"[1] Work in the college currently focuses on four major areas in education, research, and outreach: data sciences and artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, privacy and security, and social and organizational informatics.
The School was renamed as the College of Information Sciences and Technology in 2006 – a designation that signified IST's importance within both the Penn State system and the Commonwealth.
The three programs attract graduate students from a variety of backgrounds, including computer science, engineering, psychology, sociology, economics, philosophy, visual arts, and mathematics.
The resulting interdisciplinary research drives major advances in areas such as medicine, energy, environmental monitoring and crisis management.
[18] The event was created to celebrate a $400,000 gift from David Rusenko, a 2007 graduate of the college who along with Chris Fanini and Dan Veltri co-founded the drag-and-drop website building company, Weebly, while they were students at Penn State.
The event grew to include other colleges and units across campus, and it was renamed to Penn State Startup Week in 2017.
Penn State Startup Week is a weeklong series of events that brings entrepreneurs and innovative thought-leaders to campus for presentations, workshops, mentorship, and student pitch competitions.
Past events have drawn speakers from around the country, including the founders of and leaders at high-profile companies like Weebly, Dropbox, Reddit, Lands' End, IBM Watson, and Microsoft.