Dr. Vandana Singh is the Assistant Dean of Faculty Affairs and New Programs. She joined CECS on July 1st, 2023, as a Program Director and member of the founding team of the college. In the first year, she played a central role in establishing CECS undergraduate and graduate programs. Before joining CECS, Singh was a Professor in the School of Information Sciences and the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the College of Communication and Information. She has served as the Director for Undergraduate Studies and the Coordinator for the undergraduate minor at the School of Information Sciences. Dr. Singh joined the SIS faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2008 and was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in 2014 and to Professor in 2022.
Singh’s research focuses on AI education, AI Ethics, Open-Source Software, Gender and Information Technology, Diversity in Software Engineering, Online Learning, and Technology for rural libraries. She teaches Web Design, Usability Testing and Methods, Foundations of Information Technology, and DEI for Technology Professionals. She has received funding from federal agencies such as National Science Foundation (NSF), IMLS, and the United States Geological Society (USGS) and an industry grant from Google.
Singh’s work is published in top information science journals, national and international conferences, and books. Her research publications have received several awards at different venues, including the best research paper award. She is currently an Executive member of ACM-W North America and the chair of the Student Chapter for ACM-W North America. She is also the programming committee chair for the National Center for Women in Technology (NCWIT) academic alliance.
For more information, please visit her website at- https://sis.utk.edu/vandana
Education:
Dr. Singh graduated with a Ph.D. in Information Science from the iSchool at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, in 2008. Her dissertation research was on Online Communities to Support the Users of Open-Source Software She holds two master’s degrees, one in Computer Science from the University of Chicago, Illinois, USA, and the other in Knowledge Management Systems from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. Her undergraduate degree is from G.B. Pant University, in the foothills of the Himalayas in India.