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Y EAR IN R EVIEW 2018-2019

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dear Friends,

MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

ABOUT THE COLLEGE

JUNIOR FACULTY RESEARCH

FUNDED RESEARCH

REU DATA SCIENCE

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

IMPORTANT EVENTS

IN THE COMMUNITY

DISCOVERY SERIES

MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

It is my sincere honor to serve as the Dean of our College of Information during the 10th anniversary year. As part of the University that is ranked as Tier 1 research university under Carnegie classification, I am very proud of the accomplishments of our college, our talented faculty and staff who are dedicated towards student success, and our outstanding students who are striving for the best outcomes. It is no surprise that our college is a strong and active contributor towards the success of our university. Since the College of Information formed in 2009, we have executed the vision of our founders by creating new majors aimed at providing quality and state-of-the-art instruction, exploring research and grant opportunities. We are not only enabling our students and faculty to engage in world class innovations but also promote cross pollinizing between our three departments of Information Science, Linguistics and Learning Technologies, and beyond. We are continuing to engage industry partners and other collaborators in the rapidly growing high-tech sector in the DallasFort Worth Metroplex so as to provide internship and employment opportunities for our students. As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of our college, we celebrate what matters the most: the success of our students. As we move forward, we aim even higher – putting our students first. Our vision is to ensure every activity, every interaction and every decision we undertake, is to ensure the success of each and every student, not just when they are studying with us but well beyond in their professional life. I invite you to join us in this journey of ensuring our students’ success.

IS 80TH ANNIVERSARY

With regards,

Kinshuk, PhD

ABOUT THE COLLEGE

DEPARTMENT CHAIRS

The world of Information is exponentially expanding every moment. By creating a community to discuss our intersecting areas of interest, we can create exciting advancements in science and service to our communities. The UNT College of Information is comprised of the Departments of Information Science, Linguistics, and Learning Technologies. Through intersecting and unique areas of interest in information and technology, we create exciting advancements to our disciplines and communities. The UNT College of Information is located in Discovery Park. The 300-acre research park is the largest university research park in the North Texas region. The National Science Foundation continues to invest in collaborative, multidisciplinary research for years and universities like UNT that have an integrated approach into the way they do business. UNT is devoted to establishing labs that promote collaborations among faculty, other institutions and corporations.

Leadership Board

The Leadership Board is committed to success for the students and faculty of the College of Information. We pursue connections to industry and alumni for the benefit of all; so that students receive an education that prepares them for meaningful jobs and rewarding lives, so that faculty can teach and research in ways that matter, so that industry has highly talented and skillful people to hire, and so that alumni can continue to participate in the work of the college and never give up learning.

Board Members

• Ann Blackman • Alaina Doyle • Gabe Edgar • Alfred Essa • Laurie Evans • Rachel Raidenkov • Allen Renear • Emily Rushing • James Spence • Mary Suhm • Nigel Thurlow • Michele Whitehead

Quick Facts

• 47 faculty members • 232 Undergraduate students • 1027 Graduate students

Bachelor Level Programs

• BS Information Science and Applied Technology • BA in Linguistics • BAS in Learning Technologies • BS Data Science

Master’s Level Programs

• MS in Information Science • MS in Library Science • MS in Data Science • MS in Learning Technologies • MA in English as a Second language • MA in Linguistics

PhD Level Programs

Information Science Concentrations: • Linguistics • Cybersecurity • Consumer Behavior and Experience Management • Health Informatics • Journalism • Data Science • Geospatial Information Learning Technologies Endowed scholarships: 14

Chair of Information Science Dr. Jiangping Chen Dr. Jiangping Chen appointed Chair, of the Department of Information Science, University of North Texas in 2018. Dr. Chen currently serves as a professor in the department, teaching graduate courses on data modeling and information science research. She also supervises the department’s Graduate Academic Certificate in Digital Content Management. Dr. Chen graduated from Syracuse University in 2003 with Ph.D. in information transfer. She earned her B.S. from Wuhan University and M.S. Library of Chinese Academy of Science. Her research interests include Digital Libraries, Information Retrieval and Access, Data Analysis & Data Science, and Information Systems Evaluation. Her research continuous to receive funded and she has secured more than million-dollar grants in recent years. She published a monograph on multilingual access and services for digital collections by Libraries Unlimited in 2016, and more than 60 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Electronic Library, one of the top international Information Science journals. Chair of Learning Technologies

