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SI alum scores again with mobile app

May 10, 2011

Prolific application developer Hung Truong (MSI ’09) continues to earn distinction in the semi-annual University of Michigan Mobile Apps Challenge. The spring 2011 winners were just announced, and Hung was runner-up with his new app, Mapskrieg.

Mapskrieg was developed for the iPad, and marries Google maps with Craigslist, allowing users to search for items geographically. See a demo.

Truong works part-time as an application programmer at North Quad. Last fall, he was named first runner-up with his Checkmate for Foursquare app. Enhancing the location-based social networking tool Foursquare, this iPhone app makes the check-in feature automatic when users visit their favorite venues. The app also allows users to share their check-ins on Facebook and Twitter.

While at SI, Truong and two fellow MSI students won the RPM Ventures annual contest that provides support to entrepreneurial start-ups for their company Troubadour Mobile. He continues to develop new applications independently.

The goal of the Mobile Apps competition is to promote entrepreneurial thinking and encourage the U-M community to develop innovative mobile applications.

Categories: Alumni, Entrepreneurs

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SI alumnus Rick Wash to study crowdfunding

May 9, 2011

Rick_WashRick Wash (Ph.D. ’09), assistant professor in the department of Telecommunications, Information Studies and Media and the School of Journalism at Michigan State University, has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant to explore technical problems in the area of “crowdfunding.”

Crowdfunding sites solicit members of the public to contribute small amounts of money for a particular cause. SI students utilized crowdfunding this year to raise funds for the Alternative Spring Break program on the site Crowdrise.com. Such sites are an example of a commonly studied problem called a “matching marketplace,” where two types of people come together to be matched according to some criteria. Other examples include job search sites and online dating sites.

This project brings together ideas from both computer science and economics. Both disciplines study matching problems, but neither has found a completely satisfactory solution in the presence of complementarities. Wash’s research will develop an understanding of the role of complementarities in both of these types of solutions and apply insights across fields to design better methods of matching.

The project will test these ideas in the real world by developing a crowdfunding system. Crowdfunding is increasingly being applied to fund high-quality professional journalism (on sites such as Spot.Us), and improved crowdfunding systems have the potential to be a new funding source for this struggling industry.

Categories: Alumni, Grants

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State of the School address available

March 24, 2011

If you couldn’t make it to the annual State of the School presentation on Tuesday, March 22, you can view the video and slides online. In the presentation, Dean Jeff MacKie-Mason outlines the accomplishments of the School of Information during the past year and speaks about future opportunities.

Categories: Alumni, Faculty, Staff, Students

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Keeping it real, fresh, and local

February 18, 2011

SI alumni Lisa Wheeler (MSI ’09) and Gaurav Bhatnagar (MSI ’09) are now living in Seattle and working for the Ann Arbor-based startup, Real Time Farms. The company’s attractive, newly redesigned website helps people easily find and learn more about farm fresh food near them.

Users of the site can also upload their own information and photos regarding local food sources:  farms, farmers markets, and restaurants that serve locally grown food. Though primarily focused on resources around the Ann Arbor area, the site has national ambitions and already has contributors from New York to California.

Stories about the effort have appeared in Edible Wow, AnnArbor.com, and thekitchn.com, among many other places.

Categories: Alumni, Entrepreneurs
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Victory for ASB declared in Penny Wars

February 14, 2011

Who knew there was so much money in jars and between couch cushions? When it was all totaled, the annual Penny Wars for SI’s Alternative Spring Break student projects came to a whopping $3,151.58. That total included both contributions in person at North Quad and through the Crowdrise online fundraising effort.

Kelly Kowatch, primary strategist of Penny Wars and assistant director of career development at SI, said the faculty/staff/Ph.D. student group took the top honor for donations with $860.11. You can take a look at how each of the Penny Wars combatants made out.

Helping with Penny Wars were Jessie Mannisto, Deborah Nelson, Cassandra Palmer, Hanna Stelman, Jonathan Brier, Melissa Cox, Caitlin Holman, Mallory Hood, Kayla Lenkner, Jessica Scott, Lisa Marchessault, Kendra Tsai, Whitney Ferdon, Mo Ibrahim, Meg Hixon, Steve Cherry, Ted McCarthy, Liu Liu, Elena Azadbakht, Kayla Ondracek, Jerry Marshall, Hilary Townsend, Owen Ellis, Shi Chen, Natalie Bond, Cassandra Palmer, Stephanie Smith, Becky Chu, Aravindh Baskaran, Emily Rosengren, Killian Escobedo, Marshall Rinek, Candra Gill, Catherine Hrbal, Emily Thompson, Elena Azadbakht, Anne Cox, Graham Hukill, Karen Stover, Katy Ross, and Andrea Rotter.

Categories: Alumni, Faculty, Staff, Students
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Alumna Anderson on Mayo Clinic media board

February 6, 2011

Patricia Anderson, emerging technologies librarian at the Taubman Health Sciences Library, has been named to the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media External Advisory Board.

