Andrew Sears Appointed Dean of the College of Data Research
Campus & Group
Vice Chancellor, Provost and Chief Educational Officer Gretchen Ritter at present introduced the appointment of Andrew Sears as the following dean of the College of Data Research (iSchool). Sears involves Syracuse from The Pennsylvania State College, the place he has served as dean of the Faculty of Data Sciences and Know-how since 2015. Sears’ appointment, which was permitted by the Government Committee of the Board of Trustees, begins Aug. 1.
“Via his management and scholarship, Andrew has introduced renown to Penn State and garnered the respect of college and workers in structuring the faculty to help educational applications, experiential studying, pupil engagement and college success,” Ritter says. “He’s becoming a member of a dynamic educational enterprise on the iSchool with the depth of expertise essential to proceed to maneuver it ahead and adapt to an thrilling and quickly evolving data age.”
At Penn State, Sears leads a school that was based in 1999 and consists of 150 school and workers, provides 24 diploma and certificates applications, and has greater than 2,100 resident college students statewide and almost 1,500 college students taking programs on-line via Penn State World Campus. The school was just lately ranked No. 10 on the checklist of finest on-line grasp’s applications in pc data know-how by U.S. Information & World Report.
As dean, Sears has targeted on strengthening range, fairness and inclusion initiatives. In consequence, the faculty noticed a rise within the range of the scholar physique, revisions to the college and workers recruitment course of and the launch of a multi-year seek for school engaged on social justice. Sears additionally expanded interdisciplinary collaborations via school hiring and partnerships and helped create a Middle for Socially Accountable Synthetic Intelligence, which advances multidisciplinary AI analysis throughout and past Penn State.
“I imagine increased training exists to remodel the lives of our college students and to make the world a greater place for everybody. We rework the lives of our college students and their households via the training and experiences we offer, and we make the world a greater place via our analysis, scholarship and outreach,” says Sears. “The iSchool at Syracuse has a protracted and proud historical past of innovation and affect, and its mission of increasing human capabilities by connecting folks, data and know-how has by no means been extra vital. I’m excited to work with the college and workers of the iSchool to proceed altering the world for the higher!”
Sears’ personal analysis tasks have addressed points related to cell computing, well being data applied sciences, speech recognition and assessing a person’s cognitive standing through regular every day interactions with data applied sciences. His analysis has been supported by numerous trade leaders, authorities companies and foundations, together with IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, the Nationwide Science Basis, the Nationwide Institute on Incapacity and Rehabilitation Analysis, the Nationwide Institute of Requirements and Know-how and the Verizon Basis.
Sears earned a B.S. in pc science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Ph.D. in pc science with an emphasis on human-computer interplay from the College of Maryland-Faculty Park. Previous to Penn State, he was professor and dean of the B. Thomas Golisano Faculty of Computing and Data Sciences at Rochester Institute of Know-how.
Ritter expressed gratitude to David Seaman, dean of Syracuse College Libraries and College librarian, for as soon as once more serving as iSchool interim dean after Rajiv “Raj” Dewan concluded his deanship final 12 months. She additionally thanked the search advisory committee and co-chairs and iSchool professors Megan Oakleaf and Carsten Østerlund. Administration consulting agency Korn Ferry assisted within the search.
Beginning out greater than a century in the past as a library science program, the iSchool was the primary within the nation to remodel into an data faculty. Immediately, the iSchool stands out as a premier establishment for progressive applications within the research and design of knowledge, knowledge and know-how techniques for the general public good. Ranked by U.S. Information & World Report among the many prime applications in library and data research (No. 6), data techniques (No. 5), digital librarianship (No. 4) and faculty library media (No. 3), the iSchool provides diploma applications on the undergraduate, grasp’s and doctoral ranges, with grasp’s applications out there each on campus and on-line.