Dr. Tandra Tyler-Wood

Dr. Tandra Tyler-Wood has worked at UNT for 21 years. As a Professor in Learning Technologies, Dr. Tyler-Wood teaches research and multimedia classes. Her research includes assessing and determining the appropriate e-curriculum for special needs populations. This gives her a good foundation to create networks with the students and to help reinforce their abilities and talents. Her goal as chair is to build competitive academic programs for students and to foster a supportive environment for faculty and staff. She will also explore opportunities to work with government, industry, and international collaborators that could lead to internships and employment opportunities for students.

Chair of Linguistics Dr. Sadaf Munshi Dr. Sadaf Munshi has worked at the University of North Texas for over 12 years and served as interim chair before her appointment as chair in September 2019. As a Professor in Linguistics, Dr. Munshi teaches courses on a wide range of topics in the areas of historical and comparative linguistics, language contact, language documentation, phonology, grammatical analysis and linguistic theory. Her research focuses on Indo-Aryan languages (e.g. Hindi, Urdu, Kashmiri, Mankiyali, and Romani or “Gypsy” language) and Burushaski. She strives to facilitate an academic environment that fosters international engagement and cross-cultural collaborations and helps reinforce student abilities and talents. As department chair, she will continue using her wisdom to advocate for students by finding collaborators for internships and future job opportunities. Dr. Munshi has demonstrated the leadership experience needed for a supportive environment where faculty and staff thrive and students succeed.

JUNIOR FACULTY RESEARCH

JUNIOR

FACULTY RESEARCH

Research Title: The Impact of Graphic Novels on Readers Abstract: The availability of graphic novels continues to increase, yet gatekeepers are divided over the usefulness of this format for young readers. This project examines the impact of graphic novels on readers from a variety of perspectives.

Dr. Hsia-Ching Chang Information Science

Dr. Lingzi Hong Information Science

Research Title: Mobile Data Breaches: Situational Analysis Mapping and Data Storytelling

Research Title: Impact of #MeToo on UN Women 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign.

Abstract: This project applies situational analysis and computational grounded theory to illustrate the stories behind mobile data breaches, thus designing digital nudges to facilitate behavior change toward taking mobile security precautions.

Dr. Sarah A. Evans Information Science

Abstract: We analyze social media data to model how the unorganized, unfunded and mainly individual-lead discussions impact the framing and attitudes of discussions in the massively funded and institution-driven Campaigns.

JUNIOR FACULTY RESEARCH

Dr. Rose Baker Learning Technologies

Dr. Taraka Rama Kasicheyanula Linguistics

Research Title: Closing the Gap between Education and Professional Practice

Research Title: Where did languages of South India originate?

Abstract: This is a collaboration with chemical education faculty to evaluate curricular changes and establish a baseline to assess the impact of new learning technology tools. This is part of a body of research to assess the skills necessary for entry and success in careers. Other careers researched have been talent developers, engineers, and truck drivers.

Abstract: The 20 or more languages of South India are known as Dravidian languages. Some archaeologists believe these languages were originally spoken by an extinct civilization in modern day Pakistan. Some linguists believe these languages from South India. We apply cutting-edge computational methods to language data to validate the two hypotheses.

Dr. Alecia Hayes Learning Technologies

Dr. Alexis Palmer Linguistics

Research Title: Virtual Reality for training often relies on users’ relationships with others in virtual experiences.

Research Title: Improving Automatic Detection of Offensive Language Online

Abstract: This research compares users’ experiences with high fidelity versus low fidelity avatars in training scenarios. The constructs for the study are social presence, learning outcomes, and satisfaction. Partners for this project are UCF CREST and Samsung.

Abstract: Many platforms for online interaction are plagued by rampant, often anonymous, use of abusive and offensive language, and human moderators need help! We are developing new methods for automatically detecting offensive language, specifically targeting problems of bias and limited coverage.

