automation Izaak Lustgarten, Bank of America Nikki Agarwal, Samsung Electronics

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Hayden Maxwell, Natl. Strategic Research Inst.

Weijia Fang, Zoom Srishti Gupta, IBM Jaylah Williams, Estée Lauder Companies Will Marsh, Collins Aerospace Alexia Calnon, U.S. Dept. of the Air Force

Photos provided

On location and remotely, more than 340 IST students completed internships last summer to put their education to work. Over the last five years, an impressive 84% of IST students have received full-time offers from one of their internship providers —a testament to the quality education and training they receive in the college.

iConnect, the magazine of the College of Information Sciences and Technology, is published twice a year by the Office of Marketing and Communications.

DIRECTOR Jordan Ford EDITOR Jessica Hallman ART DIRECTOR Kelly Bryan CONTRIBUTORS Hope Damato Rachel Rubin Hayley Wildeson

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SEND CORRESPONDENCE TO: iConnect Magazine E103 Westgate Building University Park, PA 16802 webmarcom@ist.psu.edu 814-865-8947 Photography by College of IST or Penn State unless otherwise credited.

Opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by the University, college, or editorial staff.

@ISTatPENNSTATE

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The University is committed to equal access to programs, facilities, admission and employment for all persons. It is the policy of the University to maintain an environment free of harassment and free of discrimination against any person because of age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, creed, service in the uniformed services (as defined in state and federal law), veteran status, sex, sexual orientation, marital or family status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, physical or mental disability, gender, perceived gender, gender identity, genetic information or political ideas. Discriminatory conduct and harassment, as well as sexual misconduct and relationship violence, violates the dignity of individuals, impedes the realization of the University’s educational mission, and will not be tolerated. Direct all inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policy to the Affirmative Action Office, The Pennsylvania State University, 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 16802-5901, Email: aao@psu.edu, Tel (814) 863-0471.

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Winter 2022

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ON THE BRIDGE | HIGHLIGHTS

A Home for

Innovation

New Penn State Innovation Hub facilitates ideation and collaborative partnerships As enrollments and collaborative research expand across the College of IST, so too does the college’s physical footprint. In early November, several of the college’s administrators, faculty, and graduate students took up residence in the new Penn State Innovation Hub. Located at the former site of the James Building in downtown State College, the 85,000-square-foot building serves as Penn State’s new home for innovation and helps to advance the University’s focus on entrepreneurial success and economic development.

The building’s six stories each offer a unique focus to aid students, creators, and community entrepreneurs. The College of IST occupies the fourth floor, with the Offices of the Dean, Human Resources, and Alumni and Development, as well as

the associate deans for research and graduate and undergraduate education, moving to the location. The college’s space also includes offices and research labs for seven faculty and their graduate students.

“Innovation was central to the College of IST’s founding and it’s key to our future,” said Andrew Sears, dean.

“Our focus continues to be on helping students become the leaders and pioneers of tomorrow. Being in this new space will help us build meaningful connections, leverage important resources, and add new services that help IST and Penn State students pursue their ideas.”

The first three floors feature the new home for Happy Valley LaunchBox powered by PNC Bank; provide space for offices supporting the University's Senior Vice President for Research; and add state-ofthe-art resources such as makerspaces,

space occupying the top floor.

The building will also be the epicenter for the University’s flagship entrepreneurial events, including Penn State Startup Week, which launched as IST Startup Week in 2012 and has since expanded to a University-wide showcase of entrepreneurship and innovation.

“...Being in this new space will help us build meaningful connections, leverage important resources, and add new services that help IST and Penn State students pursue their ideas.” an immersive technology laboratory, and collaborative workspaces designed to accelerate innovation, technology commercialization, and local startup companies. Administrative offices for the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences are located on the fifth floor, with an executive meeting room and banquet

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Added Sears, “Through initiatives like Startup Week, the Bardusch Family IdeaMakers Challenge, David Rusenko Entrepreneur Scholarships, and the entrepreneurship and innovation minor, we’re excited to use this additional location to expand, strengthen, and create new opportunities for IST students.”

Partnering for Success A small office at IST packs a big punch when it comes to helping students secure meaningful internships, full-time positions, and professional development opportunities. Staff in the Office of Career Solutions and Corporate Engagement lead frequent workshops, conduct resume reviews and mock interviews, and meet 1:1 with students to create personalized career development plans. From a student’s first day, career coaches connect them with the tools and resources they need to pursue their professional goals.

“Career Solutions gave me direction. They helped me navigate through the active recruiting process and helped me identify companies that were a good fit for my career goals.”

SUJAY PATEL ’14 Technology Risk Manager at EY

CATCHING UP RESEARCH RAINMAKER Professor Andrea Tapia is IST’s new associate dean for research, supporting initiatives across the college.

Her vision: for IST to be a place where researchers create new technologies while asking and answering important questions about them in society. “I hope to be a research and funding matchmaker, rainmaker, advocate, and mentor to the faculty and students of IST,” she said.

HUCK CHAIR

“The coaching and the breadth and depth of the opportunities at various career fairs (was impressive). The Careers staff helped serve as mentors to guide us into the right career opportunity.”

HARLEEN SANGHA ’14 Cyber Security Manager at Deloitte

“The IST Careers staff helped me to update my resume in a way that grabbed the attention of recruiters. This helped me secure interviews with my top-choice companies. The staff also conducted mock interviews with me. I was able to get two internships and a full-time position!”

ANNIE SCHOEN ’19 Technical Supervisor of GEICO’s Cybersecurity Community Enablement team

Photos provided (3)

GET INVOLVED There are many opportunities each semester for IST alumni to guide current students in their professional development.

Email careers@ist.psu.edu or visit ist.psu.edu/alumni-involvement to learn how you can make a difference.

Read more » ist.psu.edu/news

Professor Vasant Honavar has been named the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Biomedical Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence by the University’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, recognizing his work in applying data science and AI to the life sciences, especially biomedicine.

Honavar’s expertise lies in machine learning, knowledge representation, and bioinformatics.

GRADUATE REPRESENTATION Joslenne Peña, who earned master’s and doctoral degrees at IST, was recently elected to serve a threeyear term on the Penn State Graduate School Alumni Society Board of Directors, representing the College of IST. Peña is currently a visiting assistant professor of computer science at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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ON THE BRIDGE | ACADEMICS Affixing toys with NFC tag-based technology to replace a standard hospital call button for pediatric patients is one proposed solution that students conceptualized, designed, and developed a prototype for in IST's first-ever HCDD capstone course last fall.

Improving the User Experience In the first-ever capstone course for IST's human-centered design and development bachelor's degree program, two teams of students put their skills to the test through a semester-long project. The objective: use human-centered approaches to investigate a research question, develop a prototype of an application, and evaluate it with the target audience.

The first team proposed applying nearfield communication (NFC) tag-based technology to tangible items in pediatric hospital rooms. Using this approach as an alternative to the standard hospital call button, patients and their families scan an NFC tag affixed to a toy­—for example, a dollhouse toilet—to make specific requests, such as bathroom assistance.

The kid-friendly solution enables patients and their caregivers to easily communicate needs to hospital staff and to monitor request statuses through a mobile application.

The second team proposed a tool for college students and recent graduates in navigating the process for paying off student loans and other debts. The web

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application aims to improve financial literacy by enabling users to request specific financial information—for example, what monthly payment would pay off a loan in a desired period of time—and reports detailed information in numbers, graphs, and charts.

“Throughout my time at IST, I have learned many skills that were brought to life in this capstone project.”

According to Syed Billah, assistant professor, teams drew on the design and development skills gained throughout the HCDD program, which launched in 2019, to understand target users’ needs and the limitations of existing solutions. They used this knowledge to conduct interviews and surveys and analyze literature to identify

optimal design parameters.

“Many HCDD classes focus on the design process and identifying research tactics to best assess the user experience,” said Sophia Novak, who will earn her degree in May. “As we were attempting to understand our users, define our problem, and build out a solution to test for this capstone project, our team was familiar with how to conduct informative interviews, design effective user surveys, and create targeted usability testing scenarios. Having this strong background helped us follow all the steps to complete our best final prototype.”

