JaMia Moore of Magnolia, a senior majoring in information science, won honorable mention for the 2010 national Computing Research Association’s Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award.

The CRA award honored Moore’s large body of research achievements, but it focused specifically on her 2009 project, “Survey of Published Research Related to Information Quality in Health Care.”

“(That research analyzed) the trend in which information quality has been used in health care over the last 15 years,” Moore said. “The purpose was to find out the trends and to see if applying more information quality principles can be used to improve health care in terms of costs and health care success as a whole.”

Dr. John Talburt, director of UALR’s graduate program in information science, has been Moore’s mentor on much of her research, and he is impressed with what she has achieved.

“Her topic is very timely. Information quality management is a key component of any strategy seeking to derive full value from the mountains of information flowing into large organizations,” Talburt said. “Hospitals and other health care organizations are just now beginning to explore the research and best practices available to them.”

Dr. Elizabeth Pierce, chair of UALR’s Department of Information Science, nominated Moore for the award.

“She is every bit the student-scholar, and she is a great role model for future students to follow. I anticipate a very bright and successful future for JaMia in the field of information science.”

Moore’s CRA award will be featured in an article in the January edition of Computer Research News and is posted on cra.org. It is the first of what Pierce hopes is a number of national awards for the UALR’s Information Science Department.

“This award is great for the department,” Pierce said. “Between the talents of the faculty and our students, I believe we can successfully compete for more of these awards in the future.”

Moore said she had numerous university options open to her. She credits EIT Assistant Dean Katie Young for her decision to choose UALR.

“I visited several schools, but when I talked to Katie Young at UALR, she sold me on the information science program,” Moore said. “After talking with her, and visiting campus, I went home and told my mother that UALR just felt right for me.”