FUNDED RESEARCH LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES Active External Awards: $2.3 Million INFORMATION SCIENCE Grant title: REU Site:Data Analytics and Information Retrieval Grantor: National Science Foundation Grant Amount: $379,879 PI: Junhua Ding, Professor The REU Site provides high-quality research and mentoring environments for undergraduate students to build data science research experiences. The project involves a ten-week research program in data analytics and information retrieval for ten undergraduate students each summer. The faculty-student interaction, as well as interaction among students, consists of daily scrum meetings, lectures, tutorials, weekly meetings, presentations, research seminars, faceto-face and online discussions, and field trips to research labs and high tech companies.

Grant title: Literacy to Go Grantor: Dollar General Literacy Foundation Grant Amount: $4,000 PI: Daniella Smith, Associate Professor The “Literacy to Go” project provides storytime kits and prekindergarten storytimes for businesses, homeschools, and childcare facilities. The project utilizes a variety of genres, multicultural texts, and activities to facilitate a love of reading and the development of emergent literacy skills. STEM concepts are incorporated to help the children develop skills that may lead to STEM careers in the future.

Grant title: Research and Evaluation for Hawaii STEM Pre-Academy Grantor: Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii (RCUH) Grant Amount: $130,000 PI: Gerald Knezek, Regents Professor/Co-Director of Institute for the Integration of Technology into Teaching and Learning (IITTL) and Rhonda Christensen, Research Professor/Co-Director of IITTL The goal of the project is to foster middle school students’ appreciation and awareness for environmental sciences through the innovative application of technology and interdisciplinary studies into the study of the natural world. This teacher-driven multidisciplinary program helps public middle school educators develop and implement research and technology-based student curriculum. The project utilizes surveys and other assessment instruments to evaluate environmental literacy and disposition toward sustainability and technology integration.

Grant title: NASA STEM Research Grantor: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Grant Amount: $1,230,583 PI: Gerald Knezek, Regents Professor/Co-Director of Institute for the Integration of Technology into Teaching and Learning (IITTL) and Rhonda Christensen, Research Professor/Co-Director of IITTL The UNT partnership with NASA aims at getting students excited about space science. The program involves giving schools, science centers, museums and libraries access to technology-enhanced, hands-on space science activities. IITTL/UNT and dozens of science education and technology partners nationwide are working with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center on a five-year mission to encourage interest in space science. UNT will provide a formative and summative evaluation of the products/programs spawned through the STEM Innovation Lab at Goddard, vetted and refined in the Design Research Lab at UNT, and pilot-tested in informal learning environments to produce a research base of technology-infused activities related to Space Science.

Grant title: Exploring Methods and Techniques for Facilitating Access to Digital Language Archives Grantor: Institute of Museum and Library Services Grant Amount: $49,984 PI: Oksana Zavalina, Associate Professor, Shobhana Chelliah, Professor/Associate Dean of Research & Development, and Mark Phillips, Associate Dean University Libraries

Grant title: Women’s Leadership Award

This collaborative project seeks to identify the gaps between the information organization methods and techniques currently offered in existing language data archives and the needs of actual and potential language data archive users. This planning project seeks to provide necessary background information and preparation for a forthcoming project that will aim to extend the usefulness of existing language data archive collections through a user-centerd design of systems incorporating the efficient methods and techniques for providing digital access to language data collections at scale.

The award provides an opportunity to participate in a year-long learning experience designed to inspire and strengthen women leaders.

Grantor: Private Foundation Grant Amount: $7,500 PI: Lin Lin, Professor

FUNDED RESEARCH LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES Grant title: Virtual Reality-Based Assessment of Functional Capacities in Individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease or Alzheimer’s Disease Related Dementia Grantor: University of Texas at Tyler (Department of Defense-Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs) Grant Amount: $129,773 PI: Thomas Parsons, Professor/Director of Computational Neuropsychology and Simulation (CNS) Laboratory/Director of the NetDragon Digital Research Centre This subcontract award with UT-Tyler for the DoD-CDMRP involves 1) developing and maintaining virtual environments to support gerontology needs; 2) computational modeling and data analysis of neuropsychological assessments; and 3) database development and preparation of data for publication/presentation.

Grant title: Student Support for the IEEE VR 2019 Doctoral Consortium Grantor: National Science Foundation Grant Amount: $17,000 PI: Aleshia Hayes, Assistant Professor The 2019 Doctoral Consortium builds on the momentum of the doctoral consortium (DC) held at the 2013-2018 IEEE Virtual Reality (VR) conferences. This follow-on event provides a unique, interactive, supportive, and prestigious mentoring opportunity for select graduate students in VR at any level.

