The following iSchool faculty and students participated in the virtual portion of iConference 2024 from April 15-18. The in-person portion of the conference will be held in Changchun, China, from April 22-26. The theme of this year’s conference is "Wisdom, Well-being, Win-win."

PhD student Emily Wegrzyn has been selected for the prestigious Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship-for-Service Program, which is funded by the Department of Defense. The primary aim of this program is to increase the number of civilian engineers and scientists in the U.S. 

When the Fighting Illini men's basketball team played in the Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Tournament this spring, BSIS student John Kramer was on the sidelines for each game—not simply as a fan but as a team manager. This is the second year that Kramer, a sophomore from Huntley, Illinois, has served in this role.

After graduating with his BSIS degree in May, Colton Keiser will head to St. Louis to work as an internal audit and financial advisory consultant with Protiviti. He gained experience in auditing while working as an intern for the Montgomery County Public Defender in his hometown of Hillsboro, Illinois.

MSLIS students Yung-hui Chou, Alice Tierney-Fife, and Elizabeth Workman are the winners of this year’s Graduate Student Exhibit Contest, sponsored by the University of Illinois Library. Their exhibit, "Culture and Cuisine in Diaspora: A Hidden Library Collection," displays items from seven campus libraries.

Senior Lecturer Kevin Trainor has been selected by the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) to receive the 2024 Karen Wold Level the Learning Field Award. This award honors exemplary members of faculty and staff for advocating and/or implementing instructional strategies, technologies, and disability-related accommodations that afford students with disabilities equal access to academic resources and curricula. 

Assistant Professor JooYoung Seo and Mine Dogucu, professor of statistics in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California Irvine, have coauthored a chapter in the new book Teaching Accessible Computing. The goal of the book, which is edited by Alannah Oleson, Amy J. Ko and Richard Ladner, is to help educators feel confident in introducing topics related to disability and accessible computing and integrating accessibility into their courses.

Fifty-five iSchool instructors were named in the University's List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent for Fall 2023. The rankings are released every semester, and results are based on the Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) questionnaire forms maintained by Measurement and Evaluation in the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. 

After spending some time in the defense IT industry, Michael Ferrer decided to return to school for his MSIM degree to gain skills in areas such as data visualization and advance his career. Outside of his studies, Ferrer is a competitive ballroom dancer and member of the Illinois Army National Guard.

The Community Data Clinic (CDC), a mixed methods data studies and interdisciplinary community research lab led by Associate Professor Anita Say Chan, has released the first episode of its new podcast, ConnectED: Tech for All. Community partners on the podcast include the Housing Authority of Champaign County, Champaign-Urbana Public Health District, Project Success of Vermilion County, and Cunningham Township Supervisor’s Office.