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U-M and SI launch new Information Age major: Informatics
(Sep 2008) University of Michigan undergraduates have a new major on their list of choices, one highly relevant in the age of Google and Web 2.0: informatics.
Informatics is the study of information and the ways information is used by and affects people and social systems. Experts in this field design information technology tools for scientific, business, and cultural needs, and study how such tools are used. Informatics specialists, for example, might help develop the systems that let your doctor quickly share your medical records with a specialist while still ensuring your privacy.
Approved this past spring, informatics is a joint program of the College of Literature, Science, & the Arts; the College of Engineering; and the School of Information. The three U-M schools spent almost two years collaborating on its development.
"The program offers students an opportunity to develop the skills to be leaders in an information-centric world," says Martha E. Pollack, Dean of the School of Information. "Think of the analogy to biology: biology majors are experts in living organisms; informatics majors will be experts in information, in all its forms."
"Tremendous progress in computer science and communications is radically changing the way we do medical science, share and retrieve information, access services, and form communities," adds Professor Farnam Jahanian, chair of Computer Science and Engineering. "Informatics students will apply principles from computer science, statistics, and user-centered design to provide the expertise needed to shape these changes."
Key to the new concentration is its bringing together of both technological and social perspectives to study information. U-M's cross-disciplinary approach gives students a solid grounding in computer science, mathematics, and statistics, combined with study of the ethical and social science dimensions of complex information systems.
"To understand how information technology interacts with social systems, you need to know something about both," says Associate Professor of Information Paul Conway, chair of the new program's steering committee. "Our students explore the ways information and information technology are embedded in society, influencing our economic, political, and cultural systems."
After completing a common set of core courses, informatics students choose one of four concentration tracks:
- computational informatics, in which they design and evaluate usable computing solutions;
- information analysis, in which they analyze and visualize massive datasets;
- life science informatics, in which they apply computation and statistics to problems in life science and biomedical research; or
- social computing, in which they build and evaluate social software applications and study the influences of these systems on society.
Junior Lisa Ferro, the first U-M student to declare the new informatics concentration, says of the major, "I saw it as an exciting opportunity to learn about issues that affect contemporary society. I believe that studying the relationship between information and individuals will lead to ways that we can improve that interaction in the future."
When Ferro and her fellow concentrators graduate, they will be highly qualified for a wide array of IT-industry positions, such as
- business analytics consultant
- data analysis consultant
- data center engineer
- human factors engineer
- information analyst
- information systems developer
- software designer
- usability specialist
Informatics graduates will be well positioned to meet the rapidly growing need for professionals who have not only first-class technology skills but also the larger, humanistic view that will help them develop and deploy that technology to serve human needs. They will also be strong candidates for graduate programs across a range of fields.
To learn more about what informatics is, visit informatics.umich.edu →, or contact program manager Meghan Genovese at informatics@umich.edu.
Support for the development and launch of the informatics concentration was provided by generous grants from the U-M Provost's Multidisciplinary Learning and Team Teaching initiative and the U-M President's Ethics in Public Life initiative.
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