LINGUISTICS Grant title: Dene/Athabaskan Conference Grant title: Political Instabiity and Language Endangerment Grantor: National Science Foundation Grant Amount: $42,515 PI: Shobhana Chelliah, Professor/Associate Dean of Research & Development, Kimi King, Professor, and James Meernik, Professor The workshop brings together political scientists and linguists to investigate the relationship between political instability and language endangerment. The goal is to gain new understandings of language endangerment through the perspective of political science and instability due to 1) war and conflict; 2) economically forced migration; and 3) national language policies.

Grant title: Political Instabiity and Language Endangerment Grantor: National Science Foundation Grant Amount: $42,515 PI: Shobhana Chelliah, Professor/Associate Dean of Research & Development, Kimi King, Professor, and James Meernik, Professor The workshop brings together political scientists and linguists to investigate the relationship between political instability and language endangerment. The goal is to gain new understandings of language endangerment through the perspective of political science and instability due to 1) war and conflict; 2) economically forced migration; and 3) national language policies.

Grant title: Investigation of Tonogensis and Consonant Inventories Through Language Documentation Grantor: National Science Foundation Grant Amount: $284,728 PI: Sadaf Munshi, Associate Professor/Chair of Linguistics Department

FUNDED RESEARCH

The primary goal of this project is to create a digital corpus of Mankiyali - a highly endangered language of northern Pakistan belonging to the so-called Dardic group of the Indo-Aryan language family. Documentation of Mankiyali is urgent as only a small group of 500 stigmatized speakers remains. The research team will collect video and audio recordings of connected speech in various genres including folktales, legends, historical accounts, personal narratives, natural conversations, poems, folk songs, proverbs, and riddles. The documentation materials will be archived at the University of North Texas Digital Collections Library.

Grant title: NVIDIA Data Science -U4 Titan V GPUs Grantor: NVIDIA Foundation Grant Amount: Equipment grant PI: Alexis Palmer, Assistant Professor, and Taraka Kasicheyanula, Assistant Professor This equipment grant provides the Linguistics Department with four U4 Titan V GPUs for computational linguistics projects.

Grant title: TLC - Language Learning and Health Outcomes Grantor: The Language Conservancy (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) Grant Amount: $30,000 PI: Shobhana Chelliah, Professor/Associate Dean of Research & Development This subcontract award with the Language Conservancy includes conducting a broad study of Native American tribal groups in the United States. This project studies whether indigenous language programs will correspond to increased levels of wellbeing and better health outcomes for participants. While the short-term educational outcomes of indigenous language learning are clear, this project addresses long-term educational outcomes and health impacts.

REU DATA SCIENCE

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS ASIS&T Chapter of the Year 2019

Dr. Junhua Ding (Principal Investigator) and Dr. Jiangping Chen (Co-Principal Investigator) and a team of COI scientists have embarked on a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) project (#1852249). This $359,879 award for the threeyear project to the University of North Texas will bring young students to new ways of learning and research. The REU provided selected students with research projects that they could develop and implement under close collaboration with UNT experts in data science, linguistics, and information science.

Last year, UNT students came to Vancouver to pick up the award for chapter of the year. This year they will make another trip to pick up a second chapter of the year award. This year’s award came with better understanding of what it means to be a part of ASIS&T and the passion to create a regional chapter. “Having a regional chapter will allow for us to have a bigger presence and participation in the next conference,” says Ana Roecheley, President UNT ASIS&T.

The “REU Site: Data Analytics and Information Retrieval” focuses on research experiences in data analytics and information retrieval to help students develop broadly applicable research skills such as how should data be cleaned, formatted, organized, queried? The students will also discuss how should results be disseminated and what was the point of the research in the first place? The site leverages the expertise of the faculty mentors in data analytics, computational linguistics, and information retrieval to develop state-of-the-art integrated research projects in data analytics and information retrieval. The research projects cover the fundamental issues in algorithms, models, tools, and applications of both data analytics and information retrieval. The sample research projects include: • Data analytics of biomedical images • Content based image retrieval • Information retrieval of large-scale text collections • Social media information retrieval for disaster research Each year for the next three years, selected undergraduates will embark on a ten-week research project of their selection. During the ten-week period, each student engages in closely mentored research, under advising of a faculty mentor, in one major research topic in data analytics and information retrieval. The faculty-student interaction, as well as interaction among students, take many different forms. The project supports continual mentoring of students after the summer program.

