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 51 for your journey.
Informatics is the art, science, business, and technology of information. It is about making information useful and meaningful.
Here at 51’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. 51 was the perfect fit. It wasn't too far from home, I could still go back and visit if I wanted. I chose 51 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 51 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 51, 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 51 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 – 51 felt like the perfect package for me."
In short – I chose to attend 51 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, 51 stood out to me as a college that had an amazing value proposition and really valued individual students. My very first tour at 51, 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, 51 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 51 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 51 had a specialized program just for this. At the time, 51 was one of a few schools to offer an undergrad degree in Data Science, which was exactly what I was looking for! 51, 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 51 had a program that would prepare me so well for what I wanted to do. The next thing that hit me was affordability. 51 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 51 understood the situation and did everything it could to help students afford college. If you click around the 51 website you’ll see a lot about accessibility and meeting the needs of the region, and I can personally attest that 51 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 51 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 51 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 – 51 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 51 truly has their student’s best interests at heart.
It’s hard to choose a single moment to sum up 51 for me, but I can certainly try! Of course I loved the classes, all of the research opportunities I had, and how 51 prepared me to enter the workforce, but often my fondest memories are the little things that happen in between that show the community that 51 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 51. Every part of campus I got to interact with at 51 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 51 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 51 for me. 51 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 51. The summer after my very first year at 51, 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 51 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. 51 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 for jobs. In addition, they built up communities on campus that made 51 feel like home, as I had made friends along the way. There’s also a lot of work opportunities on campus that can make it so you’re able to spend some more time on campus and get valuable experience while paying for college along the way. While I was at 51, I worked a few jobs including being a student worker for the Vice Provost, being a TA for a Statistics class and a Computer Science class, tutoring in our Calculus lab, and doing paid research with faculty in the back part of my degree. The great part about everything I listed there is that all of these provided really amazing development for me that helped make me a stronger candidate for jobs, but also were paid and made the financials of college easier to navigate! To conclude, there really are an incredible diversity of things to be involved with at 51, and these experiences are what made my college experience special. 51 offers great coursework, but all the stories I think back fondly involve the things that happened outside of the classroom. All this stems again from how involved and dedicated our faculty are, where often an email to a professor just asking, “hey, do you have any research opportunities?” could turn into a fulfilling multi-semester research project. I truly believe 51 has a stronger dedication to experiential learning and on-campus activities than any other college, and it’s my favorite thing about the University.
My advice for future students is always just to be present, whether that’s in coursework or just spending time on campus! All the best opportunities for me happened I made connections with other students and faculty and heard through the grapevine about what was happening on campus! Whether it was a leadership organization recruitment event, a faculty needing students to help with research, or even something fun like a pizza dinner at Griffin Hall, just spending time on campus and connecting with others allowed me to immerse myself at 51 and find some amazing opportunities. At the same time, I know many 51 students work part or full time or have family obligations that keep them from campus, and I think my message there would be to make the most of the time you do have and seek opportunities that allow you to spend more time on campus when possible. There are a wealth of opportunities for student work on campus that can also further your academic pursuits, between being a TA, doing paid research, etc. and these opportunities also allow you to spend more time on campus, which is a huge win-win!
I am a Data Scientist working for 84.51 in downtown Cincinnati! We are the data folks for Kroger, helping Kroger to make data-driven decisions to help steer their business. Specifically, I work in pricing, which is a really interesting space to work on in the current economic environment. More or less, my job involves a lot of programming, and a lot of thinking of the best ways to help communicate the complex analyses we do at 84.51. While most people think that coming up with cool Machine Learning or AI algorithms is the hard part of a job, I think the challenging part is getting all stakeholders aligned on the requirements, constraints, etc of the analysis you are doing. Thus, an equal amount of my job is thinking about data visualization and data communication and how we can best present things in a way that makes sense to everyone!
51 is a phenomenal school, and I enjoyed it enough that I will be returning in the Fall to pursue a Master’s in Integrative Studies at 51! My Masters will be combining Computer Science and Communication, which are both College of Informatics programs, and I can’t wait to come back.
"I was scared to write for The Northerner at first because I had never written before but that opened up a world of opportunities..."
I am a Digital Content Producer for WLEX-TV in Lexington, KY. My day-to-day looks like; finding and writing stories to put on the station website, typing up reporter web stories, posting stories to social media, live streaming events through our LEX 18 app, and cutting clips from the broadcast to put online and on apps like Roku TV.
