[Air-L] Faculty position in Social Computing at UM School of Information

[Soo Young Rieh]

Faculty Position in Social Computing

Rank: Assistant Professor 

The University of Michigan's School of Information (SI) seeks a tenure-track assistant professor in the field of social computing. We define social computing as computing about social relations,  computing in support of new forms of social interactions, and research focusing on the social relations enabled by computing. Its applications include: the analysis and design of online communities; social media and networking; user-contributed content; and new frontiers such as crowdsourcing, collective intelligence and new forms of virtual organizations. 

A successful candidate will be passionate about interdisciplinary work and could be trained in a social science (e.g., communication studies, economics, psychology or sociology), design sciences, computer science, or a natural science (as applied to social behavior). The crucial characteristic is that the candidate be focused on understanding patterns of human interactions using computational techniques, designing and evaluating technologies that enable new forms of interaction, or understanding the role of social media in society. SI faculty have been leaders in the development, application and analysis of many of the underlying techniques used in social computing technologies, including recommender and reputation systems, prediction markets, online communities, and systems for computer-supported cooperative work. 

For all SI positions, we favor candidates whose research interests complement our existing expertise in such areas as computer-supported cooperative work; digital archives and preservation; human-computer interaction; incentive-centered design and information economics; information seeking, sharing and use; Internet-scale data, network and text analysis; social computing and informatics.  

The mission of the School of Information is to create knowledge so people can use information and technology to build a better world, and to educate socially-engaged information professionals. A successful candidate will be committed to, and will directly contribute to our goal of being the best research and teaching institution in socially engaged information and computing.  

The School is home to a dynamic and vibrant research and teaching program, with 35 FTE faculty, over 50 doctoral students, and over 400 students in its professional program, the Master of Science in Information. The School is commencing a new master’s program, in Health Informatics, in fall 2012, offered jointly with the School of Public Health.  In partnership with other units, we recently launched an undergraduate informatics major. 

Founded in 1817, the University of Michigan has a long and distinguished history as one of the first public universities in the nation. It is one of only two public institutions consistently ranked among the nation's top ten universities. The University has one of the largest health care complexes in the world and one of the best library systems in the United States. With more than $1 billion in research expenditures annually, the University has the second largest research expenditure among all universities in the nation. The University has an annual general fund budget of more than $1.4 billion and an endowment valued at more than $7.57 billion. 

Qualifications:
	* Ph.D. in a relevant area, such as psychology, economics, sociology, computer science, informatics, or other areas in the social or technical sciences
	* Demonstrated potential for successful teaching at the undergraduate and graduate level
	* Demonstrated potential for high scholarly impact
	* A strong commitment to teaching, interdisciplinary research, and cultural diversity
Review of applications will begin November 1 and continue until the position is filled. For more information or to apply, please visit http://www.si.umich.edu/aboutsi/social-computing

The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action educator and employer. 
 
---------------------------------------------------------Soo Young Rieh 
Associate Professor
University of Michigan School of Information
http://rieh.people.si.umich.edu/