The Association for Information Science and Technology announced the University of North Texas (UNT) Student Chapter as the winner of the 2018 ASIS&T Student Chapter of the Year award. In selecting UNT ASIS&T student chapter for the award, the jury considered the chapter’s membership, activities, communications, financial and administrative management, and contributions to ASIS&T and the broader information science community. The award committee was impressed by the variety and quality of chapter activities, including the Multidisciplinary Information Research Symposium 2018 that attracted more than 80 attendees. The success of this event had galvanized chapter members and other students who attended the event and pledged to get involved with the future chapter events. The chapter uses every opportunity to collaborate with the faculty, staff, and other organizations in order to increase its value for its members.

Fulbright Scholars

In 2019, the COI announced three Fulbright Scholars, two from the Linguistics department and one from Information Science. Madison Muniz, a Linguistics graduate resides currently in Greece. Where she works as an English teaching assistant and helps teach the English language to elementary level students. It is the goal of the Fulbright program for scholars to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of Greece.

Fulbright Scholar and Linguistics graduate Kristen Acker accepted an English Teaching Assistantship in Germany. She will also be teaching students English and educating them about the United States. Fulbright ETA award winners are acting ambassadors of their home country and university.

Dr. Daniel Alemneh, adjunct professor of Information Science, accepted a Fulbright Scholar appointment in Ethiopia. He will be working to develop digital library structures and framework to support local universities and organizations. In his position as Digital Curation Unit Supervisor with UNT Libraries, Alemneh has worked previously with Ethiopian university faculty to review curriculum for digital library development. Like many countries, Ethiopia has a rich history, which due to limited technical resources and knowledge, very little is accessible digitally. Alemneh’s project will aim to bridge this gap and complement existing efforts by promoting and optimizing best practices to create and maintain sustainable digital libraries.

IMPORTANT EVENTS CODE

C.O.D.E. (Career Opportunities, Directions, and Exploration) is a series focused on students and future career options. The goal of this event is to inform undergrad students of career opportunities in their field, connect alums and professionals to our college. This also serves as a recruitment opportunity for students who may be interested in the three COI departments. The purpose is also to inspire prospective students interested in COI degrees by demonstrating how our programs intersect with their fields of study. This is a collaboration between the college, departments and career center. The event can be a panel discussion, online presentation or networking opportunity.

IMPORTANT EVENTS INFOTalks - Research Showcase

The College of Information is actively seeking ways to bring all three departments together for events focused on cohesion and cross-pollination. Often faculty members may not know the types of research taking place with their colleagues, so INFOTalks, created as a research showcase where participants were encouraged to present to their COI colleagues. Faculty members were asked to keep their presentation short almost like an Ignite speech. INFOTalks presentations allowed research to be displayed as a talk, poster or digital presentation in their area of expertise/experience. Featured topics of COI research included some of the following topics: • • •

• • • •

CORSAL

Since 2017, UNT Faculty from Linguistics, Information Science, Computer Science and Anthropology began partnering with the UNT Digital Library to create a repository for South Asian languages at UNT. The hosting of this repository known as CoRSAL (Computational Resource on South Asian Languages) will house data in formats that can be easily accessed and used by non-linguists and linguists for a range of purposes including language science, computational linguistics, language reclamation and revitalization, language teaching and investigations into diverse cultures and histories. The CHARN-funded symposium seeks to gain advice from experienced language curators, data depositors, and archivists in the practical and scientific challenges in creating such a resource The 2019 featured speakers include Umarani Pappuswamy, Fakhruddin Akhunzada, Ramesh Gaur.

DFW Metroplex Linguistics Conference

The DFW Metroplex Linguistics conference rotates in turn to each of these area institutions: University of Texas at Arlington, University of North Texas, Dallas International University, and Texas A&M University-Commerce. UNT Linguistics hosted the 2019 meeting. Faculty and students from the four institutions presented talks and posters on ongoing linguistic research to a packed house on the UNT campus.

