Embark on a journey of discovery and innovation at the College of Informatics. Unleash your creative vision, master cutting-edge technologies, and shape the digital world of tomorrow. Our programs immerse you in experiences on campus, at companies, and even abroad, preparing you for in-demand careers. And our points of distinction show there is no better place than ºÃÉ«TV for your journey.
Informatics is the art, science, business, and technology of information. It is about making information useful and meaningful.
Here at ºÃÉ«TV’s College of Informatics we offer a 21st century perspective on the disciplines that have information at their core.
"I worked with several different professors in my classes on a variety of research. Doing this taught me how to write academically, conduct research and think critically. These skills have been a huge help in my career."
Being originally from Louisville, KY I always knew I wanted to venture out and go away to college. ºÃÉ«TV was the perfect fit. It wasn't too far from home, I could still go back and visit if I wanted. I chose ºÃÉ«TV because of the relatively small class sizes and how welcoming everyone was when I toured. The location is perfect as well. You get the feeling of a small town on campus but you are so close to big cities.
My favorite ºÃÉ«TV memory was just living on campus my first two years and being apart of a community where everyone was trying to accomplish the same goals. It was a fun experience that taught me how to be independent and I was able to meet a lot of people.
Throughout my time at ºÃÉ«TV, I worked with several different professors in my classes on a variety of research papers/projects. Doing this taught me how to write academically, conduct research and think critically. These skills have been a huge help in my career. I also served as a victor guide for incoming freshmen and worked on campus in the Housing Office for 3 years as a Desk Assistant. My senior year I interned at St. Elizabeth as a Marketing and PR intern.
My advice would be to step out of your comfort zone. College can be scary and overwhelming, but it's what you make of it. I chose a major, health communication, that was literally brand new. No one knew what that was and honestly I didn't either, but I wanted to learn. I can truly say that the content I learned in these classes helps me every day with what I do in my career. If I didn't step out of my comfort zone, I would not be where I am today. Don't be afraid to fail or make mistakes and just have an open mind coming into college and you will be successful.
I'm currently a Communications Specialist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. I work in the internal communications department. Everyday I am in charge of the "Connect Daily NewsLetter" that is sent to over 22,000 employees and board members. I gather and write stories, retrieve images, and interview employees. This process happens every day so that I have enough content for the newsletter and website. I enjoy what I do because of how many people my work reaches!
"Going to ºÃÉ«TV meant I could interview and intern with businesses in the region, which is how I ended up working for 84.51 in downtown Cincinnati. Overall – ºÃÉ«TV felt like the perfect package for me."
In short – I chose to attend ºÃÉ«TV because of the trifecta of great programs, great location, and affordability. Towards the end of high school when I started seriously looking at colleges, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of options. To try to simply things a little, I set up a series of tours with local Universities to try to better understand their programs, get a feel for campus, and see what might be the best fit. Even from these early on tours, ºÃÉ«TV stood out to me as a college that had an amazing value proposition and really valued individual students. My very first tour at ºÃÉ«TV, I got to see campus, and even got to speak with professors from a few programs before I was even enrolled! This had a huge impact on me, and it meant a lot that professors would be willing to speak to me before I was even officially a student. Whereas other Universities occasionally felt cold and impersonal, like I was one of a million students, ºÃÉ«TV made me feel like I was valued. On top of this – buildings like Griffin Hall (home of the College of Informatics) were stunning, and I’d be lying to say it didn’t feel cool to think about working in such a state-of-the-art building. As we got to talking more, I really started to see the value that ºÃÉ«TV brought to the table. First was the quality of programs. I was interested in the intersection of Statistics and Computer Science, and it blew my mind to hear that ºÃÉ«TV had a specialized program just for this. At the time, ºÃÉ«TV was one of a few schools to offer an undergrad degree in Data Science, which was exactly what I was looking for! ºÃÉ«TV, and the College of Informatics in general, focuses on having interesting, high impact programs that fit exactly the needs of businesses in the area, so it was exciting to hear ºÃÉ«TV had a program that would prepare me so well for what I wanted to do. The next thing that hit me was affordability. ºÃÉ«TV offers great scholarships and has a really competitive tuition rate. In a world where college is more expensive than ever, it felt to me like ºÃÉ«TV understood the situation and did everything it could to help students afford college. If you click around the ºÃÉ«TV website you’ll see a lot about accessibility and meeting the needs of the region, and I can personally attest that ºÃÉ«TV keeps the student front of mind. Lastly was location. I am a Cincinnati native and grew up right in Anderson Township. While I loved the idea of living on campus no matter where I went, I also loved the idea of being relatively close to home, especially since I wanted to work in Cincinnati after college as well. Going to ºÃÉ«TV meant I could still live on campus, make friends, and engage in the on-campus community, but also drive home when I wanted and steal a free meal from my parents back in Anderson! Even better, going to ºÃÉ«TV meant I could interview and intern with businesses in the region, which is how I ended up working for 84.51 in downtown Cincinnati. Overall – ºÃÉ«TV felt like the perfect package for me. A great program at a great price in a great region, with faculty and staff that cared about my success. I started to recognize that during those early tours and trips to campus, and looking back now I can see it even clearer that ºÃÉ«TV truly has their student’s best interests at heart.
