Information Quality Program

UALR IQ Program Honors 14 Graduates for Oustanding Achievement

John Talburt — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:17:23 +0000

The Information Quality Graduate Program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock will be honoring 14 of its top graduates at the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology Award Ceremony to be held on Friday, May 18, 2012, at 3:30pm in the Engineering and Information Technology Building. The awards will recognize program graduates who have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, research, and service during 2011-2012 Academic Year.

Three awards will go to graduates from Information Quality Track of the Integrated Computing PhD program. Dr. Ahmed Abu-Halimeh and Dr. Eric Nelson, who were graduated in December 2011, will be recognized for their outstanding academic achievement. Yinle Zhou, who will be graduated with her PhD in May, 2012, will also be recognized for her outstanding research record.

Four awards will go to graduates from the Master of Science in Information Quality Program. Dinah Mande, Kamilia Messaoudi, Melody Penning, and Amit Saha will be recognized for their outstanding academic achievement. In addition, Melody Penning will be recognized for Best Information Quality Master’s Project and Dinah Mande for Best Information Quality Master’s Thesis.

Seven students receiving their Information Quality Graduate Certificates this year will be honored for having maintained a perfect 4.0 Grade Point Average in the program. These include Pasi Eronen, Joseph Hambuchen, Patricia Kane, Jason Keller, Michael McCann, Yekaterina Sheremetyev, and Stephen Skjei.

UALR is the only US University offering graduate degrees in Information Quality. For more information on the UALR IQ program and the degrees offered visit: http://ualr.edu/informationquality

IQ Student Wins Best Paper Award at ID360 Conference

John Talburt — Wed, 02 May 2012 21:33:54 +0000

May 2, 2012

Yinle Zhou, a student in the Information Quality Graduate Program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR), won the Best Paper Award for her submission to the Global Forum on Identity (ID360) held April 23-24, 2012 on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. The paper, co-authored with her advisor Dr. John Talburt, was titled “OYSTER: An Open Source Entity Resolution System Supporting Identity Information Management.” The paper describes the design and operation of OYSTER, an open source, entity resolution system developed by UALR Center for Advanced Research in Entity Resolution and Information Quality (ERIQ), a system that was specifically designed to support identity information management. Yinle is a student in the Information Quality Track of the Integrated Computing PhD program and will be graduated this month (May, 2012).

UALR is an active partner in the Center for Identity, an organization focused on delivering the highest quality, most recognized identity management discoveries, applications, education and outreach available, so as to ensure that our nation’s industrial, government and academic institutions can aggressively manage and overcome current and emerging identity management threats. Identity theft is a cradle-to-grave problem that costs U.S. businesses $50 billion and affects at least 10 million consumers each year.

UALR IQ Graduate Program Honors 12 Students

adm_wordpress — Mon, 09 May 2011 18:17:01 +0000

The Information Quality Graduate Program at University of Arkansas at Little Rock honored 12 of its students at the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology Award Ceremony held on May 6, 2011, at the new Engineering and Information Technology Building. The awards recognized students who demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, research, and service during 2010-2011 Academic Year.

Three of the awards went to students in the Information Quality Track of the Integrated Computing PhD program including Dr. Isaac Osesina as the Outstanding Graduate, Ahmed, Abu-Halimeh for his service to the program, and Yinle Zhou for her achievements in research.

Dinah Mande and Nishav Mainali were honored as the Outstanding Graduates from the MSIQ Program. In addition, graduates recognized for their academic achievement in the MSIQ Program included Cecilia Bartley, Nishav Mainali, Robert McGough, Kamilia Messaoudi, Soukaina Messaoudi, Eric Nielsen, Hailin Tang, and Linfang Yang.

UALR is the only US University to offer graduate degrees in Information Quality. For more information on the UALR IQ program and the degrees offered visit: http://ualr.edu/informationquality .

Dinah Mande reelected for IAIDQ President

adm_wordpress — Tue, 03 May 2011 03:09:48 +0000

The International Association for Information and Data Quality (IAIDQ) (http://www.iaidq.org) Little Rock Student Chapter met on February 18, 2011 to hold its second elections. The newly elected officers assumed their position related duties on March 31, 2011.

Dinah Mande was reelected as an IAIDQ Little Rock Student Chapter President. Dinah expressed her intent to work as a group towards a common goal: “This year, we are going to focus on being motivated because that’s what will get us going. Motivation is like food for the brain, we cannot get enough in one sitting. We are going to work as a group, one step at a time and together we can reach our goal for this year”. Dinah shared some of her visions for 2011 which included sponsoring an Information Quality Library, IAIDQ Little Rock Student Chapter Logo Competition and fund raising efforts to grow the Little Rock Chapter.

The new officers included Candice Murphy who assumed the duties of a Vice President, Melody Penning who assumed the duties of a Treasurer and Corey Wilton who was elected for the position of a Secretary.

ICIQ-2011 Announces Call for Papers

adm_wordpress — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 02:38:40 +0000

The 16th International Conference on Information Quality (ICIQ-2011) will be hosted by the School of Computer & Science at the University of South Australia (UniSA) on November 18 – 20, 2011 in Adelaide, Australia. The 2011 conference theme is “Organizational Value through Quality Information”. The conference program will include tracks for research papers, practice-oriented papers, poster sessions, and new this year a doctoral consortium.

The deadline for paper submissions is July 1, 2011. Accepted papers will compete for the Stuart E. Madnick IQ Best Paper Award and a prize of $1000 (US). For more information regarding the submission process and ICIQ-2011 events, visit the conference website at http://iciq2011.unisa.edu.au

The 15th International Conference on Information Quality (ICIQ-2010) was hosted by the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR). The 2012 ICIQ is scheduled to be held in Paris, France, and in 2013, ICIQ will return to UALR.