“Throughout my time at IST, I have learned many skills that were brought to life in this capstone project,” added Perry McLaughlin, who graduated in December. “In this capstone course, we were given free rein on what problem to solve and how to solve it. This really helped me to improve in problem-solving and teamwork—two important skills I will undoubtedly use as I begin my career as a technology consultant.”

Why? How? What?

A Learning Experience Building off the strength of its undergraduate internship requirement, IST has long explored ways to enhance and diversify practical learning opportunities for students. Now, as the college’s first director of experiential learning, Associate Teaching Professor Dave Fusco is leading new efforts to increase corporate engagement, leverage real-world problems in the classroom, and create more opportunities for students to engage with companies outside of internships and class-based projects.

Why are experiential learning opportunities important for the college and IST students?

The college has a robust portfolio of academic programs, courses, and research. These additional experiences will give students just-in-time exposure to the technologies our industry partners are using and will give more students access to meaningful projects outside of the normal internship cycle.

This initiative will strengthen our partnership growth in the college, showcase to the outside world what our students are doing, and align IST with

the University's goal to launch startup companies and create new jobs in the commonwealth.

How will your role facilitate these connections between organizations and the college?

We already have a strong internship experience for our students. Our goal is to create year-round opportunities that are not bound by specific twelveor fifteen-week time constraints. For example, we hope to use the Bardusch Family IdeaMakers Challenge as a catalyst to create more fall-based entrepreneurial opportunities, outside of the now spring-focused Penn State Startup Week. Our focus will include ongoing industry projects, a strong presence at the new Penn State Innovation Hub, and online support models for students in and outside of IST developing new startup technology solutions.

What is the most rewarding part of this new role?

This is a college-wide effort that will build on the substantial work already being done by our Office of Career Solutions and Corporate Engagement.

SYLLABUS IN :60 A quick look inside an IST course

Read more » ist.psu.edu/news

We have a solid group of partners wanting to work with our students, so the goal is to leverage these existing relationships. I also want to identify partners by sharing contacts and establish potential projects that students can work on throughout the year outside of their course assignments. These projects can then be aligned with faculty mentors, who bring a wealth of knowledge and experience that help students understand each project’s relevance.

ETI 300W - Development and Documentation of Enterprise Web This class helps students understand the importance of cloud-based services and how today’s web-based solutions are created. Students work in groups on a semester-long case study to analyze a proposed full-stack web solution, create a proof-of-concept in Amazon Web Services, and submit a final analysis paper. Students present their stack to the class, defining and defending its rationale, importance, and budgetary and personnel implications.

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ON THE BRIDGE | STUDENT SUCCESS

Giving It a Shot Recent World Campus graduate Bryan Hill finishes degree while leading—and earning military recognition for —a COVID-19 vaccination clinic Navy Hospital Corpsman Second Class Bryan Hill recently “I help them find ways to overcome adversity and give them received a Navy Achievement Medal for his significant tools and skills so that they can be successful,” he said. “I serve contributions at a COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Philadelphia. as an embedded mental health asset to help mitigate and build Last spring, he led a team that vaccinated thousands in the resilience as a whole, from a command perspective.” region. In addition to preparing doses Through IST, Hill strengthened and managing people, supplies, and skills in programming, application logistics, Hill himself delivered more development, and data analysis, and than 6,000 shots. also explored the psychology of threat “COVID-19 has been an enemy that actors and how they can impact physiwe have been underestimating,” Hill cal information and personal security. said. “Being able to give those shots This foundation has helped him be and help those people, but also knowsuccessful in handling delicate miliing that you were able to make that tary responsibilities, such as identidifference in their lives, is a powerfying potential risk factors of Navy ful feeling.” and Marine Corps’ Survival, Evasion, Simultaneously, Hill was completing Resistance and Escape training partichis final courses in the security and ipants; conducting risk assessments risk analysis program through Penn for suicidality; and overseeing miliState World Campus. He would lead tary patients’ psychiatric care.

Bryan Hill receives a Navy Achievement Medal for his significant contributions at a COVID-19 the clinic during the day, then work Additionally, he was recognized by vaccination clinic, which he led while completing on his course assignments at night. the military for leading the transition his IST degree.

“We didn’t have a lot of free time, of the data collection process for the and I had to sacrifice quite a bit of sleep, but I was determined psychological screening of Marine Forces Special Operations to finish the semester,” he said.

Command candidates to a digital format, leading the developThat dedication paid off when he earned his bachelor’s degree ment of algorithms to identify high-risk candidates and reducin August. Hill said that the skills he gained through the SRA ing errors in the evaluation process. program and a prior associate’s degree in IST have directly “Finding a way to bring people and technology together is translated to his military work, which focuses on operational one of the most critical elements, and I believe cornerstones, of stress control and readiness. A behavioral health technician, Hill IST,” he said. “It’s about being able to find essential workflows helps soldiers to work through behavioral, family, relationship, for people to work with to make life easier, and make processes and financial stressors. faster and more effective.”

STANDOUT STUDENTS

Taryn Campion

Served as technology director for Penn State Homecoming 2021, overseeing all technology including the event's website and an augmented reality scavenger hunt.

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David Foley

Helped lead Penn State to firstplace in the Big Ten Augmented Intelligence Bowl with a solution to use AI to simplify complex hospital discharge instructions and increase patient understanding.

Gregory Glatzer

Evaluated how technology could be used to track elephant movement in African national parks to prevent poaching as part of an undergraduate research project.

Using AI to Create New Standards for Animal Care Venture capital funding helps IST doctoral candidate Thanh Le advance his tech-centered animal diagnostics company Funding is a key part of any startup project and for Moichor, it's In 2018, through opportunities such as the Invent Penn State what put their business on the market. Led by an interdisciplinary Summer Founders Program and Penn State Startup Week, Le’s group of Penn State alumni and students, team launched an idea that ultimately including IST doctoral candidate Thanh led to Moichor. They were inspired Le, Moichor is a tech-centered animal by chemotherapy patients, like the diagnostics company that recently grandfather of Le’s team member, raised over $4 million in venture who found it difficult to regularly capital funding. The company’s mission travel to outpatient centers to have is to help veterinarians lengthen the complete blood count draws done. lives of their patients by applying Their idea, called HemoGo, solved deep learning to the diagnostics they the issue through a smartphone app use daily. combined with a proprietary test-strip “This (funding and) exposure allows reader that enabled a patient to take us to bring ideas and present it to a complete blood count test at home many different types of people,” said and send the results electronically Le, who serves as the company’s chief to their medical care team. Through Thanh Le (center) with members of the Moichor technology officer. additional research, Le and HemoGo’s team.

Moichor’s artificial intelligence and co-founders decided to change paths machine learning software leverages that led to what Moichor is now. data-driven image learning to classify cells, making manual After the recent round of funding, Moichor has a full staff of complete blood counts less subjective. The approach could lead expert engineers, scientists, and clinical pathologists collaborating to more accurate and faster diagnostics, ultimately improving to solve the problems they set out to achieve. They now have clinical outcomes and potentially saving animals’ lives. their first prototype for a portable point-of-care device which “Veterinary medicine is still an old school business, especially will make Moichor’s technology more accessible to as many when it comes to diagnostics,” Le said. “Veterinarians are not used clinics and pets as possible. to seeing the most accurate and actionable results. We set out to “At the end of the day, the impact that we are making for pets change that by using AI to increase the resolution of diagnostic and the field of vet medicine is what motivates me the most,” results and establish new standards in diagnostics to make sure said Le. people and their companions get the highest quality of care.”

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Jeongwon Jo

Was lead author on the Best Paper Award at the 2021 Communications and Technologies conference—the first paper she’s published as a doctoral candidate.

Read more » ist.psu.edu/student-spotlight

Hayden Long

Co-created the inaugural blueStart festival to help inspire and inform Penn State students on how to get started with entrepreneurial ventures.

Rajiv Thummala

Received a Nasa Space Grant scholarship to explore how quantum computing can be used to strengthen communication between satellites and the ground to prevent interception.

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ON THE BRIDGE | EXPERTISE

How Creative Hot Streaks Happen Past work by C. Lee Giles, David Reese Professor of IST, and Lu Liu, doctoral candidate, found that 90% of scientists, artists, and film directors experience creative “hot streaks”—bursts of highimpact work clustered together in close succession—at least once in their careers. Now, they know the secret to what triggers them.