It’s hard to choose a single moment to sum up ºÃÉ«TV for me, but I can certainly try! Of course I loved the classes, all of the research opportunities I had, and how ºÃÉ«TV prepared me to enter the workforce, but often my fondest memories are the little things that happen in between that show the community that ºÃÉ«TV has and how much the staff and faculty care. For example, my senior year, I helped to lead the College of Informatics Ambassadors. We had a weekly meeting for all of our members, and beforehand we would mull around and make small talk before the meeting began. I started to get into the habit of showcasing my (awful) artistic skills by using Microsoft Paint to try to draw a part of campus every week. One week, I decided to draw the Dean of the College of Informatics, Dean Kirby, which got some laughs from the other students and our faculty mentors. Somehow, this drawing made its way to Dean Kirby’s desk, and at the end of my last semester I was given a magnet with my drawing on that I still hold onto this day, and it still displays prominently at my desk at 84.51! This is really to show the strength of the communities at ºÃÉ«TV. Every part of campus I got to interact with at ºÃÉ«TV turned into another home for me. Some days it was the College of Informatics, others it was the Math/Stats department or the Honors College, but each had wonderful faculty and staff who weren’t just there to tick checkboxes, but to interact with students and enrich their college experiences. For every story like the one above I have a dozen more where ºÃÉ«TV faculty and staff went above and beyond to make an impact with me, and I think back fondly on all of them!
Experiential learning and getting involved on campus were what really made ºÃÉ«TV for me. ºÃÉ«TV is special because of the wealth of opportunities it has for students to get involved and grow while also getting a degree! In terms of experiential learning, I did several research projects and internships while at ºÃÉ«TV. The summer after my very first year at ºÃÉ«TV, I had the opportunity to do a UR-STEM project, which was an 8-week paid research opportunity to work with Mathematics and Statistics faculty and was the first chance I had to work with R, an extremely popular programming language for data science. By the end of this project, I had valuable programming skills that set me apart when I went to interview for internships, and had a research poster I was able to present at several places during my sophomore year. My sophomore year, I was lucky enough to participate in a research-based class again within Mathematics and Statistics, where we, in small groups, partnered with organizations in the Cincinnati area to do work for them and gain further hands-on experience. My group partnered with Children’s Hospital, where we helped to determine the risk factors that would lead to Acute Kidney Injury in children developing into chronic kidney disease, which is often fatal. This further solidified my programming knowledge, was a fascinating project, and taught me amazing soft skills that would aid me in my career. My senior year, I completed my Honors Capstone working with the Dean of the College of Informatics, Kevin Kirby. This was a yearlong project that felt like the culmination of my degree, where we did exciting and challenging research in the field of deep learning. Not only was the project interesting, and I learned many technical skills along the way, the idea that I could even do research with a college Dean is such a unique element of ºÃÉ«TV that sets it apart. Our faculty are so available and willing to work with students, which opened the door for the research opportunities I listed above and several others. ºÃÉ«TV really helped to prepare me as well to do internships, which were the most impactful to my career at the end of the day. Thanks to the awesome research I was able to do, I found myself being competitive when it came to interview for internships, and I was able to land an internship at my dream company, 84.51 (the data people for Kroger), in my sophomore year. This meant I was able to spend two summers working with 84.51, learning even more technical skills along the way, and which pipelined into me now working for 84.51 today as a Data Scientist! In terms of getting involved on campus, there are so many wonderful options, whether you’re looking for leadership-type organizations or just something fun to do. I participated in a great deal of organizations, including Presidential Ambassadors (the campus tour guides), College of Informatics Ambassadors, STEM Ambassadors, and the Honors Student Association. These organizations really helped me to develop leadership skills and presentation skills, which really set me apart when it came time to interview f
