College of IS&T Celebrates 25th Anniversary
Access the Experts
Access the Experts is an innovative partnership between the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) and News Channel Nebraska (NCN), where viewers submit their questions to be answered by UNO faculty members.
New segments of Access the Experts air every Tuesday and Thursday at 6:46 A.M. and 6:46 P.M. If you’re not sure how to tune in, visit News Channel Nebraska’s website to view their coverage areas.
Si2 faculty have appeared several times on these segments
Dr. Gandhi answers: “How does one protect their identity online?” 2021/02/11
Dr. Ghersi, answers: “How do the police use ancestry DNA databases to solve crimes?” 2021/07/02
Dr. Gandhi answers: "What is ransomware and how does it work?" 2021/05/25
Dr. Hale answers: “What makes someone vulnerable to spam and phishing attacks?” 2020/10/02
Dr. Hall answers: “How does the order in which information is consumed across websites impact what a person sees next?” 2020/11/04
Kaitlyn Baysa wins 2020 BigIdea! Pitch Contest
Published 12/2/2020
The BigIdea! Pitch Contest, hosted by the Center for Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Franchising (CIEF), is a contest where any University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) student with an innovative and original idea can showcase their business idea and receive funding for that business idea. Kaitlyn Baysa, Senior in the CIST, Graduating with her BS in IT Innovation, won the 2020 BigIdea! Pitch Contest.
Access the Experts: Information Consumption
Published 11/4/2020
Magie Hall, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of IT Innovation, University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) College of Information Science & Technology (IS&T), answers the question: “How does the order in which information is consumed across websites impact what a person sees next?”
Learn more by watching Dr. Hall's video here.
UNO IT Grad Students Will Innovate in 2020 NCITE Cohort
Published: 10/06/2020
One group of graduate students in IT Innovation (ITIN) at the University of Nebraska at Omaha just kicked off its 2020 cohort year.
These master’s degree students will focus on creating innovative technology solutions for the Homeland Security Enterprise (HSE). Every ITIN student is required to have an Innovation Area of Emphasis, which serves as the domain in which they are innovating.
Learn more about the 2020 NCITE Cohort
Access the Experts: Phishing Attacks
Published 10/2/2020
Matthew L. Hale, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in UNO’s School of Interdisciplinary Informatics, College of Information Science and Technology, answers the question: "What makes someone vulnerable to spam and phishing attacks?"
Learn more by watching Dr. Hale's video here.
Curious People, Big Ideas: Enhancing Patient Experiences Through Technology
In her talk on October 29, 2020, Ann Fruhling, Ph.D., presented research evaluating a new innovative interactive technology designed to enhance patient experiences. The study, "Natural-Setting PHR Usability Evaluation using the NASA TLX to Measure Cognitive Load of Patients,” examined the usability/usefulness of a new computer application for cardiovascular patients to enter their personal health history information prior to visiting a doctor.
Learn more about this event, and the 2020-2021 Speaker Series here.

Congratulations Bill Mahoney!
The President's Faculty Excellence Awards are the university’s most prestigious awards for teaching, research and engagement. They recognize individual faculty members and one academic department whose work has had a significant impact on students, the university and the state.
The Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award (OTICA) honors members of the University of Nebraska faculty who have developed meritorious and sustained records of excellence in teaching and creativity related to teaching.
Our First Cyber Operations Concentration Graduate!
Congratulations Sanjar Hamidi!
Congratulations Nullify!
In the Mitre Cyber Academy embedded cature-the-flag competition, the Nullify student cybersecurity club received an impressive sixth place! In this event participants try to create a secure banking system including support for bank cards, ATMs, and remote account balances.. The competition is an exciting two-phase event with both attack and defense components. We are very proud of the hard work and determination our students put into this competition.
Round Table Speaker Dr. Tammy Toscos
Engaging Patients with Consumer Health Technologies for Improved Health Outcomes
October 31, 2018 | 11:00 AM | PKI 279
There has been a deluge of health related technologies flooding the marketplace over the past ten years. Although there is great potential for these interventions to help consumers live a healthier life and cope with disease, most fall short of delivering on their promise. In this presentation Dr. Toscos will describe how her research addresses this gap using an interdisciplinary approach that examines the most effective way support for consumer health decision making, highlighting findings from a study examining the uptake of the personal health record among cardiology patients.
