UALR Joins MIT as Only U.S. Host for IQ Conference

UALR will host more than 125 of the world’s pre-eminent experts on data quality for the 15th annual International Conference on Information Quality (ICIQ) Friday through Sunday, Nov. 12 to 14. The conference in Little Rock marks the first time the group has convened anywhere in the United States other than the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. UALR was chosen as the host university this year because it is has the only master’s program in information quality in the country and also offers a doctoral degree in integrated computing with an emphasis in information quality — the only Ph.D. of its kind in the world. “Information quality is a rapidly growing field for research, study and business applications because it is critical that accurate, complete, timely data be available where it’s needed, when it’s needed, to help businesses run efficiently, effectively and successfully,” says Dr. John R. Talburt, professor of information science and Acxiom Chair of Information Quality at UALR. Researchers, academics and industry professionals from around the world – including France, Germany, Italy, Australia, China, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Switzerland, India, Ireland, Norway, and Canada – are expected to attend ICIQ 2010. The conference is sponsored by several industry-leading companies in the information quality field, including Black Oak Partners, Acxiom, Cognitive Data, Analytix, DataFlux, and Infoglide Software. Cita Furlani, director of the Information Technology Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will deliver the keynote speech at 9:35 a.m. Saturday at UALR’s Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology. Furlani oversees a research program designed to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by developing and disseminating standards, measurements and testing for interoperability, security, usability, and reliability of information systems. Those include cyber security standards and guidelines for federal agencies and U.S. industries.