i-fest.pitt.edu was a huge success! Held
November 8-11, this annual celebration showcased the
degree programs, research activities, and career opportunities
available here at SIS. There were more than 10
events held as part of the i-fest festivities – from
demonstrations of IS technology to a keynote address
to the Mother Goose Poetry Slam – each designed
to promote our school and its activities! Thanks
to our corporate event sponsor, Alcoa North America,
for its generous support of the 2006 i-fest.pitt.edu.
  
SIS
would like to acknowledge our other corporate sponsors:
FedEx Ground (sponsor of the Fantastic, Amazing, Great
Race) and Pittsburgh CyberConXion (sponsor of the Gaming
Tournament).
 The
School would also like to thank Raul Valdes-Perez,
Chief Executive Officer of Vivísimo, who delivered
the keynote address at the i-fest luncheon. Dr.
Valdes-Perez discussed how Vivisimo grew from a university
spin-off (of Carnegie Mellon University) to a nationally-recognized
corporation specializing in “Search Done Right.” More
than 80 people attended the luncheon and Dr. Valdes-Perez’s
presentation.
One of the key events was a poster competition for
both undergraduate and graduate students in SIS. This
competition provided an excellent forum for SIS students
to present their work in an informal and interactive
setting. Completed work as well as ongoing research
in all areas — Information Science, Library & Information
Science, and Telecommunications — were accepted.
Congratulations to the winners:
PhD Poster Track
Pratibha Menon – First Prize
“Overflow Networks for Optical Capacity Management”
Maria Harrington – Second
Prize (tie)
“Simulated Ecological Environments for Education”
Chih-Kuang Lin -- Second Prize (tie)
“Efficient Access Control for Data Intensive Sensor Networks”
With Vladimir Zadorozhny and Prashant Krishnamurthy
Demetrios Ioannides – Honorable
Mention
“The Morsoplexis Framework”
Jae-wook Ahn and Sue Yeon Syn – Honorable
Mention
“YourNews: a personalized news filtering system”
With Peter Brusilovsky
Worasit Choochaiwattana – Honorable
Mention
“A Heuristic Rule-Based Approach to Automatic Web Image Analysis for
the Semantic Web”
With Michael B. Spring
Non-PhD Track
Heather Yager and Daniel Saniski – First
Prize
“Cultivating the Database: Natural Language Processing of Fruit
Production Guides by Human Hands”
David Kauffman – Second
Prize
“Using Metadata to Design and Structure State Education Reporting”
Jeff Pferdehirt – Honorable
Mention
“The Use of Virtual Avatars to Facilitate Knowledge Transfer”
For more information about the i-fest activities,
please visit www.i-fest.pitt.edu/events.htm |
