The School of Information Studies (iSchool) is pleased to welcome 7 new doctoral students in the incoming Fall 2016 cohort.
Nata Barbosa, from Joinville, Santa Catarina, Brazil, received his B.S. in Computer and Information Sciences from Centro Universitário – Católica de Santa Catarina. He spent time as an undergraduate exchange student at Syracuse University from 2013-2014. His research interests include human-computer interaction, privacy, security, user modeling, personalization, and ubiquitous computing.
Sarah Bratt, from Jamesville, NY, received her B.A. in Philosophy from Ithaca College, and her M.S. in Library and Information Science from the iSchool, along with a Certificate of Advanced Study in Data Science. Her research interests include data science, social networks, scienometrics, machine learning, and computational social science.
Shannon Morrison, from Atlanta, GA, received her A.B. in Sociology from the College of Charleston (SC). Her research interests include human-centered computing, online communities, and digital sociology.
Emily Olshefski, from Caldwell, NJ, received her Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics, Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences from Purdue University, and her M.A. in Applied Linguistics from Montclair State University. Her research interests include data science, natural language processing, machine learning, opinion research, and social media.
Chaye Parker, from Annapolis, MD, received her B.A. in Modern Languages and Linguistics and her M.A. in Intercultural Communication from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and her M.S. in Management Information Systems from the University of Arizona. Her research interests include the social aspects of information, communication related to information access and transfer, government information sharing and efficiency, network analysis, and information technology policies.
Jennifer Sonne, from Hamilton, NY, received her B.A. in Comparative Literature from Hamilton College, and her M.S. in Library and Information Science from Drexel University. Her research interests include emotion and affect, information practices, gender, technology, web and social media, and affective information behavior.
Qunfang Wu, from Shandong, China, received her B.A. in Information Management and Systems and her M.S. in Information Science from Peking University in Beijing, China. Her research interests include data science, data mining, health informatics, evaluation methodology, scienometrics, and computational social science.
“This year’s cohort of incoming doctoral students is the largest group of new students since 2008 and reflects the depth of the applicant pool from which they were selected,” remarked Professor Steve Sawyer, director of the iSchool’s doctoral program.
“We’re honored that these seven scholars selected the iSchool and Syracuse University,” Sawyer continued, “and we’re particularly pleased to welcome such a diverse group relative to gender, race, nationality, intellectual interest, and educational background. We are excited that so many are immediately engaging in funded research and working across computational social science, human-computer-interaction, natural language processing, distributed scientific collaboration and other projects.”