- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to research smart health in Arkansas, West Virginia with NSF grant

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 14:38:35 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is one of five institutions sharing a $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a multi-scale integrative approach to digital health. This collaborative, multi-institution grant will be used to promote smart health in Arkansas and West Virginia. Dr. Nitin Agarwal, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Jerry L. Maulden-Entergy endowed chair and professor of information science, will receive $600,000 for the study, entitled “Multi-scale Integrative Approach to Digital Health: Collaborative Research and Education in Smart Health in West Virginia and Arkansas,” which runs from August 2019 to July 2023. The other university partners include the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, West Virginia University, and West Virginia State University. “Healthcare costs are on the rise nationally and significantly more so in Arkansas and West Virginia. This is due to high poverty rates in these states and a significantly large population that is affected by cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, and a general lack of physical activity,” Agarwal said. “To address these issues, we will conduct a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and a multi-scale integrative approach to trigger smart health initiatives with the goal to lower healthcare costs using artificial intelligence and big data analysis approaches. In addition to developing a big data and smart health research infrastructure, we will create education and outreach components to enhance the workforce in both states.” To accomplish these goals, Agarwal will develop novel social media mining algorithms to study health behaviors in Arkansas and West Virginia, including health attitudes, intentions, health conditions, lifestyle choices, overall sentiment, and mood. “Tapping into such an invaluable data trove is often challenging but rewarding,” Agarwal said. “We will study the effectiveness of health communities around predominant health issues in Arkansas and West Virginia and study the validity of social media data for examining patient-reported outcomes, assessing trust, influence, and misinformation in social media pertaining to health discourse.” Agarwal heads the at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, which aims to be at the forefront of the ever-evolving field of social computing. COSMOS is leading several collaborative projects with total funding of more than $10 million from various U.S. federal funding agencies to address some of the most challenging problems of knowledge extraction from big social data and develop methodologies to diagnose novel pathologies of online social media.

Computer Science Education experts visit Emerging Analytics Center

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 13:10:48 +0000

Attendees of the first-ever in Arkansas toured the Emerging Analytics Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on June 10 to learn about the latest innovations in virtual reality and computer science. The summit included representatives from 26 states, including national and international leaders in the field of computer science education, who met to discuss issues such as academic standards, teacher training, budgets, and development of computer science education policy. “This group consists of leaders of computer science education from across the nation,” said Dr. Carolina Cruz-Neira, director of the Emerging Analytics Center. “A lot of the work we do here is a good example of how to get students motivated to learn about computer science and see what they can create. The Emerging Analytics Center is a very high-end place in Little Rock where we are leading the development of these technologies.” From his first months in office, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has promoted the expansion of computer science education in Arkansas, starting with his signature on Arkansas Act 187, which required all the state’s public and charter high schools to offer a course in computer coding. As these students complete high school, state officials are at a juncture where a clear pathway is needed for these students to transition from high school to college and the workforce. “There are very few jobs today that don’t require advanced computer prowess. As we look at jobs that children will have in 10, 20, and 30 years in the future, you have to think about how these jobs will look in the future,” said Anthony Owen, state director of computer science and chief state STEM officer. “We are leading the nation in K-12 education in computer science. We want educators who are ready to teach these students. We want to create a seamless transition from K-12 education to higher education to the workforce to meet industry needs.” Researchers at the Emerging Analytics Center demonstrated multiple projects created with industry partners, representing how the computer science skills students are learning in the classroom can be used as a future career. One of the apps demonstrated is a virtual visit to Hytrol, an Arkansas-based company, where visitors can see working virtual models of the company’s latest products and appreciate Hytrol’s innovative technology for conveyor systems. “The real workforce at the Emerging Analytics Center is the students. Everything you see here is created by the students,” Cruz-Neira said. Emerging Analytics Center researchers also created an educational augmented reality application targeted to art museums. The app allows users to interact with the art work through their cell phones to learn more about the piece and the artist. Heather Lageman, a summit participant and executive director of leadership development at Baltimore County Public Schools, said she has read about this type of technology in the news and can see how beneficial it would be for students. “I love this app,” Lageman said. “It’s a game changer for students who might not have the opportunity to visit many museums. It allows students to interact with the art in a very personal way.” In the upper right photo, Heather Lageman, a summit participant and executive director of leadership development at Baltimore County Public Schools, uses an educational augmented reality application targeted to art museums.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Institute fills chief data officer role for state of Arkansas

