NSF Awards Spelman $2.5 Million for Informatics Project

• By Paul McCloskey
• 09/10/07

NSF Awards Spelman $2.5 Million for Informatics Project

The National Science Foundation awarded Atlanta's Spelman College a $2.5 million grant to set up an academic program in informatics, the the study of information analysis. The project, dubbed "Advancing Spelman's Participation in Informatics Research and Education," or ASPIRE, will develop an informatics program to increase "cross-discipline research and expertise"  in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the college said.

"The ASPIRE project's focus on interdisciplinary informatics education and research addresses the critical need for scientists to be able to analyze, organize, and visualize the vast amounts of data being generated in diverse fields," said Lily McNair, Spelman's associate provost of research.

The ASPIRE project's principal investigator will be Johnnella Butler, provost. Co-investigators are Tasha Inniss, assistant professor of mathematics, and Andrew Williams, associate professor of computer and information sciences. ASPIRE  will run during the current academic year.

"If you see what is happening with companies such as Google or research in genomic medicine, there's a need for students to be able to adequately analyze, organize, and extract knowledge from data to work in interdisciplinary teams," said Williams.

Read More:
Spelman College
www.spelman.edu/
National Science Foundation
www.nsf.gov/