A new center is to be planned named the Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) for Social Technologies and Analytics. The planned I/UCRC intends to conducts research of high-end applications for accessing the Social Media data ecosystem, where Social Media refers to how users generate content, exchange information and share ideas in public and private platforms over the Internet. Research foci of the planned center include Big Data analysis, cyberinfrastructure, mobile applications, technology and people, business intelligence and society and computing.

The social media ecosystem represents a significant and growing global resource that offers a wide and varied set of new applications with potential impact spanning the private and public sector. The planned center has the potential to build a corporate, government and university cooperative to address research challenges in this area and accelerate its growth. The planned center would engage students at all levels and train them in through its research. The effort will draw on existing university programs to engage a diverse set of participants.

Project Report

In summary, the mission of COSTA is to engage industry partners and academic members in joint efforts that accelerate our ability to understand the implications of social media for organizations. This goal will be realized through developing the following complementarystrategies: (1) focused studies and projects in the core disciplines (e.g.,developing tools, economic models, and business intelligence), (2) collaborative interaction with existing centers when and where their efforts connect with our mission, and (3) collaborative interactions with participating industry partners to ensure proper and innovative technology transfer. The primary goal of COSTA will be to engage academic and industrial partners in joint research that accelerates our understanding of social media’s implications for industry and society. Social media is a dynamic space with industry constituencies in many different markets such as computing, travel, entertainment, sports, and so on. The study of social media’s implications spans the computing, behavioral science, health sciences and economics disciplines. COSTA’s goal is to improve organizational performance in the for-profit and non-profit sectors through the development and use of more effective tools and methodologies for creating, managing, and evaluating social media applications. The PI attended a workshop hosted by the NSF on how to setup an I/U-CRC. Subsequently the PI has been working on getting industry partners to become members of the I/U-CRC. As of now a determination has been made that it will require substantially more time to get industry partners and thus the PI has opted out of the current collaboration with Clemson University and returned all unused funds to the NSF.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships (IIP)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
1265391
Program Officer
Lawrence A. Hornak
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2013-03-01
Budget End
2014-02-28
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$11,500
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Minneapolis
State
MN
Country
United States
Zip Code
55455