Dr. Tammy Toscos holds a PhD in Informatics from Indiana University, Bloomington where she focused on Human Computer Interaction Design and completed a Postdoctoral Health Services Research Fellowship at the Regenstrief Institute, Indianapolis. She has over 10 years conducting user-centered design research aimed at developing technologies that empower people of all ages to make better decisions about their health. As a Research Scientist and Manager of Informatics Research at Parkview Research Center, she leads an interdisciplinary team focused on finding optimal ways to leverage health information technologies to empower patients to effectively manage their health. Dr. Toscos’ research has been acknowledged with several awards and funded by PCORI, AHRQ, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and various industry sponsors. Most recently, in July 2018, Dr. Toscos partnered with a team that captured first place and a $100,000 prize in an innovation competition sponsored by the American Hospital Association.
Toscos, T., Daley, C., Heral, L., Doshi, R., Chen, Y., Eckert, G., Plant, R., Mirro, M. (2016) Impact of electronic personal health record use on engagement and intermediate health outcomes among cardiac patients: A quasi-experimental study. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 23:119–128. [ Awarded Best Article in the literature, 2017 IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics
Recognized in 2016 and 2017 as one of the top combination camps in the country, GenCyber is back in 2018!
This year teachers and students will learn about Cybersecurity and the Internet of Things.
What is GenCyber?
A free, two-week camp where students and teachers will dive deep into Cybersecurity and the Internet of Things. Students and teachers will get to IoT apps, break them to learn about the security vulnerabilities, and then tweak them to make them safer and more secure.
Students will gain the opportunity to speak with security professionals, explore cybersecurity careers, and learn applicable skills.
Teachers will not only experience the fun, hands-on, IoT and cybersecurity activities that students will do, but also get a chance to make IoT and cybersecurity curricula of their own. You'll have expert cybersecurity instructors on hand to help you translate what you learn at camp into your own classrooms.
When is GenCyber?
Teacher Sessions: June 18 - 29th
Student Sessions: June 25 - 29th
Where is GenCyber?
Most teacher and combined events will be located at the College of Information Science and Technology on UNO's Scott Campus.
Most student events and a few combined events will be located at the Riley Technology Center on the Bellevue University campus.
Please visit https://www.nebraskagencyber.com for more information.
Look at our NEW Cyber Operations track!
The NSA Designates UNO as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations
Read more here about this special designation.
Si2 Faculty Receive Awards at 2017 Faculty Honors Convocation
Outstanding Teaching Award: Abhishek Parakh
Abhishek Parakh is an assistant professor of Cybersecurity and a member of the Nebraska University Center for Information Assurance (NUCIA). He has published more than 50 articles in refereed journals, conferences, books and magazines. He has received competitive research funding from the National Science Foundation and NASA and several internal grants at UNO. His research interests include cryptographic engineering, applied cryptography, network security, lightweight encryption and quantum computing and cryptography. He is a reviewer for several journals and has given several invited talks at various venues. He joined the UNO faculty in 2011.
Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award: Dhundy "Kiran" Bastola
Dhundy Bastola’s academic focus is in the lab studying information transmission and exchange in living systems with a particular interest in life-supporting mitochondrial organelles that are instrumental to cellular regulation and that provide cellular energy. His work helps determine the current status and general health conditions of protein, systems or cells and is relevant to the study of a variety of pathological conditions, including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes and aging. He also studies communication methods between health service providers and patients with chronic diseases, evaluating the role of information technology solutions (i.e., telehealth) in the delivery of remote health services to areas where traditional medicine is largely inaccessible. He is chair of the Biomedical Informatics Doctoral Program Committee. Bastola has a BS in biology from Trichandra College in Nepal, an MS in organic chemistry from Tribhuvan University in Nepal, and a Ph.D. in plant molecular biology from the University of New Hampshire. He joined the UNO faculty in 2007.
Cybersecurity Camp Trains Students, Teachers
The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) is one of two metro locations hosting a camp dedicated to training the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.
