The School of Information Management is pleased to welcome our new faculty member, Dr. Mike Smit, who will be joining us at the rank of Assistant Professor on July 1, 2013.  Dr. Smit has a PhD from the University of Alberta, and Master and Bachelor of Computer Science from Dalhousie University. Dr. Smit’s research examines the intersection of software engineering, software systems, and people. The overall theme is studying and mitigating the complexities of emerging technologies, particularly cloud computing and adaptive systems and the technology they enable. This includes a) managing the increasing complexity of software and the underlying infrastructures to protect and improve the relationships among people, technology, and information, and b) envisioning the next generation of these emerging technologies, particularly the architecture, design space, design patterns, and development support required. Dr. Smit has been a Post-doctoral Fellow at York University (Toronto), serves as the Program Director/Manager/Faculty with Shad Valley at Dalhousie University, and has held a Research Fellowship at IBM Centers for Advanced Studies in Toronto.  Dr. Smit has published and presented his research in several computer science and knowledge management venues, such as the IEEE International Symposium on Integrated Network Management, the International Conference on Data Warehousing and Knowledge Discovery, and IEEE CLOUD Application and Experience.

 

The School of Information Management is pleased to announce that Professor Sandra Toze will be starting a five-year limited-term position on July 1, 2013.  Professor Toze has a Master of Library Science from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Arts from Queen’s University.  Professor Toze is a PhD candidate at Dalhousie University. Professor Toze has been a lecturer at the School since 2003, and has served as the marketing manager of the Master of Information Management program since 2010. Prof. Toze’s research interests emerged from her experience as an information professional. Professor Toze’s research examines how humans find and integrate information to effectively accomplish knowledge based work tasks, and to help design tools and practices to facilitate and enhance this process. Professor Toze’s PhD research looks at a particular type of collaboration, namely how student groups find and integrate information to accomplish complex assignments. Professor Toze has presented her research at several scholarly conferences, including the International Symposium on Collaborative Technologies and Systems, the American Society for Information Science and Technology Annual Conference, and the European Conference on Digital Libraries.