In a recent study, the researchers found that hot streaks are a direct result of years of an individual’s exploration—studying diverse styles or topics—immediately followed by years of exploitation—focusing on a narrow area to develop deep expertise.

“Prior to this work, the prevailing evidence suggests a random view of hot streaks and individual creativity,” said Liu. “But this paper suggests that the beginning of a hot streak is not random. Rather, people tend to explore different opportunities, deliberate over different choices, and then harvest promising directions through exploitation."

Applying computational methods using deep-learning algorithms they developed, the researchers mined data sets containing the works of more than 8,500 artists, film directors, and

scientists. A hot streak was quantified based on the impact of works produced and measured by auction price, IMDB ratings, and academic paper citations. Then, looking at career trajectories four years before and after a hot streak, the researchers examined how each individual’s work changed at its start.

They found that when an episode of exploration was not followed by exploitation, or vice versa, the chance for a hot streak was significantly reduced. But when exploration was closely followed by exploitation, the probability of a hot streak consistently and significantly increased.

“This is important to produce long-lasting contribution,” said Liu. “This is particularly relevant for identifying, training, and nurturing talents—especially given that there are various forces that currently appear in tension with the exploration-exploitation dynamics, ranging from the pressure to publish to tenure evaluation.”

Giles and Liu collaborated with researchers at Northwestern University on the work, which was published in Nature Communications.

Shining a Light on Shadowbanning In a recent article published in Information, Communication & Society, Assistant Professor Kelley Cotter examined the ongoing debate between social media users claiming to have experienced shadowbanning—a colloquial term for content being unexplainably restricted—and the platforms that deny the practice exists. Introducing the concept of “black box gaslighting,” Cotter highlights how shadowbanning denial leads users to second guess what they know about how these platforms operate.

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“Black box gaslighting suggests that the lack of transparency around algorithms and humans’ inability to always explain their behavior creates a space to undermine people’s perceptions of reality— to make users think that what they believe about algorithms is wrong or to question their own ability to perceive them clearly,” said Cotter. “Black box gaslighting is a threat to our collective ability to hold social media platforms accountable.”

RESEARCH BRIEFS TEST OF TIME

Gorodenkoff (Top Left); Irina Strelnikova (Left); Mohan Ramchaware (Right)-stock.adobe.com

Understanding "Flaky” Infrastructures Key to Smart Cities IST researchers position that smart city infrastructures should consider citizens’ daily experiences and allow them to adapt their own solutions, particularly in areas with historically unreliable infrastructures.

“We make a lot of assumptions about infrastructure … in wealthy countries,” said Jeffrey Bardzell, professor and associate dean of undergraduate and graduate studies. “We assume that there’s a single infrastructure, like an electrical grid; that it’s reliable; and that we want to make it smart.”

But even where these assumptions often hold true, infrastructures are increasingly vulnerable to climate events that can be more impactful than what they were designed to accommodate. And when they do break down, how will citizens respond?

To understand this challenge, the researchers interviewed residents and analyzed media coverage about individuals’ interactions with the unreliable water system in Pune, India, which will likely have embedded smart technologies before it reliably provides water to all residents.

Because of this unreliability, residents have created their own patchwork system of municipal water, tanker services, and unregulated borewells.

“This resourcefulness is important because rather than waiting on the municRead more » ist.psu.edu/research

ipal system to fix the issues like we might do in the U.S., Pune residents will come together with ad hoc and lightweight solutions,” said Shaowen Bardzell, professor.

These innovative, resource-sensitive workarounds—or jugaads—can lead to citizens resisting municipal interventions that threaten their agency in the system.

This convergence, the researchers note, is critical for smart city design because as individuals become both residents and users, some may be left out.

“Who is the ideal user of smart cities?” asked IST doctoral student Tejaswini Joshi. “Our research shows that public utilities are a lot more flaky and that citizenship is often more sophisticated, which needs to be accounted for when we design smart cities.”

Added Shaowen, “We should design in such a way that's open and that allows for jugaad, for people to appropriate the system in such a way that they can do what they need with the system to actually enable them to live.”

Ultimately, the researchers note, these solutions should be made visible to encourage citizen participation in the co-creation of infrastructures and leading toward a redefinition of citizenship.

The NSF-supported work was published in the October 2021 proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing.

Prasenjit Mitra, professor, was recognized at VIS2021, the premier forum for advances in visualization and visual analytics, with the Test of Time Award for the most vibrant and influential paper published at the 2011 IEEE Conference on Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST). His group's paper is an early example of visual analytics for aggregated social media data, leading to important discussions of ethics surrounding location-based data in crisis situations.

FRYMOYER CHAIR Anna Squicciarini, professor, has been named the Frymoyer Chair in IST. The three-year position allows a distinguished faculty member to advance scholarly excellence through contributions to instruction, research, and public service of information sciences.

EXPERT FOR EDUCAUSE Chris Gamrat, instructional designer, was selected from a record number of applicants to serve as an expert for the EDUCAUSE 2022 Teaching and Learning Horizon Report. Comprised of global leaders from across higher education, the panel offers perspectives on key trends and emerging technologies and practices that shape the future of teaching and learning.

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By Jessica Hallman

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Danijelala (Left)-stock.adobe.com; Photos provided (12)

Identity

To date, more than 25 IST alumni from underrepresented backgrounds—including those featured here—have participated in an IST Identity Talks panel conversation. By sharing their unique perspectives and experiences of navigating the significant diversity gap that exists in the tech industry, alumni are helping to strengthen allyship and preparing listeners for a diverse, global workforce.

JOHN ESTEVES ’18 LGBTQ+ Pride

PRERANA DALAL ’08

“Once, in a job interview, everyone started by introducing their pronouns—making me feel more comfortable about my gender and sexual orientation. Being conscious of those little things is essential to helping people feel comfortable with their own identity and can go a long way for someone who is nervous about being who they are.”

Women in Tech “I love to look outside the tech industry because there are shared problems everywhere. It’s inspiring to see more and more women rise to the top and be really good at what they do and to witness how they handle being the only woman in the room and how they stand on their own.”

KA’LEE STRAWBRIDGEMOTEN ’18

Celebrating Black History

“A lot of times we look at the diversity gap in the industry as a complex problem. But it’s very simple: How can a company serve its target audience if the people serving the product don’t look like that audience? Diversity is important for companies because you want to be able to effectively serve the communities or markets that are the consumers of what you’re selling.”

JACKIE SANCHEZ ’19

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage

“My dad came to the U.S. from El Salvador with just the clothes on his back and without speaking English. His ability to overcome that and watch his children become successful has given me the motivation to persevere. It‘s also inspired me to take the time to understand people’s origins and learn how to pronounce their names correctly. It seems so minor, but it really goes a long way.”

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ALEX ROSS ’03

Disability Awareness

“When doctors told my parents that I was hearing impaired, my grandfather’s first response was, ‘well, the only person I know who is deaf who won the Nobel Peace Prize.’ I had strong support from the beginning.

It’s very important for anybody with a disability to have that support structure.”

MICHAEL PAYNE ’20

Military and Veterans in Tech

“Understanding all of the diverse cultural, educational, and life experience backgrounds of individuals in your work environment, school group, or the military adds so much value in understanding different ways of thinking.”

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ANKUR SHETH ’04 Strength in Diversity

“For me, something I had to pick up on really quickly once I started working globally was understanding cultural diversity as well as the diversity of the people you’re working with and how that plays into the work you are doing.”

LAUREN ZIEZIULA ’17

LGBTQ+ Pride

“I almost think of my sexual orientation as a barrier to entry for me and in every conversation I feel like I have to come out, because outwardly a lot of people don’t expect that I would be a lesbian.

It’s this LGBTQ kind of blanket of invincibility that we have to wear and constantly try to prove to other people who we are, which is a hard thing to navigate.”

SCOTT ROBERTSON ’13 PhD

NOEL CLAUDIO ’14

Disability Awareness

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage

“I’ve developed self-advocacy and compensatory skills for social challenges I face due to my autism. I'd try to fit in and pretend to be neurotypical, which hampered my mental health. Now I'm very open about how I interact differently because of my autism. I’m not going to become neurotypical just because I’ve learned how to camouflage my differences.”

