ANN ARBOR, Mich., Sept. 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- 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.
"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, giving students a grounding in computer science,
mathematics, and statistics, combined with study of the ethical and social
science dimensions of complex information 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 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 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.
Informatics is a joint program of U-M's College of Literature, Science, & the
