We live in an age where we are surrounded by digital information. Yet in spite of that (or because of that) we have great difficulty utilizing this information.
Informatics is about making sense out of digital information. Following is a list of informatics topic areas of interest to our Informatics Research Team.
If you would like to join our team and work with us in these areas,
stop by to chat or send me an email at stephen.zilora@rit.edu.
- Information Storage The relational model has served us well for the past 30 years as a means of storing data. Unfortunately, it does not lend itself to storing information or discovering new relationships.
- Threaded Engram Database Model: This model represents a dramatically diferent way of thinking about data storage. In this model, "chunks" of information, called engrams,
are linked together by threads that establish context. This project is in its earliest stages and involves literature research, creative thinking, extensive discussions,
and writing of articles. We began with these early thoughts and then produced this thesis. Another thesis, with more implementation details, is under development.
- Healthcare Applications: A few years ago, Professor Dan Bogaard and I developed a system to support the research
of medical doctors investigating acute otitis media (ear infections). It was a unique project in that it combined clinical and laboratory data and also
met all federal requirements for storing healthcare data. While the system is very flexible already, we are currently working on making it more generic
and suitable for other medical studies.
- Dissemination and Education: Part of any research effort is the dissemination of ideas for the purpose of education and feedback. These projects address the education side.
- High School Curriculum: Working with digital information is something EVERYONE will be doing regardless of their profession. We can teach them techniques in college, but if we were to teach them some of these techniques in high school, then they could apply the techniques during their college studies. This project looks at developing an Intro to Informatics course for upper level high school students. Initial thoughts on this project have been developed, but much more needs to be done. A recent paper lays out the foundation of our ideas. If you're interested in teaching or curriculum development, you will enjoy this project.
- Instructor Education: While we can train young people to be proficient in the digital world, we already have a large workforce that lacks skills and confidence. This project targets high school instructors. It develops a workshop that these instructors can take to become better versed in the use of digital information for their lesson preparation and delivery.
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Questions / Comments: stephen.zilora@rit.edu