“Imposter syndrome is real, and it never really fully goes away. No matter how successful you are, or where you are in your career, there’s always going to be something you doubt about yourself.

The way you challenge that is by taking mental breathers and reminding yourself that you are where you are for a reason.”

KRISTA KREBS ’15

Strength in Diversity

“Today, there are so many resources to create your own experiences. You don’t have to wait for someone to bless you with an opportunity; you can go out there and start doing it yourself. The more time you spend with yourself, listen to your own intuition, and chart your own path, the better off you’re going to be.”

MICHELLE NGO ’12

First-Generation Students

“Being a minority and a woman in IST—as there weren’t a lot of us at the time—gave me the opportunity to stand out and learn something new. Since my parents didn’t have the opportunity to attend college, I had to figure things out as I went. It truly does take a village, and I learned that during my time at Penn State.”

Watch past and view upcoming talks at ist.psu.edu/identity-talks.

Winter 2022 17

By Jessica Hallman and Jordan Ford

18 iConnect Magazine

Photos provided (10)

Did you ever want to peel back the curtain at a pivotal moment in someone else’s life?

We looked through IST community members’ eyes to understand the inspiring, challenging, unforgettable, and otherwise indescribable experiences that have shaped who they are.

...have worked on five continents?

Assistant Professor Shomir Wilson turned a chance opportunity in graduate school into a lifelong love of travel, which led to professional opportunities at universities on five continents.

I wasn‘t able to study abroad as an undergraduate, so as a graduate student I took advantage of the opportunity to travel when I was accepted as a visiting scholar at Australia’s Macquarie University. It was my first time traveling abroad alone.

I did a similar appointment in Singapore the next year, and I started thinking it might be practical to aim for different parts of the world. I later did a postdoctoral fellowship at Edinburgh and gave a series of lectures in Egypt. I’ve visited 42 countries and hope to work in South America someday but getting to Antarctica will be difficult!

There are parallels from my travels that inform my teaching, especially when it comes to understanding the distance between my students’ experiences and my own. When students talk about contemporary culture and events, it’s more productive for me to listen. That’s similar to my experiences living abroad: people sometimes asked about the U.S., but when I wanted to establish rapport it was better for me to ask questions and learn.

The opportunity to travel has shaped a big part of my identity. There’s something powerful about being alone in distant places. I've been thousands of miles away from home, but on each trip I’ve always felt that I had gone somewhere I wanted to be.

…perform in front of a crowd of 107,000?

Jenna Fitzpatrick, Class of 2023, is majoring in cybersecurity analytics and operations. She is also a Silk Squad Leader for the Penn State Blue Band.

Performing at Beaver Stadium is something you can’t describe until you’ve actually experienced it. The atmosphere, the fans, and the noise combine to create such a surreal experience that is truly one of a kind. It’s the best atmosphere in college football, but the stadium is so loud—especially during night games—so staying focused and listening for taps is key. After pregame, during the We Are Penn State cheer, is when you truly get to take in where you are and what it’s like to perform in front of 107,000 people.

Winter 2022 19

…publish research as an undergraduate?

Ellen Poplavska is a junior majoring in human-centered design and development. She is a member of The Human Language Technologies Lab in the College of IST. In 2020, I was the first author on a paper that mapped a representation of common concepts within privacy policies to the General Data Protection Regulation, a major European privacy law.

I got to present that research at the JURIX conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems in December.

The acceptance rate for short papers at JURIX was only 16%, so when our paper was accepted it showed that our work was meaningful. And even though the conference was virtual, it was exciting to take the lead and field questions from experts from around the world.

...win an Olympic medal?

Adam Wiercioch ’05 represented his home country of Poland during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, winning silver in the men’s team épée fencing competition.

Fencing at the Olympic Games and winning a silver medal was the result of an almost 20-year-long athletic career. I came to Penn State through an athletic scholarship, which provided the best mix of high-quality education with a top-class athletic program.

It was extremely difficult to even qualify for the Games. I barely missed the qualification to Athens in 2004, and it took four long years after that to collect standing points to qualify for Beijing. But it ended great, with a medal on my neck—which I won, in part, thanks to the training program at Penn State.

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It’s easy to feel like an imposter in research, especially as an undergraduate. But my adviser and the graduate students in the lab never single me out as an undergraduate. It’s subtle, but important.

There is so much great research being done in the college, and it makes these big problems exciting and accessible. I often just look up someone’s research thinking, “This sounds so cool! I wish I could get into this!” There’s not enough time for me, but I’m glad there are more opportunities available for other undergraduate students to get involved.

...launch a startup?

Alejandro Cuevas ’18 is co-founder and chief operating officer of Redoux (redoux.nyc), a scent and skincare company launched in 2019. He is also a doctoral candidate in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University.

Trust, more than skill set, is the most important thing in a startup. Our co-founder Asia Grant ’17 and I trust each other. It didn’t really matter what our idea was; the trust we share and the drive we have allowed us to venture into something different from our core skill sets.

Growing up in Paraguay, I enjoyed entrepreneurship and was always looking for side hustles. So as an international undergraduate student at Penn State, I wanted to experience first-hand the groundwork that goes into starting a company in the U.S. There is so much menial work that goes into setting up your company—all the legal, regulatory, and financial tasks like starting an LLC and getting your taxes in order. My IST courses in IT law and policy helped me a lot, but I don’t think it’s common knowledge. A lot of people think launching a startup is just solving challenging problems and making important decisions, but the reality is that you’re doing a lot of unsexy work as well.

“The trust we

share and the drive we have allowed us to venture into something different from our core skill sets.”

Now that we’re up and running, we’ve had decent engagement with boutique stores across the country, especially in Los Angeles and New York City, and we’ve earned some small business grants. Success is encouraging, but the challenges can pile up. COVID, supply chain disruptions, canceled orders—we just figure it out as it comes. In a startup, you can’t be afraid to fail.

I’ve been fortunate to find a good balance between my Ph.D. program and Redoux. I separate time between the two and just take it week by week. I’ve found that my Ph.D. is teaching me how to tackle big problems, which often overlaps with Redoux when addressing things like business strategy or operations. And Redoux gives me that creative outlet which lets me come back to my Ph.D. with a fresh mindset.

I’m not sure what will come next or if these two priorities will converge, but my goal remains to have maximum flexibility to work on what I care about.

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…fly the U.S. president?

During his military career, Col. Jake Graham (Ret.), professor of practice, served in various Marine Corps aviation units including Marine Helicopter One, flying in support of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

There are typically only six Marine One pilots at a time. I flew in support of the president approximately 75 times. In other missions, I've flown vice presidents, heads of states, Pope John Paul II and even John Glenn, a childhood hero of mine.

Our job went beyond flying the acting president; our larger role was to support the continuity of office. We also had to keep track of where the vice president, speaker of the house and primary cabinet members were and always have an emergency relocation mission ready.

Any time you fly, you have to respect aviation. I wasn’t necessarily nervous, but you must always maintain an edge. It doesn’t matter if you’re flying the president, across the desert, or a training mission—you have to respect the potential for problems and fall back on your training.

...mentor IST students?

Melanie Treff ’19, a senior cyber defense technologist at Raytheon Technologies, has been a volunteer with IST’s alumni mentorship program for two years and recently began working with a second mentee.

When I read an email from IST seeking alumni mentors, I was immediately interested. I’d had such a great experience at the college and learned so much, but after starting my career I also recognized things I could have done differently. I didn’t have a mentor when I was a student, so I wanted to share my experiences with current students and provide tips that may have helped me.

Being a mentor entails regular communication. The program is what mentees want it to be; it’s designed to help them. I don’t want them to hold back; I want them to feel comfortable asking questions about anything. They obviously have questions about coursework, but also internships, applications, interviews, and even how to write professional emails. We’ve also had open discussions about adjusting to college and the workforce. And often my mentees teach me things; we really are learning

from each other. It doesn’t matter what stage of life you’re in, there’s always more to learn.

Age is not always symbolic of where you are in your career. My first mentee was an adult learner who was going headfirst into the professional world. I was fortunate to be her mentor, and she was willing to learn. She got an internship at her top-choice company, which was rewarding for both of us!