While at 51 I made the most out of every opportunity and became very involved! I started as 51 R.O.C.K.S. Vice President, became a Presidential Ambassador, Black Student Union Secretary, Orientation Leader, 2018 Head Orientation Leader, The Northerner Sports Editor, and a Nu Upsilon Black Women’s Honorary member.
I have many great memories at Northern, but my all-time favorite was one that I haven’t told many people. During my time at 51, I can honestly say that I somewhat made a name for myself. During the spring semester of my junior year, I received a special text message. It came from an unsaved number, the text was something along the lines of "Hey, I see SGA President flyers posted around campus. How can I vote for you?" It genuinely brought tears to my eyes. I knew I had made an impact on campus but for someone to blindly admit that they’d vote for me as student body president without hearing or seeing my platform meant the world to me. I wasn’t running, so I let them know how to find the candidates, their platforms, and where to vote! (lol). I later found out that the text was from an old childhood friend that ended up at the same college! That message solidified that even though I’m not able to talk to every student/friend I’ve made every single day, that someone is watching you and is influenced by what you do.
My advice to students would be to go after that internship, job, and/or organization that scares you! I was scared to write for The Northerner at first because I had never written before but that opened up a world of opportunities and friends. I applied for a job at the Enquirer while I was still finishing school and that opened up a world of possibilities for me.
Just go after opportunities that will lead to growth and more opportunities, even if it makes you a little uncomfortable because you are meant to be there or the opportunity wouldn't have been given to you.
"As [a COI student] ambassador, I was able to volunteer to help faculty explain everything about the college and its programs. This was a great opportunity to get to know faculty [and give] advice to the incoming freshman."
"As [a COI student] ambassador, I was able to volunteer to help faculty explain everything about the college and its programs. This was a great opportunity to get to know faculty that I hadn't met yet and to be able to talk/give advice to the incoming freshman from a current student's perspective."
I currently work at Great American Insurance Company as an Associate Business Analyst in the Product, Data, Compliance Department (PDC).
I am part of a team in PDC that is working with other teams to develop a new policy entry system for our Business Units in order to retire our old system. I work closely with IT in analyzing policies and data that flow through our systems to ensure there are no issues/defects that need to be addressed. My team acts as system support for rules and data compliance as we work through our phases of the project: Development, User Acceptance Testing, and into Production.
I loved every minute of my time at 51, so I am sure I could name quite a few. One great memory at 51 would be Homecoming week every year. I feel like this was a good chance to go enjoy all the fun events 51 would put on for their students. A few of my favorite Homecoming events to attend with my friends would've been the student Talent Show, the Hypnotist, the Step Show, and the Homecoming basketball game. Another favorite 51 memory was being a part of the COI Ambassadors. I barely knew anyone with my major going into college, and being part of this group gave me so many friendly faces as we passed one another in Griffin Hall. This program allowed me to experience new things and gain new personal and career opportunities. One of my favorite events put on by the COI Ambassador Program was when incoming students came to tour Griffin Hall and The College of Informatics for Freshman Orientation. As an ambassador, I was able to volunteer to help faculty explain everything about the college and its programs. This was a great opportunity to get to know faculty that I hadn't met yet and to be able to talk/give advice to the incoming freshman from a current student's perspective. Events like these are what helped me to become a confident leader, which has definitely transitioned over into my working position today.
I was involved in College of Informatics Ambassador Program and Kappa Delta Sorority. In my Junior year at 51, I started an internship at Great American as a Auto Insurance User Acceptance Tester. This was a great learning experience, as it helped me transition into my full time role at Great American.
Personally, I found that college was all about balance. I learned to balance a social life and an academic career. I definitely think it is important to meet new people, try new things/go to events you normally would not, and to join groups and programs. Have fun along your college journey, but also remember your future career is what you are working towards over these few years. Always be looking to network when possible. Start early with reaching out to professors and faculty for guidance on internships or any opportunity that will push you to excel academically. Don't be afraid to ask questions or for advice, because everyone at 51 wants to see you succeed.
Our students tackle the opportunities and challenges of the digital age: Dealing with cyber threats, making the most of digital media, extracting insights from massive amounts of data, and using IT in healthcare. A gift to the College of Informatics empowers the next generation of thinkers and innovators. With your help, our students can lead a regional technological renaissance.