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 14:03:05 +0000

The Institute for Chief Data Officers at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock will fill an important role to help protect and maximize big data within the state of Arkansas. The Arkansas Department of Information Systems has contracted the Institute for Chief Data Officers, led by Executive Director Dr. Richard Wang, to serve as the state’s chief data officer. Wang also serves as a professor of information science at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Chief Data Officer and Information Quality Program. “The College of Engineering and Information Technology is proud to host the Institute for Chief Data Officers as it combines aspects of our mission to provide groundbreaking research and address the needs of our community,” Dean Lawrence Whitman said. “The public is served when the university’s research serves the community, both corporate and government. We want our state to use state-of-the-art practices in its use of data and to be a leader in this area. I am pleased that the iCDO is accomplishing this.” The state’s chief data officer position was created by Act 912 of 2017, which was sponsored by Rep. Austin McCollum, R-Bentonville. The act requires the director of the state Department of Information Systems to select a chief data officer as well as create an 18-member Data Transparency Panel that the chief data officer will chair. The Institute for Chief Data Officers will help the state analyze the state’s data needs, perform a feasibility and cost study on the development of a statewide data warehouse program, and evaluate and identify data that can be published. Wang wants to facilitate inter-agency data agreements and increase statewide data sharing and transparency. “We have to make different data from different systems talk to each other,” Wang said. “During my first 100 days as CDO, I want to host the inaugural Arkansas CDO forum so we can begin the discussion and exchange of ideas to achieve project outcomes beneficial to the people of Arkansas.” Another central goal for Wang is the exploration of public/private partnerships whereby Arkansas can become a national example of an effective data-driven government to better address priority public needs. This approach would also create greater value for the taxpayer dollar through better allocation of existing data to meet the needs of Arkansans, Wang said. In recent years, state, city, and county governments have seen the value in adding a chief data officer to the workforce. Colorado was the first state to add a chief data officer in 2010. Arkansas becomes the in the U.S. to employ a chief data officer. At the Institute for Chief Data Officers, Wang and his employees are working to train new chief data officers and perform seminal research on the topic. The institute leads multiple certificate programs throughout the year. “I want Little Rock and central Arkansas to be the center of data in training and conducting research on big data and chief data officers,” Wang said. “We are leading the path to promote the idea of chief data officers.” The need for chief data officers is increasing. According to the Stamford, Connecticut-based information technology research company Gartner, will have a chief data officer by 2019. “I believe that chief data officers are here to stay,” Wang said. “When chief data officers show successful business results, that is when companies will demand a CDO. Our job at the Institute for Chief Data Officers is to envision a chief data officer in every major organization globally in the public and private sector.”

Alumni Success Story: College of Business graduate becomes first-time author

Jenny Lambert — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 17:57:03 +0000

While living in a world surrounded by chaos and stress, KenDrell Collins, a University of Arkansas at Little Rock College of Business graduate, made it his mission to find peace and serenity in every adventure or encounter he experienced to help ease his mind and reinforce his purpose. Collins, a native of Osceola, Arkansas, grew up as a country boy with dreams big enough to fill the Mississippi River. As a young man, he had aspirations of becoming the president of the United States, the governor of Arkansas, and the CEO of a company. Before he could obtain any of those positions, Collins took a detour and decided first to become an author.

Journey to publication

“Be Steady, My Soul: Daily Practices for Peace and Positivity” was written, edited, and published by Collins in just eight months. Although the idea of the book started as a Facebook suggestion, it quickly transformed into a life-changing narrative. “It was December of 2016,” Collins said. “I would always post quotes and inspirational stuff on Facebook and people would suggest that I write a book. Ironically, during this time I was overcoming all the emotional impacts of law school and wanted to write something I could turn to for encouragement.” As a law student at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Collins witnessed his peers turn to drugs and alcohol to cope with strenuous academic demands. Instead of following suit, Collins drew inspiration from the experiences around him and outlined them on the Microsoft Word pages of his laptop. Almost every evening after an intense study session, Collins would make his way to a nearby cafe, Starbucks, or Panera Bread to put his thoughts on paper. “Each chapter embodied a personal hurdle that I was overcoming,” he said. “I figured I couldn’t be the only person who had or would struggle with these things. My hope was that by sharing what worked for me, someone else would also be strengthened.”

“Be Steady, My Soul”

According to Collins, the book addresses 40 aspects of the human character that need tending to. By using personal experiences, Collins expresses ways in which a person can cultivate more peace through patience, humility, self-gratification, and more.