Anderson, who earned her master’s in library and information services in 1987 from SI, has long been interested in health and the Internet, and currently focuses on the use and teaching of emerging technologies and social media to facilitate outreach and support to health care consumers and educators.

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SI alum, current students score in mobile apps contest

January 19, 2011

An SI grad and two current MSI students earned distinction in the University of Michigan fall 2010 Mobile Apps Challenge. The goal of the competition was to promote entrepreneurial thinking and encourage the U-M community to develop innovative mobile applications.

Hung Truong (MSI ’09), who works part-time at North Quad with the building’s interactive displays, was named first runner-up with his Checkmate for Foursquare app. Enhancing the location-based social networking tool Foursquare, this iPhone app makes the check-in feature automatic when users visit their favorite venues. The app also allows users to share their check-ins on Facebook and Twitter. See app demo.

While at SI, Hung and two fellow MSI students won the RPM Ventures annual contest that provides support to entrepreneurial start-ups for their company Troubadour Mobile. He continues to develop new applications independently.

MSI students Pei-Yao Hung and Ying-Yu Chen were runners up with Emotioner, which works on the Android. Emotioner allows users to express emotions, share them with others in the vicinity, and see what emotions others nearby are experiencing and why. The app also allows users to review their emotional history. See app demo.

The competition is sponsored by Apple Inc., Computer Science and Engineering in the College of Engineering, Information and Technology Services, Google, and Technology Transfer.

Categories: Alumni

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SI alumna Nancy Pearl 2011 Librarian of the Year

January 5, 2011

Nancy Pearl (AMLS ’67) has been named 2011 Librarian of the Year by Library Journal.

In announcing the award, the Library Journal stated “no one other than Nancy Pearl has so convinced Americans that libraries, books and reading are critical to our communities.” She is a frequent commentator on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and maintains a popular blog, Book Lust Forever, and Twitter feed. Her career has taken her from the Detroit Public Library to Tulsa to the Seattle Public Library, from which she retired in 2004. She is on the faculty of the iSchool at the University of Washington.

In 1998, while working as executive director of the Seattle Public Library’s Washington Center for the Book, she wondered what would happen if everyone in Seattle read and talked about the same book, and developed the first community read program. The One City, One Book program was so successful it has since been replicated throughout the country.

She teaches collection development, readers’ advisory and booktalking to LIS students at the University of Washington. Her workshops and seminars at libraries and bookstores across the U.S. for staff and readers attract standing room only audiences. In fact, her high profile resulted in her becoming the model of the best-selling librarian action figure produced by the Archie McPhee company.

Read the full story on Library Journal.com. Photo by Ron Wurzer/Getty Images.

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Alumna Minow on national museum-library board

December 13, 2010

Alumna Mary Minow (AMLS ’82) has been appointed by President Barack Obama to the National Museum and Library Services Board (NMLSB). The NMLSB advises the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the primary source of federal support for the nation’s libraries and museums. The board is chaired by the IMLS director and composed of two of its deputy directors and 20 members of the general public with demonstrated expertise on or commitment to libraries or museums.

“Mary Minow is a renowned expert on matters of great importance to the library field,” said IMLS Acting Director and NMLSB Chair Marsha Semmel. “We are excited to have her join the board and know that her contributions will be invaluable.”

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SI grad Eric Garcia shares startup success

November 22, 2010

Eric Garcia Recent SI grad Eric Garcia (MSI ’10), now working as a software engineer at the Ann Arbor-based startup Mobiata, shares the news that his company was acquired on Nov. 18 by the online travel giant Expedia. Mobiata has developed best-selling travel applications such as FlightTrack, ranked as a Top 5 best-selling iPhone travel app for the past 18 months; itinerary manager TripDeck; and hotel-booking app HotelPal. In acquiring the company, Expedia’s CEO Dara Khosroshahi said “there’s simply no better company out there doing mobile travel apps with the same level of design sensibility and utility as Mobiata.”

Mobiata’s applications have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, TechCrunch, Macworld and PC Magazine, to name just a few.

“My degree at SI definitely led me to where I am today,” said Garcia. “My tailored program of study let me discover what I wanted to do and find my niche. Every day, I use skills I learned at SI, from effective brainstorming, to designing accessible interfaces, to how to approach and solve problems.”

Garcia is also the co-founder of Phonagle, a startup in Ann Arbor that specializes in location-based games for mobile devices. The company’s other principals are SI grads Sergio Mendes-Baiges (MSI ’08), Benjamin Malley (MSI ’10), and Jeremy Canfield (MSI ’10). Their game outWord, which uses the real world as a game board, is available from the iTunes AppStore. The company was developed after winning a 10-week summer internship program competition sponsored by venture capital firm RPM Ventures. It was during that internship that Garcia connected with the Mobiata team, who were working in the same building. In August, Mobiata moved to new quarters in the Nickels Arcade.

Read more on AnnArbor.com and the Detroit News.

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