I feel joy by being a mentor. Many people simply go on to the next phase of life after graduation, but mentoring is such a rewarding and easy way to stay connected with the college. I like giving back and hearing about students’ experiences, talking about the new majors, and just being in the loop.

I hope that my mentees feel like they can use me as a lifelong resource. I’m not in this for just a few months—I want them to know that if they ever have questions or need advice, I’ll always be here to support them.

...be an adult learner?

Jasyn Burby earned his bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity analytics and operations in December 2021 after balancing his education, family, and active-duty military responsibilities.

I joined the Air Force at 18 to figure out my life’s path. After 13 years in military law enforcement, I transitioned to the Air Force Reserve and enrolled at Penn State.

At the time, it was just me and my partner. We moved to State College and I was able to focus all my time on school. Now we have a two-year-old son, we’ve relocated to Harrisburg, and I’ve returned to active duty. During the pandemic my classes and work moved online. For my final semester, I commuted one day each week for in-person classes, then drove home to telework and be with my family.

For my personal learning preferences, it would have been difficult to complete my degree completely online. The cybersecurity curriculum was challenging and I relied on academic support services on campus.

In-person discussions with active participation in group engagements were invaluable after my long absence from education.

Returning to Penn State as an adult was challenging but rewarding. My Air Force experiences provided a different perspective and allowed me to engage in a way I could not have at 18.

“In-person

discussions with active participation in group engagements were invaluable after my long absence from education..”

…lead a student organization in the pandemic?

Griffin Sullivan ’21 served as president of the Emerging Technology (EmTech) club in 2021, which helps students create technology with Raspberry Pi and other devices.

The college has been incredibly supportive of EmTech, but the pandemic was hard. The group’s meetings are part lecture and part interactive building, and when everyone was online we lost that interactive element. It’s hard to collaborate with hands-on technology if you aren’t in the same space. It was a challenge to keep people engaged, but once we got back on campus we saw more connection.

EmTech tries to be a versatile club that focuses not just on technologies, but also on the skills students need to succeed at the next step. Leading the club strengthened my leadership skills. It forced me to be more organized and a better communicator. It gave me great experiences to reflect on in interviews and professional situations.

It’s easy to think if COVID never happened, I could’ve enjoyed the experience more. There were a few times I thought maybe it's time to give up, but I'm glad I saw it through. It’s rewarding to know that other students are excited about what the organization offers and that their interest goes beyond the classroom. It means the group is achieving the vision it initially set out to do.

Winter 2022 23

…be a crypto connoisseur?

Darin Carter ’14 is a program manager with Coinbase Giving at Coinbase, a remote-first cryptocurrency exchange platform.

I visited Penn State thinking I wanted to be an engineer. But when I connected with a few people through the Bunton-Waller Scholars Program, they introduced me to the College of IST. I had a passion for website creation, cybersecurity, and entrepreneurship, so being in an emerging college was the perfect fit for me.

In my senior year at Penn State, I completed research for my honors thesis in South Africa. They had recently hosted the World Cup and water scarcity was a big issue, so I studied how mobile applications could engage the community in responsible water management. That experience blended my passions in technology with a desire to do social good. It also sparked what I wanted in my career.

My first few jobs after graduation exposed me to the endless possibilities of tech, like how blockchain technology impacts the supply chain and what drones can do for shipping. I moved to Silicon Valley in 2017 so I could be closer to where all of this was happening.

I’m not sure I’d even heard about crypto when I got to San Francisco. But one of my roommates was passionate about it and he got me hooked. When a position came open at Coinbase, I had to make the jump. Their mission of economic freedom resonates with me deeply.

Our Coinbase Giving team is relatively new, so I’m like an artist with a blank canvas. Crypto is meant to be inclusive, and we’re working to be intentional about democratizing access.

Whether through discriminatory loans or enhanced identification requirements, underrepresented communities have been marginalized by the traditional financial system. My goal is to break down these barriers and connect with people who might otherwise be excluded. If all we do is help technologists and Wall Street traders go from millionaires to billionaires, we’ve failed in our mission.

Crypto is the currency of the new financial system. The barriers to entry are much lower: a smartphone and a digital wallet are all you need. And while the market volatility might scare some people away, it’s a tremendous wealth creation opportunity for those who are looking for a way out or who don’t have the time to safely expect 7% annual returns from an index fund.

There’s still a lot of flux in crypto. Coinbase works hard to be the most compliant and secure platform, and we have a framework to evaluate new assets. However, there’s still a lot of confusion in the industry as agencies like the SEC and FINRA refine the legal and regulatory environment.

Moving forward, we need to find the signal in the noise. We need to make sure that the right coins surface to the top and that people aren’t getting scammed.

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It’s exciting to see how many people are ready to get into crypto and are asking the right questions. The opportunities are nearly endless, and I love bringing people into the fold. This is our generation’s digital revolution.

Working on global teams, analyzing risks, understanding information systems—IST prepared me well for this experience. The Bunton-Waller program was a life-changer for me because it put me on this path, and it helped me put my passion into practice.

I want my work to inspire potential and provide opportunities, and that's what I’m doing at Coinbase.

…make a career change?

Ron Stellabotte earned a bachelor’s degree in security in risk analysis as an adult learner in 2011. He currently works as a lead business analyst at Broadridge Financial Services in Pittsburgh.

After spending 13 years as a financial advisor, without a college education and completely burned out and frustrated, I took a leap of faith to leave my position and get a degree from IST. While I had classmates who were much younger than me, my age helped me learn from mistakes, take things more seriously, and be successful—wisdom I did not have the first time I went to college at age 18.

IST opened the door to a job I love at a great company. I did my internship at Broadridge before I graduated. When I met the company’s

president, he told me not to apply for other jobs; he wanted to hire me.

My career change worked out better than I could have imagined. For anyone considering getting a degree later in life, don’t let the age disparity dissuade you. You’re pushing toward a point where you’re going to be happier. I left my previous career because I was miserable, but after earning my degree and finding a career and company I love, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.

“After

earning my degree and finding a career and company I love, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.”

...start and manage a food truck?

Zoe Meyer, director of IST’s career solutions office, recently launched Pappas Pies—a mobile wood-fired pizza business— which she operates with her family part time.

My dad, who made great pizza, passed away in 2016. To honor him I built a brick oven outside my house. Pappas Pies—Pappas is my maiden name— started at a pop-up event there. I figured if Nike started in the trunk of a car, I could kick this off in my driveway. And we did, selling 120 pizzas in two hours.

I love my crust. I’ve tweaked the recipe many times. Making dough is a science, where everything is measured in grams and never cups. But it’s also an art; a bad crust can kill a pizza.

We now attend a variety of events —farmers’ markets, weddings, youth football games, graduation parties. It’s been a trip, and we love it.

Winter 2022 25

CROSSING THE LINE

By Jordan Ford

Interdisciplinary discovery is foundational to the College of IST; its first faculty were strongly urged to have a joint appointment with another college. Today, that legacy is advanced by scholars taking on novel projects that continue to cross traditional academic boundaries and engage collaborators from a variety of disciplines.

Shomir Wilson

Scouring the Internet for Privacy Documents

computer science • data sciences and artificial intelligence • information systems • law • privacy • public policy

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ers by offering insights into how different companies’ approaches to user privacy evolve over time, which can help users be thoughtful about how they want to engage with those companies.

As PrivaSeer scours privacy policies, terms of service agreements, cookie policies, privacy bills and laws, regulatory guidelines, and other related texts, searching and classifying privacy documentation without machine learning would be nearly impossible according to Wilson.

“We know what happens anecdotally in the privacy practices of a few companies if they're exceptional enough somehow that they show up in the news,” he explained.

“However, we use many more websites and mobile apps every day. Finding meaning in the text that we don't have time to read and finding trends that might have escaped the attention of a human reader are both the kinds of tasks that AI can help us with.”

For researchers interested in privacy and natural language processing, PrivaSeer can be a resource to more efficiently identify and label data practices of interest to users. Ultimately, those insights can

be used to build tools to help users make more informed decisions about privacy on the web.

Wilson worked with C. Lee Giles, the David Reese Professor of IST and IST doctoral student Mukund Srinath, as well as collaborators from the University of Michigan and the Future of Privacy Forum.