LEPI

Jeff Allen - How do we foster wisdom? Adam Chavez - The state of the web Demetria Ennis-Cole - Reflections from a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Camp Designed for Learners with Disabilities Brian O’Connor - Counterfactual Images – Excavating Memories Alexis Palmer - Using cross-lingual transfer learning to build NLP tools for low-resource languages Haj Ross - Who needs poetry? Scott Warren - Metrics for measuring return on investment with educational VR tools to improve financial decision making with university resources.

Thousands of communities are displaced each year due to political violence and a grant from the National Science Foundation provided the groundwork for a meeting of the minds at the Language Endangerment and Political Instability or simply LEPI conference. Linguistics Professor, Shobhana Chelliah, initiated the idea along with co-collaborators Political Science Professors Kimi King and James Meernik from the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. Professors from universities across the country came to Denton to discuss the following topics and themes: • • • • • • •

Global English debates Bridging political theory and applied linguistics/language policy The intersection of language endangerment and political instability Role of language in political theory and political science Language conflict and rights Linguistic human rights Language spread due to war and population movement, colonization, education, and urbanization

The breakout session topics focused on new research projects, joint methodological approaches, state policy and violence that leads to linguistic disempowerment. Jeff Good, a professor from the University at Buffalo served as the keynote speaker. The results from the conference were written up for a white paper. An additional day of the conference held at the Smithsonian Castle in Washington D.C. months after the symposium in Denton. The Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage in partnership with COI’s Department of Linguistics, hosted a second day of discussion as a part of the 2019 United Nations Year of Indigenous Languages observation. The discussion titled ‘Voices in Dangerous Times - Conversations with experts about the loss of language diversity & violence.’

IMPORTANT EVENTS MIRS

Multi-interdisciplinary Information Research Symposium (MIRS) is a one-day research symposium co-hosted by the University of North Texas, College of Information, the UNT ASIS&T Student Chapter and SLANT. The symposium is designed to showcase the research efforts of information scholars and practitioners researching information and its impact on people. The research presented is about a range of topics including information technology, cybersecurity, information organization, archival theory, library science, computer science, linguistics, data science and much more.

IN THE COMMUNITY Summer Camps

The Departments of Learning Technology (LT) and Linguistics (LING) held the 2019 Summer Camps. LT SciQuest Camp: Twenty-four sixth graders from Sanger Middle School had the opportunity to explore Virtual Reality, 3D printing, drone flying, robots, and augmented reality technologies. Introduction to these technologies better amplifies campers play and exploration activity. The Institute for the Integration of Technology into Teaching and Learning (IITTL) program, a part of the Learning Technologies Department, held a demonstration of the camp at the Dallas Arboretum which included investigations about NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.

The theme for MIRS 2019: Information, Language and Power. Some of the sessions included the following topics: • Health Informatics • Promoting Partnership and Interdisciplinary for LIS Education • Artificial Intelligence and Augmented reality information and media. Keynote speaker Susan Gehr, a reference librarian at College of the Redwoods, who discussed documenting endangered Languages grant Karuk Archives and Accessibility Project. During MIRS the Linda Schamber Awards were handed out to several student presenters: 1. Tara Zimmerman, for her paper “Communicating in a Facebook World: Understanding Information Behavior of Social Media Users,” $500 award. 2. Schenita Floyd, for her paper “A High-Level View of Data Visualization and its Impact on Big Data,” tied second, $250 award. 3. Jennie Larry Johnson, for her paper “K-12 Personalized Learning Communities: A Systematic Literature Review,” tied second, $250 award.

The Linguistics Department hosted the Second Annual Language Explorers Camp, in the Environmental Science building on the main UNT campus. The camp covered an overview of language science for kids in grades 8-12. Campers covered geography, history, physics of sound, data collection methods and problems solving skills.

Best Poster Award: Kristy Wahlert and Ashley Balcazar- “The Passive Side of Sexual Violence: A Linguistic Analysis of the ICTY “Landmark Cases,” $100 award. Best Dissertation Presentation Award: Hammad Khan “Understanding the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSA) of Data Professionals in United States Academic Libraries,” $100 award.