UALR is the only US university to offer graduate degrees in Information Quality. For more information on the UALR IQ program and the degrees offered visit: http://ualr.edu/informationquality .

UALR Participates in First Data Quality Conference in South Africa

adm_wordpress — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:54:07 +0000

The first Data Quality conference in South Africa was held March 23-24, 2011 at the South African Reserve Bank in Pretoria, South Africa. Sponsored by the Enhancing Strategic Information (ESI) Project the conference attracted more than 100 attendees to discuss data quality standards and measures, tools and methodologies, quality improvement, and data use and dissemination. Started in 2008, the ESI Project is a collaboration among USAID, John Snow, Inc., Khulisa Management Services, and Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine aimed at improving the quality of HIV/AIDS data and monitoring and evaluating HIV/AIDS program to better inform government policy in the southern regions of Africa. Dr. John Talburt, Graduate Coordinator for the UALR Information Quality Graduate Program gave the invited keynote address “The Strategic Advantage of Information Quality” at the conference opening on March 23rd.

Information Quality Moves to the Integrated Computing PhD Program

adm_wordpress — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:58:00 +0000

The Information Quality PhD Track has moved from the Applied Science PhD Program to the new Integrated Computing PhD Program. The Integrated Computing PhD Program enrolled its first students in the fall of 2010 and is housed in the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology. It was created to provide a sharper focus on studies on the computing disciplines.

Prior to 2010, the PhD degree offered by the Department of Applied Science had seven emphasis areas: Applied Biosciences, Applied Chemistry, Applied Computing, Applied Physics, Computational Science, Information Quality, and Engineering Science and Systems. The Information Quality and Applied Computing Tracks have moved from the Applied Science to join the Integrated Computing Program to promote strong multidisciplinary collaborations across several computing disciplines. Faculty for the Integrated Computing Program are drawn from the departments of Computer Science, Information Science, and Systems Engineering.

The Information Quality Track focuses on the theory, principles, models, and techniques for maximizing the value of an organization’s information assets and producing information products that meet customer expectations. Information Quality, which also includes data governance and master data management, is becoming an increasingly challenging task as organizations struggle with such issues as data architecture, identity resolution, data protection, and privacy.

To find out more about the Information Quality Track in the Integrated Computing PhD Program, visit http://ualr.edu/informationquality/phd/phd-curricullum/

Dr. John Talburt publishes Entity Resolution and Information Quality

adm_wordpress — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 21:35:58 +0000

Morgan Kaufman has just published Entity Resolution and Information Quality by Dr. John Talburt, UALR Professor of Information Science and Executive Director of the Center for Advance Research in Entity Resolution and Information Quality. The book was developed based on materials developed for courses offered in UALR Information Quality Graduate Program. UALR is only US University to offer graduate degrees in information quality. (see http://ualr.edu/informationquality)

The author explains the motivation behind writing his book: “I find it very rewarding to be a part of starting something new. The opportunity to help organize the first graduate degree programs in IQ has been an exciting journey. One of the struggles has been to find appropriate books and resources for the students.”

The book covers Entity Resolution (ER), an emerging area of data management, and its connection to Information Quality. ER is a key process in the transformation of data into accurate, value-added information. ER methods and techniques can be used to identify equivalent records from multiple sources to the same real-word person, place or a thing. ER is becoming an increasingly important tool in areas such as law enforcement, health care, and education where information systems in different organizations hold information about the same individual.

To find out more about the book and preview the contents, please visit http://mkp.com/news/entity-resolution-and-information-quality.

Elections for IAIDQ Student Chapter Officers

adm_wordpress — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 22:01:10 +0000

The International Association for Information and Data Quality (IAIDQ) (http://www.iaidq.org) Little Rock Student Chapter will meet to hold elections for new officers at Noon on Friday, February 18, 2011 in the student lounge area on the second floor of the new Donaghey Engineering and Information Technology (EIT) building.

UALR has the only student chapter of IAIDQ international organization and is starting its second year of service to the students and faculty in the UALR Information Quality Graduate Program. (http://ualr.edu/informationquality) If you would like to participate in the election process or find out more about IAIDQ and how it can help you grow as an IQ professional, please attend the meeting on February 18th.

ICIQ-2010 Brings International IQ Experts to Little Rock

adm_wordpress — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 16:29:19 +0000

The 15th International Conference on Information Quality (ICIQ-2010) was held in Little Rock, Arkansas, on November 12 – 14, 2010. It was hosted by the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) in the new Donaghey Engineering and Information Technology (EIT) building on Saturday, November 13^th, with the Sunday sessions being held at the Peabody hotel in downtown Little Rock. The conference attracted more than 140 IQ professionals from all over the world, including Australia, China, India, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, and Finland.

UALR is the first university to host the ICIQ in the US other than MIT where the ICIQ was founded in 1996. UALR was selected because it has the only Information Quality Graduate Program in the US. For more information on the UALR IQ program visit http://ualr.edu/informationquality .

The featured speakers at ICIQ 2010 included Cita Furlani, Director of the Information Technology Laboratory, Rod Ford, Founder and CEO of CognitiveDATA, Inc., Rick McConville, Acxiom’s PanOptic-X Product Manager and Sharif Youssef, Acxiom’s Enterprise Product Strategist. The presentations for the featured speakers are posted on the ICIQ 2010 website at http://iciq2010.org .

The next ICIQ is scheduled for November 18-20, 2011 in Adelaide, Australia. It will be hosted by the University of South Australia. More information for ICIQ-2011 can be found at http://iciq2011.unisa.edu.au .