We can't interpret text about privacy without the benefit of some legal knowledge, and legal knowledge needs natural language processing to make it feasible to interpret thousands or millions of documents. Having law experts on our collaborative team also gives our work greater depth and confidence.

Marji(Top); Michele (Right)-stock.adobe.com

A team of Penn State-led researchers have compiled the single largest snapshot in time of online privacy by scouring billions of web-based documents.

Supported by a $1.2 million National Science Foundation grant and led by Shomir Wilson, assistant professor, the team has created a dataset and search engine—called PrivaSeer—that uses a type of artificial intelligence, called natural language processing, to collect, review, and analyze web-based privacy-related texts.

The search engine could help researchers better understand online privacy and examine online privacy trends, which could one day lead to an internet that users could navigate more safely and securely.

“Privacy policies are documents that we encounter in our day-to-day lives when we visit websites and, in theory, we’re supposed to read them,” said Wilson. “But, in practice, few people do that.

It’s not practical and it doesn’t fit in with how people use the internet. Also, people often don’t have the legal knowledge to understand these documents.”

The engine—which can be accessed at privaseer.ist.psu.edu—also aids research-

Carleen Maitland

Improving Digital Platforms for Humanitarian Relief

human-computer interaction • organizational informatics • software engineering With greater attention paid to the role of data management in supporting humanitarian crises, new technological tools have emerged to help organizations coordinate activities in support of refugees.

Digital platforms, including ActivityInfo—a digital data management platform adopted widely by the UN Refugee Agency—are the focus of a study led by Professor Carleen Maitland that aims to enhance how these tools can be used to manage, aggregate, and share data for interorganizational coordination while supporting refugees. Maitland’s team hopes to support enhanced data management practices for humanitarian organizations worldwide by focusing on the Venezuelan refugee crisis in Latin America and the South Sudanese refugee crisis in Uganda.

“We're interested in understanding how the national context and the response to these crises influence the use of these platforms, as well as how we can work with the humanitarian staff to improve these tools for their use,” said Maitland.

The project is part of Maitland’s 2020 Fulbright Global Scholar Award and includes academics from Brazil, Ecuador,

Panama, and Uganda, who are informing the project’s two main goals.

“Our researchers bring different areas of expertise to the questions we're asking: how is the platform used and how can it be improved? And what role does power play in the collective data management process?” she explained. “We’re curious about the broader issue that this platform was developed in the global North and is being used largely in the global South.”

In the platform, aid organizations enter data individually—such as the number of families they helped find housing in an area—but that data needs to be aggregated and shared to benefit other organizations. As more organizations share expertise and success stories, the overall view of each crisis becomes clearer and, ultimately, a better case can be made for additional aid and services.

Understanding how users engage with the platform, how data can be protected and analyzed, and how the user experience can be personalized are key for humanitarian organizations to coordinate and more effectively deploy relief efforts.

“You may have a Venezuelan migrant,

for example, who transits through Ecuador and Peru but finds they can't make it in Peru if they don't have a job or housing, so they return to Ecuador,” said Maitland.

Using data aggregation and sharing to understand these international flows and the services provided can help organizations identify gaps and coordinate support requests that lead to better outcomes.

“These platforms can help humanitarian organizations find successes,” concluded Maitland. “If we know where success happens, we can replicate it.”

The real world is interdisciplinary, and it doesn’t often align with our traditional academic silos. We need to break down those barriers and bring a diverse team together so we’re matching how the real world operates.

Interdisciplinary research allows us to provide the people we’re aiming to help with what they actually need.

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Sharon Huang

Identifying Viruses in Minutes data sciences and artificial intelligence • physics • virology • biomedical engineering • chemistry

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screen viruses and new viral strains.”

This analysis happens through a process called deep Raman spectroscopy, where lasers record the vibrations of atoms and molecules that make up the surface of the viruses. As a virus mutates, its surface changes and the frequency of the vibrations change, thus leading to changes in its Raman signature that can be identified by machine learning.

“Images, in the form of Raman spectra, of a virus have a distinct signature that can be identified by the unique characteristics of its various components, like you’d see with an image of a face having eyes, a nose, and a mouth,” said Huang.

The advantage of the team’s device is that the virus testing is label-free, meaning it is not required to know in advance what viruses are being tested. Instead, the viral image’s signature can be referenced against known strains to identify the virus.

“In our label-free testing, machine learning can process the Raman signature and recognize among all the possibilities it’s seen before whether it’s an existing or new virus,” explained Huang. “And if the virus can’t be identified, we’re proposing new machine learning interpretation techniques that can highlight the different molecular

patterns in the virus, which we can then correlate to the signatures of known biomolecules.”

As early detection of new viral strains is crucial in curbing their spread, the team hopes their faster, less expensive, and label-free screening will have far-reaching practical implications—from regular use at doctor’s offices to on-the-ground deployments at the site of outbreaks during a pandemic.

To understand the data, you need to talk to the domain experts to know how they got the data, its value, and its purpose. You need to be able to formulate the right problems and develop the right solutions to solve the problems, which requires interdisciplinary communication and collaboration. For that, data becomes the centerpiece of the science.

sdecoret (Top); Dzmitry Palubiatka (Right)-stock.adobe.com

Each year, one in five people globally are infected with epidemic strains of influenza, leading to half a million deaths. And since its emergence in late 2019, COVID-19 has led to 400 million cases and nearly 6 million deaths worldwide.

To investigate how viruses like these evolve and to more quickly identify new and existing viral strains, Associate Professor Sharon Huang is part of an interdisciplinary team led by Penn State that is developing a handheld device that could detect viruses in a matter of minutes and at a much lower cost than current practices allow.

Backed by a five-year $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the team’s device captures an individual’s breath and analyzes it for viruses without the presence of antibodies. Machine learning is then used to analyze an image of the virus to identify its type, subtype, and strain based on its unique qualities, or signature.

“Viruses evolve over time, but their changes are often minute,” explained Huang. “We’re combining virus capturing and imaging with machine learning to understand this evolution and develop a system that can efficiently and rapidly

Steve Haynes

Automating the Mushroom Industry plant pathology • agricultural and biological engineering • agricultural economics • information technology • human-centered design and development • law • privacy • public policy

The U.S. mushroom crop was valued at approximately $1.2 billion in 2020, with Pennsylvania growing more than 60% of the country’s share. Despite its size, however, the industry and most farms remain fairly low tech.

“The mushroom industry relies heavily on manual labor and documentation,” explained Steve Haynes, teaching professor of IST. “The growers collect a lot of data about their crops, but it is difficult to analyze because so much is on paper.”

Haynes is part of an interdisciplinary, multi-university team aiming to alleviate labor shortages by helping mushroom growers improve on manual harvesting practices and develop mechanization to improve efficiency, productivity, and profitability. The project is supported by a $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Haynes is charged in part with assembling sensor arrays that will capture environmental factors, such as air and compost temperature, humidity, and the presence of diseases in growing rooms. Because mush-

rooms are typically grown indoors in controlled environments, the researchers are working to automate these sensor readings and investigating how the data can inform a more ideal growing environment.

"We're seeing what we can do with some of the environmental control systems— things like vents, fans, and air conditioning,” Haynes explained. “For example, we are exploring how these factors affect the stagger of mushroom growth, or if the spacing between them makes an impact. Mushrooms are much harder to harvest without bruising when they grow in clusters. If we can grow them more evenly spaced, they can grow larger and healthier.”

Adjusting environmental factors through data insights could lead to a more optimal stagger, making manual harvesting more efficient and supporting future work on automated harvesting technology. The efficiencies gained in harvesting and processing can then be reallocated to production.

Haynes also led design and development of Cropsmarts, a web and mobile application that helps growers aggregate, analyze, and visualize their data with less manual

labor. The app can provide insights about how inputs, such as the type of compost used, affect the overall health and productivity of the crop.

Haynes and his team are conducting usability tests and walkthroughs with farmers to better understand their needs. That hands-on work not only advances discovery, but also pays dividends for his students.

“We’ve been able to involve undergraduates in the project, which has been an important educational experience for them,” Haynes explained. “And while my students might not always share my enthusiasm for mushrooms, this project helps me practice what I teach and has provided great realworld examples for a lot of the concepts we cover in the classroom.”