U.S. China Smart Ed Conference

The Learning Technologies department participated in the 2019 US-China Smart Education Conference held March 18-20, 2019 at UNT. The Denton site was selected to host the fourth annual conference and the first site in the United States. Technology experts, industry leaders, developers and educators from all stages of learning came to examine the role of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies play in the evolution of smart education. Some of the activities included a virtual reality showcase, panel discussions, gaming tournament, an Ed Tech business pitch competition and racing simulators. Drone demonstrations also attracted large crowds. Promethean’s Steve Halliwell was the keynote speaker. Other guest speakers included Liu Dejian is the founder and Chairman of NetDragon, one of China’s leading online game and mobile internet operations companies.

Arts and Jazz Festival

COI faculty, staff and students volunteered for the first ever, COI booth at the Denton Arts and Jazz Festival. All three days of the event the college set out to engage with the public and talk about all things COI. The spinning prize wheel captured the attention of people walking past, and games like ‘Language of Now,’ helped community members engage with students from the linguistics department.

DISCOVERY SERIES

Daryl Baldwin

In 2019, During the International year of indigenous languages, the University of North Texas welcomed Daryl Baldwin. COI co-sponsored with CLASS as part of a UNT wide celebration of the UN Year of Indigenous Languages. Baldwin, a McCarthy Genius Fellow, used archives to revive and teach his heritage language of Miami. He traveled to the Smithsonian and other repositories to assist him on his quest for this knowledge. Mr. Baldwin breathed life into his heritage language, Miami, which was lying dormant for many years as the last fluent speaker passed away in the mid-1800s. Now, there are many Miami learners and even some fluent speakers. He could not have accomplished this without the Miami material from National Archives. Mr. Baldwin and linguist David Costa used Miami language documentation in the archives to revive this sleeping language. Language documentation and digital language archives are key to cultural and linguistic preservation and revitalization for all communities but especially for the indigenous and lower-resourced languages of the world that are fast disappearing.

Susan Gehr

Discovery Series speaker Susan Gehr gave the keynote address for MIRS (Multi-Interdisciplinary Research Symposium). Her presentation titled, I’ll Do It Myself! and other Strategies in Karuk Language Documentation and Revitalization, focused on the use of tribal language programs. She also discussed what it was like to complete a task like language revitalization, while only being able to employ a few or at times a sole staff member with limited background knowledge. Gehr, discussed connections and disjuncture that exist between disciplines like linguistics, library and information sciences, archival science, computer science, and Native American studies. Several years into learning to speak Karuk through community classes and participating in the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival’s Master-Apprentice Language Learning Program, Gehr finished an MA in linguistics. She went on to work on the Karuk language documentation and co-publishing the Karuk Dictionary with linguist William Bright. Gehr is currently a reference librarian at College of the Redwoods, a Co-Convener of the Institute for Collaborative Language Research (CoLang) and the PI for the Karuk Tribe’s Documenting Endangered Languages grant Karuk Archives and Accessibility Project.

Shrabani Basu

The College of Information welcomed Discovery Series speaker Shrabani Basu is the author and journalist behind the best-selling book turned Hollywood movie ‘Victoria and Abdul’. The book portrays the real-life relationship between Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her Indian Muslim servant Abdul Karim. Basu’s work relied heavily on access and interpretation or archived journals, maps and newspapers in both British and Indian libraries. Considering much of the correspondence between Queen Victoria and Abdul were destroyed, Basu also used journals and diaries from those close to the queen. The event was also a part of the “Imperial Legacies of 1919” conference with the UNT History Department. Attendees were treated to a viewing of the movie followed by a discussion with Basu and Dr. Shobhana Chelliah of the Linguistics department.

Ray Schroeder

The Learning Technologies department welcomed Ray Schroeder Artificial Intelligence, The Workforce, and the Future of Higher Education Ray Schroeder is Professor Emeritus, Associate Vice Chancellor for Online Learning at the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) and Senior Fellow, Founding Director of the National Council for Online Education at the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA). The advent of artificial intelligence and allied technologies is creating a fourth industrial revolution around the globe. As these technologies evolve and become integrated into business and industry, jobs are eliminated at the same time new jobs are created. This churn is rapid, significant and ongoing. As a result we in higher education are challenged with teaching students for jobs that do not exist, for careers that have not yet been imagined, and for an uncertain future. Emerging in higher education today is a pattern of lifelong learning to serve the “60 year learner.” This presentation will probe these changes and provide resources to understand, track and prepare for the changes to come.

Nigel Thurlow

Toyota Connected, Toyota Production System, Agile and Lean in the workplace, and research in the team science The College of Information welcomed Nigel Thurlow of Toyota Connected, Lean Evangelist, Agile and Scrum Coach & Continuous Improvement Advocate. Agile is a methodology used for project management. Thurlow was greeted by about thirty students and faculty members in Willis Library, where he gave a brief overview of his experience with Toyota and how their project management systems help them to compete in the auto industry. Thurlow’s career experiences span more than 25 years in, international business across a broad spectrum of industry sectors. He has had a strong concentration and enormous success in Enterprise Program Management helping to embody Lean and Agile cultures. Thurow evangelizes about quality improvement and waste avoidance and uses his Toyota years as a foundation for teaching how to get more, for less while continuously improving the organization to deliver better value to the customer. Thurlow’s lecture was followed by a panel discussion lead by Learning Technologies Professor John Turner with Independent Agile Coach Jon Jorgensen and Jo Ann Kern, Director of Project Management at Tarleton State University.

CELEBRATING 80 YEARS IS 80th Anniversary The Department of Information Science celebrated 80 years of service. The “iSchool” boasts nationally ranked programs, awarding-winning faculty and students. The department is home to one of the oldest LIS programs in the nation, the history of the program has created an impressive list of connected alumni, professional collaborators and friends. During the anniversary banquet two outstanding Alumni were recognized, Dr. Abby Goodrum (97, PhD), and Ms. Melissa Rethlefsen 2004 (MS-LIS). Department Chair Jiangping Chen credits the deep dedication of IS department alums and friends, both of whom supported and contributed 1.2 Million in scholarships the past seven years. Dr. Chen said, “the IS department is fortunate with generous support and gifts from our alumni, faculty and others who care about the department.”

“the IS department is fortunate with generous support and gifts from our alumni, faculty and others who care about the department.” -Dr. Jiangping Chen

Professor Emeritus, Dr. Phil Turner recounted how web-based instruction was incorporated into UNT curriculum. The energy for this new instruction began with Information Science, he said, “We developed the Web Institute and a signature approach to offering the masters that is still unique today.” The IS Department developed relationships with academic and public libraries throughout the country, and eventually, the world, which hosted UNT cohorts. Turner credits the university-wide involvement in distance/distributed learning provided the opportunity to develop policies that enabled the department to finance the delivery of these efforts and create revenue streams that supported other important programs in the school. It’s because of pioneering departments such as this one, UNT became the largest public provider of online instruction in Texas. During the banquet program, department staff honored the passing of long time faculty member Dr. Don Cleveland. Former COI Dean Herman Totten gave a brief eulogy on Dr. Cleveland’s life and legacy in the department.

“We developed the Web Institute and a signature approach to offering the masters, that is still unique today.” -Dr. Phil Turner 23

UNT College of Information 1155 Union Circle #311068 Denton, Texas 76203 College Administration

Dean’s Staff

DEAN Kinshuk, Ph.D. Kinshuk@unt.edu

Executive Administrator for the Dean Ericka Sisk ericka.sisk@unt.edu

ASSOCIATE DEAN OF ACADEMICS Yunfei Du, Ph.D. yunfei.du@unt.edu

Financial Officer Rochelle Sykes rochelle.sykes@unt.edu

ASSOCIATE DEAN OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Shobhana Chelliah, Ph.D. shobhana.chelliah@unt.edu CHAIR, DEPT OF LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES Tandra Tyler Wood, Ph.D. tandra.tyler-wood@unt.edu CHAIR, DEPT OF INFORMATION SCIENCE Jiangping Chen, Ph.D. jiangping.chen@unt.edu CHAIR, DEPT OF LINGUISTICS Sadaf Munshi, Ph.D. sadaf.munshi@unt.edu

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Call us 940-565-2445

Administrative Assistant Jakob Bressler jakob.bressler@unt.edu Web Content Manager Adam Chavez adam.chavez@unt.edu Communications Specialist Ava W. Jones ava.jones@unt.edu Assistant to the Associate Deans Melissa Robinson melissa.robinson@unt.edu Senior Research Analyst/Grant Writer/ Pre-Award Administrator Janet Thompson janet.thompson@unt.edu