“My favorite chapter is probably ‘Be Patient with You,’” Collins said. “I think the biggest challenge for my generation is that we are so accustomed to getting everything instantly. When it comes to building a life, things don’t happen instantly. We get frustrated and find ourselves in a quarter-life crisis because our life isn’t as perfect as we expected it to be at that moment. I battled with that and had to learn to be more patient with my own growth and not compare my rate of development with the next person’s.” After five months of writing, Collins took two months to analyze and reassemble his work. “The process of editing and improving the writing was the biggest challenge,” he explained. “You read the same chapter 10 times, and you find better ways of saying something. Then, you wake up and re-read it, and it sounds worse.” In addition to writing, Collins also worked on constructing the perfect title and cover art for the book that would exemplify its intended message. “Originally, the title was ‘Be Still, My Soul,’ he said. “However, when I googled that phrase, there was a massive list of songs and books with the same title, so I realized I had to change it. “As I was searching for the artwork, I wanted to find a picture that would demonstrate balance. From the front of the book, the rocks, which represent strength, look like they’re about to fall, but when you flip the book over, you realize that they’re perfectly steady. That’s when I figured, ‘Why not replace ‘still’ with ‘steady,’” he said. Once he finalized the title and art for the book, Collins spent a month figuring out the self-publishing process. Soon after he mastered the method, the 24-year-old’s first publication was born. “The most rewarding feeling of publishing a book is hearing someone say that they read the book and decided to buy copies for their friend or a family member,” Collins said. “That means a lot to me because that’s like going viral in real life.”

The final chapter

As he finishes his final year of law school, Collins plans to continue writing, publishing, and even helping others to publish their own work. “Writing is in my DNA,” he said. “I want my books to become Amazon and New York Times best sellers and be in bookstores around the world.” In addition to writing, Collins still looks forward to fulfilling his original plans for the future. As a lover of the South, he plans to stay in Arkansas, start his own firm or business, and travel the world. “The fact that my dream came true shows me that we can have just about whatever we want in life, if we really want it,” Collins said. “We don’t have to sit around and wait for someone to give us permission to do what we feel called to do. It removes a lot of the fear and hesitation. I actually believe anything is possible now.” Collins’ novel, “Be Steady, My Soul,” is .

��Vlog��ýLR partnership creates podcasts commemorating history of WWI in Arkansas

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 22:18:44 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Mass Communication is doing its part to preserve the history of life in Arkansas during World War I as part of the centennial celebration of what was once known as the Great War. The Arkansas World War I Centennial Commission has released 13 new podcasts about Arkansas during the first world war. The podcasts were created in partnership with the ��Vlog��ýLR School of Mass Communication, an effort led by Senior Instructor David Weekley and his student, Carly Garner. The ��Vlog��ýLR School of Mass Communication first partnered with the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission to create a series of. ��Vlog��ýLR student engineers recorded the podcasts on a variety of Civil War topics in Arkansas. Arkansas teachers use the podcasts in their classrooms. “Many of our students have gained valuable experience over the years doing the Civil War podcasts,” Weekley said. “It looks good on their resume, and it benefits educators across the state of Arkansas. We are thrilled to continue this relationship with the World War I project.” Garner produced 13 podcasts during the fall 2016 semester. The project is expected to continue through fall 2018, with new podcasts being produced every semester. The initial podcasts covered topics as diverse as the role of Arkansas women during the war, a picric acid plant in Little Rock, the influence of World War I on the Elaine Massacre, and the story of one Arkansas soldier during the war. “As a collection, these snippets of Arkansas’s World War I story will provide a broad interpretation of the state’s role in the war both here and abroad that will be available for teachers, historians, and others interested in this crucial period in Arkansas and U.S. history,” said Mark Christ, community outreach director for the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. The new podcasts include:

Dr. Carl Carlson-Drexler of the Arkansas Archeological Survey discussing a WWI munitions plant in east Little Rock
Dr. Raymond Screws of the Arkansas National Guard Museum speaking about the building and evolution of the Camp Pike training ground
Elizabeth Hill of the Arkansas Women’s History Institute discussing the many ways that Arkansas women aided the war effort during the Great War
Grif Stockley, a Little Rock historian, covering the links between World War I and the 1919 Elaine race riots
Tom Wing of the Drennen-Scott Historic Site talking about the WWI adventures of Dunham Scott of Van Buren
Mark Christ of the Arkansas World War I Centennial Commemoration Committee talking about a controversy involving a pair of post-war commemorative sculptures.

For more information, visit the. In the upper right photo, one of 13 newly released podcasts depicting life in Arkansas during World War I details the adventures of Doughboy Dunham Scott of Van Buren. Photo courtesy of Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock to research smart health in Arkansas, West Virginia with NSF grant