When I got involved with this project, I didn't know anything about mushrooms. But that’s the great thing about human-centered design and development: you can take skills and go into entirely new areas, learn about them, and apply what you know to help solve complex problems.

Winter 2022 29

YOUR IMPACT

Aiming to Inspire For Alisha Moment, the choice to attend Penn State was one of the best decisions she’s ever made. It gave her the opportunity to explore a new place, surround herself with like-minded people, and become the first in her family to pursue a college degree.

And now, thanks to her strong faith, hard work, and scholarship support, the culmination of that decision is within reach—not just for her, but also for other young Black women she hopes to inspire when she earns her degree in May. "I want other people of color to know that it is possible to pursue a career in technology, especially because you don't see a lot of representation in the industry,” she said. “I want to be one of the faces they see that encourages them and lets them know they can succeed in tech."

A senior studying information sciences and technology, Moment's work as an IST Diplomat and her leadership role in Penn State’s Unity Christian Campus Ministry have shaped her character and college experience.

“My participation in these organizations have made me into the person I

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am today,” she said. “When I first came to Penn State, I wasn't as confident and was much more reserved. Having the opportunity to become a part of different things has helped me to be able to express myself more."

A recipient of the Caruso Family Dean’s Advisory Board Matching Scholarship in the College of IST and the Brook J. Lenfest Trustee Scholarship at Penn State, Moment credits donors with doing much more than providing financial support; they allowed her to remain active in the extracurricular activities and earn a more well-rounded education. " I've been able to focus on my education and on things that are important to me to be a part of,” she said. “If it weren’t for these scholarships, I would have to work long hours to pay for my tuition, wouldn’t have had much time for anything except classes and work, and would have likely burned myself out a long time ago.”

Dedicating her time to education and related professional experiences has paid off. After graduation, she plans to work as a cybersecurity, privacy, and forensics consultant with PwC—a full-time position

she was offered after completing two summer internships with the firm.

She was introduced to the company during an IST internship and career fair in her second year—an event she felt nervous about and attended only because it was a course assignment. There, she learned about PwC’s Start internship, a program for high-performing students from underrepresented backgrounds. She applied, was accepted, and took the first step on her professional path.

When Moment earns her degree later this spring, she will look back on the journey she’s made with pride.

"I want to be an example for the younger kids in my family, especially my niece. I want to show her that where you come from doesn't have to determine where you go. You can do anything you want, and everything is possible."

“Penn State is a great University that challenges me and pushes me past the boundaries that I've set for myself,” she concluded. "I feel like being a first-generation student is changing the trajectory of my family. And that's something I'm really grateful for and proud of."

DEAN’S ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS Joe Atkinson ’92 Bus Vice Chair, U.S. Chief Products and Technology Officer, PwC Doug Balog ’83 Sci Founder/President, DB Group Consulting, LLC and Strategic Advisor, Rapt.ai Robert J. Bardusch ’88 Eng Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Valley Bank

A Supporting Match Behind the scenes at IST is the Dean’s Advisory Board, comprised of alumni, friends, and corporate leaders who provide strategic guidance and counsel to shape the future of the college.

Board members serve as ambassadors for the college, representing various backgrounds in industry and advising college leadership on matters critical to the growth and success of IST. Board members made an especially significant impact last year through

the Dean’s Advisory Board Matching Scholarship program, which matched endowed gifts 1:1 to create scholarships supporting IST students from underrepresented backgrounds, who are first-generation, and/or have demonstrated financial need.

We thank the donors who created these new scholarships, as well as recognize the generosity of the Dean’s Advisory Board for establishing and contributing toward this program.

Jessica Burke ’00 Bus Director of National Customer Service, Comcast Corporation Jeff Copeland Executive Chairman, immixGroup, Inc. (Retired) Angela Govila ’05 IST Head of Product, Embedded Banking, Corporate Investment Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Elizabeth King ’79 Lib Managing Partner, Elizabeth M. King Consulting, LLC Chandra McMahon ’01 MEng SVP & CISO, CVS Health Rod Murchison ’91 Eng Head of Corporate Development, PwC

Dean’s Advisory Board Matching Scholarship Benefactors » » » » » » » » »

Tyler Britten ’02 Bus David C. ’04 IST and Megan Caruso ’04 Behrend Alison A. ’05 IST and Eric A. Flanigan ’05 IST Jeffrey J. Gorzkowski ’06 Com ’11 IST Kayla A. Gursahaney ’16 IST Scott A. ’98 Bus and Natalie Jaworski ’98 Bus Corey J. ’12 IST and Leteace L. Lee ’12 HHD Michelle Ngo ’12 IST and Desmond Lamptey ’12 IST Joseph T. ’04 Bus and Lauren Palladino

Penn State: Michelle Bixby (Top)

Make Your Gift Thanks to the success of the initial DAB Matching Scholarship initiative, the Board has made four additional matching scholarship opportunities available.

For more information, visit ist.psu.edu/DAB-scholarship or contact Mike Weyandt, IST director of development, at 814-863-0215 or mjw134@psu.edu.

Stay involved » ist.psu.edu/alumni

Steve Pace ’82 Eng Chief Revenue Officer, Dynatrace Ronald Police ’82 Bus President, Customer Operations, SAP National Security Services (NS2) David Reese ’78 Bus Chairman, API Systems, Inc. John Viglione ’84 MBA Bus Retired Senior Vice President of Strategy, Vertex, Inc. EMERITUS BOARD MEMBERS Edward M. Frymoyer ’59 Eng ’67g Sci President, Frymoyer Holdings, Inc. Donald A. Haile ’64 Eng Senior Vice President and Site General Manager, Fidelity Investments (Retired) Antonio Pensa ’67 MEng ’69g PhD Eng Assistant Director Emeritus, MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Winter 2022 31

YOUR IMPACT

Supporting Bright Futures Tom Sc hwenger ’89 Bus has seen technology rapidly advance in the two decades since earning his Penn State degree in quantitative business analysis.

Now, as president and chief operating officer of Veeva Systems, which provides cloud-based software for the global life science industry including the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies and emerging biotechs, Schwenger anticipates that the demand for skilled technologists will continue well into the future.

“Students with degrees in IST, and data sciences specifically, will see significant opportunities in the coming years,” he said.

Knowing the College of IST’s reputation for producing graduates with these unique, in-demand skillsets, Schwenger and his wife, Audrey, initially donated $100,000 to establish a scholarship in the college, which was matched 1:1 by the University through the Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence Campaign and First-Time Endowed Scholarship Donor Matching Program. Recently, the Schwengers committed an additional

$50,000, increasing the scholarship’s total to $250,000.

The scholarship will benefit IST students with demonstrated financial need and who contribute to the diversity of the student body, with preference to those from Philadelphia and its surrounding counties and who are majoring in data sciences.

“Through Audrey’s work with independent Catholic schools in Philadelphia, she has seen firsthand both the challenges and potential that students in that region experience.

It is important to us that a diverse cross section of students graduate into the data sciences field and that there are opportunities for as many qualified students as possible to succeed in this critical area,” said Tom. “Through our involvement with Penn State, we hope to make an impact for deserving students from our local community.”

The Schwengers have Penn State in their blood, with Tom’s parents, Walt and

Jean, graduating from the University in the early ’60s, and their son Michael earning a degree in supply chain management in 2020. Tom has been active in recruiting Penn Staters as interns and employees throughout his career, and he and Audrey are avid Nittany Lion fans and football season ticket holders.

“Penn State has been a key part of our family in so many ways, so we want to make sure that we help others to have the same opportunities that Penn State has afforded to us,” said Tom.

GET INVOLVED

»

Become a mentor

»

Speak in classrooms

»

Participate on an alumni panel

»

Assist with student recruiting

»

Host students at your organization

»

Become a member of the Alumni Society Board

Learn more about these and other ways to engage with IST ist.psu.edu/alumni-engage.

32 iConnect Magazine

Photos provided (2)

As a member of the College of IST community, you can share your expertise, experiences, and story to inspire future generations of IST students. Check out the opportunities below to connect, volunteer, and engage.

Data Privacy at Penn State For Holly Swires, chief privacy officer and assistant chief information security officer at Penn State, her interest in information security and privacy came later in her career. Swires initially earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University in 2005, during which time she gained experience as a victims’ advocate for individuals who had experienced sexual assault and domestic violence. After graduation, she became a group therapist providing mental health services to adults through a partial hospitalization program.

