UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Andrea Tapia, associate professor in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology, will deliver the keynote address at the 2018 opening ceremony of the iSchool Inclusion Institute (i3), set for June 19 at the University of Pittsburgh.
In her speech, Tapia will discuss the work of 3C Informatics, a Penn State applied research center that is focused on helping communities make use of large amounts of citizen-produced data. That data, in turn, could improve the speed, quality, and efficiency of emergency response, leading to more lives saved.
“It’s a new world,” explained Tapia. “There is a smartphone in every pocket. Victims and bystanders no longer wait for official communications. And the communications between officials and victims and bystanders are heterogeneous, multichanneled, and multidirectional.”
Tapia’s speech will touch on the ongoing progress of her group’s work to make social media data useful to communities and emergency responders during a crisis. She also will convey to attendees how their education will prepare them to solve similar large-scale human problems.
“What matters now is not the skills you have, but how you think,” she said. “Can you ask the right questions?”
Tapia is an expert in social research methods and social theory. She applies her training to the study of information and communication technologies and their context of development, implementation and use. Her work focuses on the uses and effects of information and communication technologies relative to public social issues.
The i3 is an undergraduate research and leadership development program hosted by the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Computing and Information. The program prepares students from underrepresented populations for graduate study and careers in the information sciences.