The School of Information kicks off the 2008–09 academic year by welcoming 44 new students and three new professors to South Hall.
New Professor Morten Hansen is a management scholar whose research focuses on knowledge transfer within organizations, particularly the use of social networks for information search and transfer. Assistant Professor Deirdre Mulligan is a JD who writes about the risks and opportunities technology presents to privacy, free expression, and access and use of information goods. Assistant Professor Brian Carver is also a JD whose research focuses on intellectual property rights and information policy in open source and free software.
The MIMS Class of 2010 arrived on campus on Tuesday, August 26, for a day-long orientation, before beginning classes on Wednesday.
Dean AnnaLee Saxenian welcomes the incoming master's class of 2010
Incoming students participate in a team-building exercise in front of South Hall. Group photo (top): Peg Skorpinski; other photos: Jonathan Henke"This is an exceptionally diverse group of students," said Meg St. John, the director of admissions and student services. "We're very impressed by the range of backgrounds that they bring to the program. They have experience in non-profits, academic settings, and the research labs of major international corporations, and they also bring a really global perspective."
The master's degree class includes forty students from seven countries, including Korea, India, Japan, China, the Philippines, and Canada; their undergraduate majors range from economics to philosophy, from computer science to visual arts and photography, and from biochemistry to international studies; 40% have a background in computer science, engineering, or science, while another 40% are from the humanities or fine arts. They range in age from their 20s to their 40s, with an average age of 29; 40% are women and 60% are men.
The students' accomplishments before joining the I School include hiking the length of the Pacific Coast Trail, from Mexico to Canada; working for NASA, for a microcredit foundation in Chile, for Microsoft Research, and for the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic; spending a year as a freelance photographer in Bhutan; playing blues guitar; and co-developing the website AskPhilosophers.org ("You ask, philosophers answer").
The I School also welcomes four new doctoral students this year. Elisa Oreglia returns to the I School after completing the MIMS degree in spring of 2008; she plans to study ICTD (Information & Communication Technologies and Development), with an emphasis on Internet usage among marginalized people in China, such as women, migrant workers, and the rural poor. Daniela Rosner also continues from the master's program, where she emphasized human-computer interaction, computer-mediated communication, and the development of innovative information interfaces; she plans to focus on the social processes involved in the communication of information through the design of visual and physical artifacts.
Neha Kumar joins the doctoral program after completing two master's degrees at Stanford (in computer science and in learning, design, & technology); she also works in ICTD, and is currently researching the use of mobile technology for achieving financial inclusion in rural India. Bob Bell has a B.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford and an M.Div. from Harvard, where he researched agricultural biotechnology and the rural poor in Kenya; he spent the last year working in Geneva, Switzerland, with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He plans to integrate his technological, theological, and policy backgrounds by studying technology development and entrepreneurship in Kenya and other developing countries.