UT Austin has launched a new School of Computing within the College of Natural Sciences, uniting the iSchool with the departments of Computer Science and Statistics and Data Sciences. In a message to the community, Interim Dean Fleischmann emphasized that all current academic credentials and programs are continuing and that the move brings new resources for faculty hiring, student support, and interdisciplinary research. "I hope all of you will join me in viewing the creation of the School of Computing as an opportunity for our community," Fleischmann writes.
Read Interim Dean Fleischmann's message
Effective February 1, Prof. Ken Fleischmann took the reins as interim dean and chair designate of the iSchool, succeeding outgoing Interim Dean Soo Young Rieh, who remains on faculty. Fleischmann is founding chair of Good Systems, founding director of the Informatics undergraduate program, and currently serves as interim associate dean for research and director of doctoral studies. "I am looking forward to working with the iSchool community to make the most of the opportunities that are ahead of us," he says.
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The iSchool is pleased to announce career milestones for two faculty members. Dr. Min Kyung Lee has been recommended for tenure and promotion to associate professor, and Sarah Norris has been recommended for promotion to associate professor of practice. Lee is an innovator in participatory AI, with active grants from NSF, the Ford Foundation, and the Omidyar Network. Norris is a national leader in library and archives conservation and disaster preparedness for memory institutions. "Min and Sarah's promotions are richly deserved," says Interim Dean Fleischmann.
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The iSchool's annual Research Showcase on Feb. 27 filled the Texas Union with faculty panels and poster presentations spanning AI, cybersecurity, accessibility, library science, health informatics, and user experience design. Panels examined computational social science and critical AI perspectives, and civic discourse in the age of generative AI. Poster highlights included eye-tracking studies of AI-assisted learning, a study of generative AI and PDF accessibility for screen-reader users, AI readiness in public libraries, and a live VR demo exploring mental health tools for youth aged 10–15.
Read the full recapTen iSchool researchers will represent UT Austin at ACM CHI 2026 — the premier international conference on human-computer interaction — taking place April 13–17 in Barcelona, Spain. Presenting are Min Kyung Lee, Angie Zhang, David Gray Widder, Elliott Hauser, Chelsea Barabas, Angela D.R. Smith, Zhitong Guan, Eunhye Grace Ko, Earl W Huff, and Anjali Singh. This year's theme is Creant el demà junts — Creating the future together.
Browse iSchool presentations in the CHI programSeveral iSchool researchers participated in iConference 2026. Prof. Kayla Booth presented two works, and Ken Fleischmann, Dan Zhang, and Yan Zhang also shared their research as part of the conference program.
A new iSchool story recaps the school's standout presence at CHIIR 2026 in Seattle, where students and faculty were recognized for both research excellence and leadership. Soo Young Rieh received the conference's first Test-of-Time Award with her co-authors and also won Best Short Paper with PhD student Yujin Choi. The iSchool was strongly represented in the doctoral consortium by Klara (Zhitong) Guan, Jiaxin An, and Choi, with Jacek Gwizdka serving as a mentor, while Gwizdka's IX Lab also contributed two paper presentations by Dan Zhang and Gavindya Jayawardena.
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Join us for the Spring 2026 Capstone Poster Showcase, a celebration of 175 iSchool students and their capstone work. The event will be held at the UT Etter-Harbin Alumni Center, 2110 San Jacinto Blvd. Food and refreshments will be served, and all students, faculty, and community members are welcome.
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PhD candidate Jaxsen Day was recently featured by the OpenAI Academy for his novel use of ChatGPT to make academic research more accessible for people with visual impairments. The story also highlights his collaboration with Kenneth Fleischmann and Mario Guerra through a first-of-its-kind partnership between Good Systems and Enterprise Technology. Day was also featured in Enterprise Technology's YouTube series, Digital Accessibility: Infrastructure Rather Than Request.
Read the OpenAI Academy feature
Please join us in congratulating Yao-Cheng Chan on successfully defending his dissertation, Perceived Social Intelligence in Autonomous Robots: Evaluating Communicative Behaviors in Social Navigation Tasks. His committee includes Elliott Hauser, Stephen C. Slota, David Widder, and Nikolas Martelaro of Carnegie Mellon University.
Please join us in congratulating Jiaying “Lizzy” Liu on successfully defending her dissertation proposal, Understanding and Supporting Young Adults’ Mental Health Care-Seeking and Emotion Coping. Her committee includes Soo Young Rieh, Jacek Gwizdka, and Kaitlin Costello of Rutgers University.