Several faculty members and doctoral students represented The University of Texas at Austin School of Information at the 2023 Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) Annual Meeting, which was held in London, UK from October 27-31. The theme of the conference was “Making a Difference: Translating Information Research into Practice, Policy, and Action.”
iSchool Dean Eric T. Meyer was a panelist for “Social Informatics Perspectives on Emerging Technologies: The Way Forward,” and associate professor Jacek Gwizdka and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Soo Young Rieh were panelists for “Search Systems and Artificial Intelligence: Enhancing Searching as Learning Approaches to Counter Misinformation”.
Doctoral student Xinyue (Sally) You’s paper, “Social VR: A Promising Platform for Enhancing Mental Wellness Among College Students”, won the Pratt Severn Award, which recognizes the outstanding work of a current graduate student. Associate professor Amelia Acker co-authored a paper with Sarika Sharma, Critical Data Studies Lab Associate, and colleagues from the University of Washington entitled “The New Information Retrieval Problem: Data Availability”. Assistant professor Angela D. R. Smith co-authored a paper with colleagues from George Mason University called “Towards Equitable Healthcare: A Cross-Dataset Analysis of Healthcare and Telehealth Access”. Doctoral student Yao-Cheng Chan and assistant professor Elliott Hauser co-authored “Understanding Reactions in Human-Robot Encounters with Autonomous Quadruped Robots”. Professor Ying Ding co-authored a paper with doctoral student Huimin Xu and other colleagues from UT Austin and Yonsei University titled “Using Explainable AI to Understand Team Formation and Team Impact”. Doctoral students Tina Lassiter and Chelsea Collier co-authored a paper with professor Kenneth Fleischmann and another UT Austin colleague called “Welding Instructors’ Perspectives on Using AI Technology in Welding Training”. Associate professor Yan Zhang co-authored “Exploring Applications and User Experience with Generative AI Tools: A Content Analysis of Reddit Posts on ChatGPT” with colleagues from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Florida State University.
Andrew Dillon presented his award
Andrew Dillon presented his award
Andrew Dillon Receives Award of Merit
Additionally, Professor Andrew Dillon was presented the prestigious Award of Merit, the highest honor presented by the Association. The award recognizes an individual who has made particularly noteworthy and sustained contributions to the information science field. “Recognition from one’s peers for a career’s work is the most meaningful honor a scholar can receive,” Dr. Dillon said, “so I am extremely grateful to my colleagues for their support, and proud to become the first Texas recipient of the ASIST Award of Merit.”
Andrew Dillon is the V.M. Daniel Professor of Information and he served as dean of the iSchool from 2002-2017. As president of ASIS&T in 2013 he oversaw the renaming of the society to increase international representation. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Information and Culture and serves or has served on the editorial boards of numerous journals, including JASIST, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Journal of Documentation, and Interacting with Computers. His research examines the human experience of information space with a focus on the application of psychological theories and methods to the design of technologies to augment human capabilities. Dr. Dillon is the author of more than one hundred publications, including his most recent work, Understanding Users: Designing Experience through Layers of Meaning (Routledge, 2023).