All posts by Hillary Tune

September 16, 2021 By Hillary Tune

Student Spotlight: Matthew Cowan Brings Knowledge Management to Cybersecurity

Featured Student: Matt Cowan

Location: Knoxville, Tennessee

Education/Career Background: I finished undergraduate in 2014 at the University of Alabama, where I studied geology. Between then and now, I worked largely in real estate and hospitality.

Why information sciences?

I came to the School of Information Sciences because I realized there’s such a gap in how many people understand so many processes and how they have access to those processes – I was interested in that blend of resource development and resource deployment. I’m a generally curious person, I like learning and I like when learning is easy, and finding things … Read more “Student Spotlight: Matthew Cowan Brings Knowledge Management to Cybersecurity”

September 2, 2021 By Hillary Tune

PhD Student Jessica Barfield Named ASIS&T Emerging Scholar for AI Voice Research Done with Professor Dania Bilal

A collaboration between the College of Communication and Information PhD student and School of Information Sciences professor has resulted in innovative research that reaches into the future of AI-powered voice digital assistants and explores how it can be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

This research resulted in a co-authored paper and an award for the doctoral student, Jessica Barfield. Barfield was named the 2021 Emerging Social Informatics Researcher Award from the Association for Information Sciences and Technology (ASIS&T) Special Interest Group in Social Informatics, in part for the paper, “Hey There! What Do You Look Like? User Voice Switching and … Read more “PhD Student Jessica Barfield Named ASIS&T Emerging Scholar for AI Voice Research Done with Professor Dania Bilal”

August 26, 2021 By Hillary Tune

SIS Lecturer and CCI PhD Alum Iman Tahamtan Takes on UX Researcher Role at JP Morgan

It’s been an exciting and transitional summer for Iman Tahamtan, a recently graduated College of Communication and Information doctoral program alum, and now SIS lecturer. Not only did he successfully defend his dissertation in July, but he also stepped into a new role as a senior user experience researcher for the Machine Learning and Intelligence Operations Product team at JP Morgan in Columbus, Ohio.

Though he interviewed for jobs in academia, Tahamtan was offered the UX researcher position and couldn’t pass it up. While many UX researchers are assisting with end products such as a websites or applications, he will … Read more “SIS Lecturer and CCI PhD Alum Iman Tahamtan Takes on UX Researcher Role at JP Morgan”

August 20, 2021 By Hillary Tune

Assistant Professor Brian Dobreski Earns NASKO’s Best Paper Award Examining Aristotle’s ‘Categories’

Brian Dobreski in front of Circle Park What does an ancient Greek philosopher have to do with information sciences? SIS Assistant Professor Brian Dobreski answered that in a spring 2021 special topics course, Knowledge of Organization Systems, when he had students read and discuss Aristotle’s writing, “Categories.” Not only did it provide some interesting discourse, it inspired Dobreski to write a paper, “Re-examining Aristotle’s Categories as a Knowledge Organization System,”an which earned the Best Paper Award at the recent North American Symposium on Knowledge Organization (NASKO) conference.

Spring 2021 was the first time this course was taught at SIS, and its focus is to teach students … Read more “Assistant Professor Brian Dobreski Earns NASKO’s Best Paper Award Examining Aristotle’s ‘Categories’”

August 13, 2021 By Hillary Tune

Professor Dania Bilal: Inaugural IDEA Institute on AI at UT a Success

After a lot of hard work and planning, the inaugural IDEA (Innovation, Disruption, Enquiry, Access) Institute on Artificial Intelligence was successfully launched and completed this July at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

“It exceeded all our expectations and was the first nationwide event, as far as we know, to train people in aspects of AI in library and information environments. We had different types of positions and organizations, from web developers to data scientists and engineers,” she said.

The Institute was born out of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and SIS Professor Dania Bilal … Read more “Professor Dania Bilal: Inaugural IDEA Institute on AI at UT a Success”

August 12, 2021 By Hillary Tune

MSIS Student Diona Eberhart Layden Awarded ALA Spectrum Scholarship

Diona Eberhart Layden is a licensed attorney and has served as a judicial law clerk for the Tennessee Supreme Court, worked in the Davidson County District Attorney General’s Office, and currently serves as a Guardian ad Litem in the Davidson County Juvenile Court. But after two decades of working as a lawyer, she decided she “wanted to do something a little different” and is currently entering her second year in the MSIS program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

She was recently announced as a recipient of an American Library Association Spectrum Scholarship, which “actively recruits and provides scholarships to … Read more “MSIS Student Diona Eberhart Layden Awarded ALA Spectrum Scholarship”

Diversity & Inclusion

July 29, 2021 By Hillary Tune

MSIS Alumna Lara Marler Creates 68 Kindergarten Readiness Backpacks for Bridge Refugee Services in Knoxville

MSIS Alumna Lara Marler

While she was in the MSIS program, Lara Marler (’17) started a passion project to get books into the hands of refugee children in Knoxville, and that project recently came to full fruition in the form of 68 backpacks filled with tools to ready Swahili-speaking children for kindergarten. Each backpack has a picture book in Swahili and related activities and supplies, with a curriculum Marler wrote herself.

This started as a project for one of her MSIS classes that required students to do something for a community organization. At that time there was an ongoing refugee crisis, so Marler chose … Read more “MSIS Alumna Lara Marler Creates 68 Kindergarten Readiness Backpacks for Bridge Refugee Services in Knoxville”

July 14, 2021 By Hillary Tune

MSIS Student Melinda Sandkam Awarded Lemoncello Scholarship

Melinda Sandkam has always had a heart for certain endeavors, including the education of children and youth, and also helping people find the answers they need. This has guided her career, which includes positions as a hotel concierge, church program director, and preschool director. So perhaps it’s not unusual that she decided to pursue information sciences and librarianship as the next branch of her career

“It has always been about seeking the right information, so it has come full circle,” she said.

She still has a passion for working with children, particularly with those who are underserved. That’s one reason … Read more “MSIS Student Melinda Sandkam Awarded Lemoncello Scholarship”

July 2, 2021 By Hillary Tune

New SIS Director Abebe Rorissa Elected to be ASIS&T President

Just as new School of Information Sciences Professor and Director Abebe Rorissa stepped into his role July 1, 2021, it was announced that he was elected to be president of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T). Rorissa’s biography and position statement can be viewed here on the ASIS&T site.

He has been heavily involved with the organization for many years and looks forward to working on the initiatives and strategic plan that ASIS&T has outlined for coming years. Rorissa particularly is interested in making justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion a priority in the work the organization does.… Read more “New SIS Director Abebe Rorissa Elected to be ASIS&T President”

June 18, 2021 By Hillary Tune

SIS Alumni Named as 2021 Movers and Shakers by the Library Journal

Two SIS alumni were recently announced as 2021 Movers and Shakers by the Library Journal: Amber Gregory (’11) as an Advocate and Kelly Passek (’11) as an innovator. The Library Journal states that this list, which features 46 people this year, is comprised of “individuals who are moving the library field forward as a profession.”

Passek was highlighted in a 2020 SIS article about a program she created that uses drones to deliver books to children from the school library where she works in Virginia – you can read her whole story here!

What is an E-Rate Navigator?… Read more “SIS Alumni Named as 2021 Movers and Shakers by the Library Journal”

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

School of Information Sciences
College of Communication and Information