Arkansas Shines at Conference on Information Quality

By working to show the importance of delivering quality data for business processes and decision-making, Arkansans have led the way for others interested in information quality. A number of those individuals – some with ties to UALR’s Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology (EIT) – took the stage at the 12th annual International Conference on Information Quality (ICIQ) held Nov. 9-11 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Claire Bailey, chief technology officer for the State of Arkansas, delivered the conference’s keynote address, focusing on the state’s approach to delivering information quality education. She noted that EIT established the world’s first Master of Science degree program in Information Quality and announced UALR would offer a Ph.D. in Applied Science with a concentration in information quality beginning in 2008. EIT student Londraies Thomas was the only undergraduate student to present a paper at the ICIQ event. He worked with EIT associate professor Dr. Elizabeth Pierce to craft the research study titled “Assessing Information Quality through the Use of Prediction Markets.” Pierce also moderated a discussion titled “The State of Information Quality Education,” which included EIT’s Dr. John Talburt as a panelist. Pierce and Talburt both teach in UALR’s EIT Information Quality Program.