Impact: Students Participate in Federally Funded Research

Associate Professor of Computer Science Sean Smith, along with Jack Bowman ’11, Amy Zhang ’13, and PhD student Scout Sinclair, is studying how physicians at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., use information technology to handle secure data.

One of nearly 100 Dartmouth research projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), their study is part of Dartmouth’s Trustworthy Information Systems for Healthcare project (TISH).

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From left: Jack Bowman ’11, Computer Science Professor Sean Smith, Amy Zhang ’13, and computer science PhD student Scout Sinclair (photo by Joseph Mehling ’69)

“People try hard to do the right thing, with respect to information security, while still getting their jobs done,” says Sinclair. “However, in something like medicine, where the job is saving lives, getting the job done takes priority.” The goal of TISH is to improve security by removing that conflict.

Smith emphasizes the opportunity the project provides to the campus as well. “These undergraduate and graduate students are learning as they contribute to a study which makes a real difference in the world,” he says.

Since President Obama signed the ARRA on February 17, 2009, Dartmouth has received $38.8 million in funding from a variety of federal agencies. Click here for a complete list.