While she enjoyed working with people and the impact she was able to make in her previous roles, she found herself drawn to regulatory compliance and researching laws and regulations. That led her to a position as an integrated security specialist at the University’s Applied Research Laboratory, where she developed and implemented policies and procedures pertaining to security and overall compliance to meet research-related contract requirements.

“That was my first exposure to security,” said Swires.

She later started a position at Penn State as the privacy coordinator working for the CPO, and eventually ended up stepping into that privacy officer role. Then, in 2015, an executive decision was made to separate information security from the University’s central IT department. Swires was asked to serve as the interim assis-

Sharing Expertise Stay involved » ist.psu.edu/alumni

tant CISO and help restructure and lead the Office of Information Security (OIS).

After two years, the Privacy Office transitioned into OIS, and Swires was formally

appointed as chief privacy officer in 2017, with a dual role as the assistant CISO. In her dual roles, Swires’ responsibilities include creating a culture of privacy and leading Penn State in achieving and continuously promoting compliance with varying regulations and internal policies pertaining to privacy, information security, and other related programs.

“Some of these programs include PCI-

DSS, GLBA, HIPAA, GDPR, risk assessments, third-party risk management, and research consulting and engagements pertaining to regulated data,” she said.

“My primary focus is the development and implementation of University-wide privacy program.”

To further her knowledge, she enrolled in a master of professional studies in enterprise architecture and business transformation program, offered by the College of IST through Penn State World Campus, earning her degree in December.

“Understanding my passion for privacy and information security compliance, this program made a lot of sense for me because it focused on strategy and business components that are very pertinent to a role like mine,” she said.

With a variety of data privacy laws and regulations continuing to surface within the U.S. and internationally, this understanding will ultimately benefit Penn State, where Swires said building a forward-thinking and futuristic privacy program is crucial.

“It would be very challenging for my team and I to build a new program or update it every time a new law or regulation comes into play for Penn State,” she said. “The importance is really building something that is sustainable for an environment that is constantly evolving and will continue to for some time.”

A shoutout to the more than 30 IST alumni who participated in the college's recent Alumni Professional Development Panel, hosted by the college’s honor society Gamma Tau Phi. Alumni working in government and industry, including Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, TikTok, J&J, GM, and Universal Parks and Resorts shared their experiences with students on a number of professional development topics.

Winter 2022 33

YOUR IMPACT

For the Love of Food Alex Goodstein “eats too much.” But in his side business, that self-proclaimed trait is a good thing.

Goodstein, who graduated from IST in 2009 and works as a digital experience project manager lead at PNC, has a palate-pleasing side hustle as a Pittsburgh-area food influencer.

With the help of an Instagram profile and a blog—light-heartedly titled ‘Alex Eats Too Much’—Goodstein tastes his way through the city. He samples a variety of menu items from restaurants, bars and food festivals in the region and shares those experiences with his followers.

“Locally, there weren’t many people going out there and looking for new restaurants and telling people about them,” said Goodstein. “Now, four and a half years later, I’ve got a website and an Instagram, I’ve met a ton of great people and tried a lot of great dishes, and I’ve learned a lot about the restaurant industry. It’s been a very enlightening experience.”

Goodstein has sampled everything from pizza and pierogies, beer and bourbon, and even a beef jerky bouquet. He also demonstrates his own culinary skills, sharing tips and tricks through recipes he follows or creates in his own kitchen that frequently incorporate locally sourced ingredients.

“Over the years I’ve picked up a few skills in the kitchen, and I've picked up skills of how to eat more so than how to cook things,” he quipped.

Goodstein recently shared his food influence with the Penn State community during the Penn State Cooking Classic on Feb. 2, putting a spin on Southern appetizers during his first-ever live cooking instruction.

“I spent a lot of time exploring different dishes, practicing them, and coming up with variations on them to make them my own,” he said. “[The Cooking Classic] gave me a fun challenge as well as an opportunity to build a connection with Penn State and IST and to highlight that alumni are everywhere, doing different things and trying new experiences.”

The need for a city’s website upgrade led to a coincidental IST collaboration this fall, when Spyke Krepshaw ’20 MS (right) was hired to redesign and redevelop the website for River Valley Transit, the public transit division of the City of Williamsport.

After that project was successfully completed, the city’s IT director advocated for Krepshaw to meet with Mayor Derek Slaughter— who earned his bachelor’s degree from IST in 2003—to discuss redoing the City of Williamsport’s outdated and hard-to-navigate website.

“I am always looking for ways to upgrade and update our systems and processes to be more efficient, particularly as it pertains to IT,” Slaughter said. “My degree in IST has allowed me to focus on these areas and ways in which we can utilize IT to improve the services we provide to the public.”

34 iConnect Magazine

Their shared IST connection not only led to a new website, but it allowed the two alumni to engage with and collaborate on the project on a deeper level.

“We talked about our IST experience and how it really opened our eyes to the larger world out there,” said Krepshaw, an assistant professor of computer information technology at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. “One of the coolest things the mayor and I discussed is how humbling our IST experience had made us. We both consider ourselves fortunate to have been around amazing professors and students alike.”

Photos provided (4)

A Shared Connection

News & Notes Bill Seibel, a 1973 Penn State graduate and College of IST donor, recently published his first book. Already a best-seller, 'Press Go - Lessons Earned by a Serial Entrepreneur' captures the lessons he's shared as CEO of nine startups, an operating executive of six others, and a board member to 40 more.

Andrew Weinert ’09 and Stephanie Weinert ’12 HHD recently welcomed a son, Owen Joseph.

Tao Lin ’18 PhD participated in the launch of the new Alexa AI device as a software engineer at Amazon. He recently began a new position at Google.

Jonathan Walters ’19 recently became a virtual systems manager for the Northrop Grumman Corporation, responsible for all of the firm’s virtual servers.

Jonathan Adrien ’20 and Ritika Bafna ’21 are among the 15 recent Penn State graduates selected by the Penn State Alumni Association as 2021-22 Young Ambassadors. Adrien, a catalyst associate at Moody’s Analytics, and Bafna, an analyst within the commercial outsourcing services group at IQVIA, will share a yearlong experience aimed at developing their skills to become the University's future volunteer leaders.

SEND US YOUR NEWS If you have career or personal news you'd like to share with IST alumni, send your update to alumni@ist.psu.edu.

IST Honor Code IST alumni are invited to join the college’s students, faculty, and staff in signing the IST Honor Code as a symbolic commitment to uphold the expectations of the IST community and the Penn State Values. Developed

by IST Student Government and adopted by the college last spring, the honor code puts into words the values held by our community: As a member of the College of IST community, » I uphold myself to the highest level of expected integrity

» I advocate and participate in ethical and honest discovery

» I hold responsibility for my decisions, actions, and their consequences

» I achieve the highest level of excellence in my current and future endeavors

» I exercise respect to faculty, staff, and peers both within and outside of my community

» By upholding myself to these standards, I demonstrate the most authentic version of myself.

Learn more and sign the honor code at ist.psu.edu/honor-code.

Back in Blue After a long hiatus during the pandemic, it was heartwarming to see alumni back at Penn State and at off-campus events last fall, including the recent alumni networking event in Arlington, Virginia.

Do you have pictures from recent reunions or IST years you'd like to share?

Send them to alumni@ist.psu.edu or tag @ISTatPENNSTATE.

Stay involved » ist.psu.edu/alumni

Winter 2022 35

Office of the Dean College of Information Sciences and Technology The Pennsylvania State University E103 Westgate Building University Park, PA 16802-6823

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IN THIS ISSUE:

A Hub for Innovation • Experiential Learning Director • Food Blogging Pittsburgh • Running a COVID Vax Clinic

MARK YOUR CALENDAR » APRIL 5 IST Identity Talks: Strength in Diversity Online

» APRIL 30 Class of 2020 Graduation Celebration Westgate Building, University Park

» JUNE 17-18 We Are Weekend University Park

Stay tuned to your email, IST social media channels, and ist.psu.edu/alumni-events for details of these and additional events!

alumni@ist.psu.edu

@ISTatPENNSTATE