Offered by the AIM Institute, in collaboration with UNO’s College of Information Science & Technology and Bellevue University, the Silicon Prairie GenCyber Camp runs July 24 – August 4.
Seeking Nominations for National Scholarships!
Below are general requirements and deadlines for select National Scholarships; UNO's deadline is usually three weeks earlier. For information, contact Professor Emeritus Rosalie Saltzman.
Awards with early fall deadlines need to be worked on mostly over the summer.
International Study
Scholarship |
Degree/Career |
Eligibility |
Length |
Value |
Deadline |
Critical Language |
Any (Language may be required) |
Any |
7-10 weeks |
Program costs* |
November |
Fulbrig |
Any, Teaching English |
Senior (Language may be required) |
1 year |
Program costs* |
October |
Gilman |
Any |
Pell eligible |
Summer, Semester, Full year |
Up to $5,000 |
October/March |
Graduate Study
Scholarship | Degree/Career | Eligibility | Length | Value | Deadline |
British Marshall |
Any |
Senior |
2 years |
University program costs* |
October |
Davies-Jackson (Cambridge) |
Social Sciences |
Senior (First in family to graduate college) |
2 years |
$50,000 Cambridge B.A. degree |
November |
Gates (Cambridge) |
Any Liberal Arts major |
Senior |
2-3 years |
Full university costs* |
October |
George Mitchell (Ireland) |
Any |
Senior |
1 year |
Full university costs* |
September |
Rhodes (Oxford) |
Any Liberal Arts major |
Senior |
2-3 years |
Up to $50,000 |
October |
Soros |
Any |
New American; Senior, Post-Grad |
2 years |
Up to $90,000 |
November |
Dr. Ann Fruhling to Present Two Invited Talks in New Zealand
Dr. Fruhling will present to members of the Auckland University of Technology Tuesday, 6/14/2016 and Friday, 6/17/2016. Her presentations are titled "Emergency Response System for Electronic Health Laboratory Diagnostics Consultation" and "The Intersection of eHealth and Human Computer Interaction Research".
Si2 Faculty Receive Awards at 2016 Faculty Honors Convocation
Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award: Dhundy Bastola
Dhundy Bastola studies information transmission and exchange in living systems with a particular interest in life-supporting mitochondrial organelles that are instrumental to cellular regulation and cellular energy. His work helps determine the status and general health conditions of protein, systems or cells, and is relevant to the study of pathological conditions including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, and aging. He also studies communication methods between health service providers and patients. Read More.
Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award: Ann Fruhling
Ann Fruhling is a Mutual of Omaha Distinguished Professor of the College of Information Science and Technology, and the founding Director of the School of Interdisciplinary Informatics at UNO. She also is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Consortium of Public Health Informatics, and was promoted to Professor, effective August 2016. Ann is performing life-changing work at UNO and was the Principle Investigator for an Emergency Response System for Public Laboratories that protects citizens against bioterrorism threats.
She believes that UNO is an inspiring place to learn, create, innovate, and conduct exciting and meaningful research, and she enjoys the opportunity to make positive contributions to the community and the exciting vision for the future.

Si2 Student Earns Scholarship to Study in Japan
IT Innovation Student David O'Neil was one of three awarded the MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) scholarship to study in Japan this academic year. Read more.
Si2 Faculty and Student Win Best Paper Award at CISRC 2015
Ryan Grandgenett, Dr. Bill Mahoney and Dr. Robin Gandhi won the Best Long Paper Award at the 10th Annual Cyber and Information Security Research (CISR) Conference in Oak Ridge, TN, for their paper "Authentication Bypass and Remote Escalated I/O Command Attacks".

Retirement Celebration for Steve Nugen






IS&T Awarded National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance/Cyber Defense
The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) College of Information Science and Technology (IS&T) has been re-designated as a National Security Agency (NSA)/Department of Homeland Security (DHS) National Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Information Assurance (IA)/Cyber Defense (CD) until 2021. Along with 44 other institutions, IS&T receives this honor based on updated academic criteria for cybersecurity education. Read more here.
Si2 Students Present at UNO Research and Creative Activity Fair
On March 10, 2014 several students from the School of Interdisciplinary Informatics presented their research at UNO's Research and Creative Activity Fair.