Francine Berman, Edward P. Hamilton Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Senate-appointed member of the National Council on the Humanities, will deliver the first of three distinguished lectures in a series hosted by the University of Delaware’s Department of Computer and Information Sciences. 

Her lecture, “Got Data? Building a Sustainable Data Ecosystem,” will take place at the Roselle Center for the Arts on Tuesday, Dec. 6, from 2-3:15 p.m.

Dates for two additional lectures, to be held in early 2017, will be announced soon. 

Lecture abstract

Innovation in a digital world presupposes that the data will be there when people need it, but will it? Without sufficient data infrastructure and attention to the stewardship and preservation of digital data, data may become inaccessible or lost. This is particularly problematic for data generated by sponsored research projects where the focus is on innovation rather than infrastructure, and support for stewardship and preservation may be short term and ad hoc. 

In this presentation, Berman will discuss sustainability, infrastructure and data, and will explore the opportunities and challenges of creating a viable ecosystem for the data on which current and future research and innovation increasingly depend.

About Francine Berman

Francine Berman is the Edward P. Hamilton Distinguished Professor in Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is U.S. lead of the Research Data Alliance, a community-driven international organization created to accelerate research data sharing worldwide. 

Berman is a fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In 2009, she was the inaugural recipient of the ACM/IEEE-CS Ken Kennedy Award for “influential leadership in the design, development, and deployment of national-scale cyberinfrastructure.” In 2015, she was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become a member of the National Council on the Humanities.

For her accomplishments, leadership, and vision, Berman was recognized by the Library of Congress as a “Digital Preservation Pioneer,” as one of the top women in technology by BusinessWeek and Newsweek, and as one of the top technologists by IEEE Spectrum.