These groups focus on specific research outcomes within the information science field and are led by UMSI faculty.

Accessibility, HCI and Aging (AHA)

The Accessibility, HCI, and Aging (AHA) group consists of doctoral students and faculty across the university who take a human-centered approach to engaging with disability, older adulthood, and computing in their research. AHA is committed to designing and developing more inclusive technologies and draws upon scholarship from disability studies, computer science, human-computer interaction, gerontology, and Science and Technology Studies (STS). Faculty leads: Robin Brewer, Anhong Guo, Sile O'Modhrain

ARC: Archives Research and (digital) Curation

ARC explores core areas of information science related to archival studies, digital curation, recordkeeping, and library science. From these perspectives, the group examines a wide range of knowledge environments in society, such as cultural heritage infrastructure (libraries, archives, and museums), academic scholarship, government and business archives, health, and education. We investigate complex socio-technical problems related to information and digital curation, access, use, and discovery from a diverse array of research perspectives.

Center for Social Media Responsibility (CSMR)

The Center for Social Media Responsibility addresses the negative effects of broad access to the means of public communication, while amplifying positive effects.Technologists at social media companies (product managers, designers, and engineers) are the day to day policy makers of today's social media landscape. The Center for Social Media Responsibility (CSMR) articulates principles and creates metrics and tools that empower technologists to set responsible policy.

Community Health Informatics Lab

The Community Health Informatics Lab focuses on the potential of information systems and services to improve the health and well-being of groups that experience disease-related health disparities. The lab investigates technology-enhanced disease prevention, management, care and support in everyday life contexts, as well as at the interface of clinical and community-based care. UMSI lead is Tiffany Veinot.

Computational Social Science

The University of Michigan School of Information (UMSI) is home to a vibrant community of faculty and PhD students in the area of computational social science. Our research collectively encompasses a wide scope of areas, from social networks to language to political action to theory—and more! We combine cutting-edge methodologies with theory-driven investigation to understand human behavior in its many facets.

Educational Technology Collective

The educational technology collective is a group of students, staff, and faculty who explore the intersections of technology with teaching, learning, and education, with a particular focus on learning analytics, educational data mining, and collaborative engagement. We’re interdisciplinary, and include researchers with backgrounds in computer science, information, psychology, statistics, and more.

ESC: The Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing

The ESC key was added to the computer keyboard to interrupt a program when it produced unwanted results, allowing the system to be critically examined. In the same way, the Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC – pronounced “escape”) is dedicated to intervening when digital media and computing technologies reproduce inequality, exclusion, corruption, deception, racism, or sexism. ESC is a research center and a collective of scholars committed to feminist, justice-focused, inclusive, and interdisciplinary approaches to computing. We are invested in the social, cultural, and political dimensions of digital technologies. We intercede in structures of power and inequality. We work with educators, workers, industrial practitioners, and policymakers. 

Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD)

Scholars in the field of information and communication technologies and development (ICTD) seek to do two things: understand how the world's underserved communities interact with digital technology; and design new technologies, systems and processes to support socioeconomic development. Members of the ICTD group at UMSI conduct research on the sharing economy, lower-income livelihood opportunities, technology and religious institutions, aspirational theories of development, social media in political discourse, and accessibility in the developing world, among other things. We do work in the metropolitan Detroit area as well as in international contexts. 

Information Interaction Lab

The Information Interaction Lab is focused on technical human-computer interaction, particularly augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality.
We investigate new techniques, tools and technologies that enable users to interact with information in more natural and powerful ways, and we also make it easier and faster for designers to create more usable and effective information interfaces. UMSI lead is Michael Nebeling. 

Michigan Autonomous Vehicle Research Intergroup Collaboration (MAVRIC)

Michigan Autonomous Vehicle Research Intergroup Collaboration (MAVRIC) is a cross-campus multidisciplinary collaboration to study autonomous vehicles at the University of Michigan. MAVRIC represents a truly multidisciplinary approach to studying autonomous vehicles. Members of MAVRIC are from the School of Information, Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering and the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute. MAVRIC's research has been sponsored by the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC), Toyota Research Institute (TRI), and MCity/Mobility Transformation Center. UMSI lead is Lionel Robert.

Michigan Data Sciences (MIDAS)

Over the last several years, the research community at the University of Michigan focused on mining large amounts of data (whether structured, semi-structured, textual or multimedia) has grown significantly. MIDAS group members are interested in developing new data mining techniques and are now hosted in several units, including computer science and engineering, information, statistics, linguistics, and mathematics, and also several domain units in the natural sciences, medical sciences, social sciences and humanities, with faculty interested in the use of data mining techniques to advance science in their domain. Several UMSI faculty members are members of MIDAS.

Michigan Interactive and Social Computing (MISC)

Michigan Interactive and Social Computing (MISC) connects researchers studying human computer interaction, social computing and computer-supported cooperative work across the University of Michigan.

Security Privacy Interaction Research Lab (spilab)

Why do people click on phishing links? What are people’s privacy concerns and why do people struggle to manage their privacy in technology contexts? Spilab investigates people’s privacy and security behaviors and decision making; designs, develops and evaluates usable privacy and security interventions and solutions; explores how privacy and security can be integrated into technologies by design; and considers public policy interventions and implications for privacy and security. UMSI lead is Florian Schaub.

Social Media Research Lab

The Social Media Research Lab (SMRL) explores the effects of social media use and online communities in daily, home, school, and work settings.
We draw on theories from computer-mediated communication, media studies, social psychology, science and technology studies, social computing, human-centered computing, justice, health, and accessibility in our research. Our goal is to understand how social media use impacts everyday life and how it can be leveraged to positively impact wellbeing, social relationships, inclusion of marginalized communities, educational outcomes, and civic engagement.

SMRL faculty are: Mark Ackerman, Nazanin Andalibi, Robin Brewer, Nicole Ellison, Eric Gilbert, Oliver Haimson, Libby Hemphill, Cliff Lampe, Casey Pierce, and Sarita Yardi Schoenebeck.

SocialWorlds Research Group

The SocialWorlds research group focuses on collaborative technologies (including computer-supported cooperative work and social computing) and increasingly pervasive computing. UMSI lead is Mark Ackerman. 

Social, Behavioral and Experimental Economics group (SBEE)  

The Social, Behavioral and Experimental Economics (SBEE) group is a collaborative association of faculty from the School of Information, the Ross School of Business and the Department of Economics. The group sponsors a lecture series of speakers from U.S. and international universities who present their research at weekly seminars during the academic year.

Tech.Culture.Matters. 

Tech.Culture.Matters. is a research collective at the University of Michigan focused on the study of the social, technological, political, and material processes of contemporary technology. We share a commitment to critically examine dominant notions of what counts as technological production, innovation, design and use. Our research is multi-sited in nature, rooted in deep ethnographic engagements in diverse regions such as the American Midwest, China, Indonesia, Africa, and Europe. Our methodological toolkit includes ethnography, critical inquiry, research through design, discourse analysis, electronic arts, and critical making. Our work is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing from and contributing to the following fields: Science and Technology Studies (STS), Human-computer interaction (HCI) & Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Cultural Anthropology, Digital Media & Communication Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, China Studies, African Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies.