“A Day without a Search Engine: An Experimental Study of Online and Offline Search.”

With help from a research award from Google, Professor Yan Chen (along with Grace YoungJoo Jean and Yong-Mi Kim) explored how much time people save by using search engines for their information needs, and the extent to which online search affects search experiences and outcomes. Their results are reported in the paper “A Day without a Search Engine: An Experimental Study of Online and Offline Search.”

“Temporal Dynamics of Scientific Discipline”

Assistant Professor Eytan Adar is working collaboratively with Microsoft to study the evolution of scientific and engineering discoveries over time in a project called “Temporal Dynamics of Scientific Discipline.” The unprecedented availability of digital versions of scientific literature is making it possible to deeply understand the process by which individuals, institutions, and fields create new knowledge and leverage the old.   The financial resources provided by Microsoft will enable funding of students and equipment for this project.

“Bing Agent and Go Project”

Microsoft is generously supporting the “Bing Agent and Go project,” through a grant awarded to Associate Professor Lada Adamic and Professor Mark Ackerman. 

ExpoSItion

Since 2008 Microsoft has given funds to support awards for ExpoSItion, an annual SI event where master’s students exhibit projects to employers, peers, prospective students, faculty and the U-M community. Students typically exhibit projects that are diverse, cutting edge, and focus on solving real-world information problems.

"Patient Handoffs in Hospitals"

Professor Michael Cohen, through funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is working on “Patient Handoffs between Emergency Department Inpatient Physicians,” a qualitative study to inform standardization of practice and to develop a conceptual framework of the sources and nature of variety in admission handoff practices to highlight the importance of complex situational factors that affect handoff communications and interaction.

This is timely work: limitations on resident work hours, the involvement of communication issues in a significant number of adverse events and regulatory pressure from the Joint Commission to standardize handoff practices together contribute to a pressing need to understand and improve patient handoffs in hospitals.

ExpoSItion

Like Microsoft, Yahoo! also provides support for student awards for outstanding projects at SI’s annual ExpoSItion event.

Yahoo! Speaker Series

The Yahoo! speaker series at SI supports distinguished guest lecturers from the fields of information and technology. Marc Smith, chief social scientist with the Connected Action Social Group presented the 2010 lecture,"Charting Collections of Connections in Social Media: Mapping and Measuring Social Media Networks to Find Key Positions and Structures."

Yahoo! Teaching Awards

Yahoo! initiated these awards in 2009 as a means of recognizing outstanding students who exhibit the highest degree of excellence in teaching. Graduate students teaching courses and/or serving as GSIs at the School of Information during the fall and winter terms of each academic year are eligible for the awards.

Click here to read about this year’s award winners, honored at SI’s annual Research Celebration event.