Nicholas Demille | Oct. 18, 2011
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| Photo by Kurtis Beavers |
| Stephen Hicks, left, is the first journalism recipient of the Krane Scholarship, established by Google Ventures' David Krane, BAJ'94. The scholarship alternates each year between a journalism and informatics student. |
And now he has $500 in scholarship funds to help the development his product, thanks to Google Ventures partner David Krane, BAJ’94.
Hicks is the second Krane Scholar in the program Krane established to award students whose projects blend communications and technology. The award alternates recipients between journalism and the School of Informatics and Computing, where Krane is a member of the dean’s advisory board.
Students who apply for the award propose a project that uses or combines journalism, media or information technology concepts, with the winner selected by a committee of School of Informatics and Computing and School of Journalism representatives.
To land the prize, Hicks submitted a project proposal for his idea of a more effective way to retrieve information on the Web.
“Take the recent torrent of press about Osama Bin Laden,” Hicks explained. “If you searched for ‘news,’ all you got was print. But there was a ton of great information including maps, animations, info graphics, videos, podcasts and more that you would have missed out on. There needs to be a way to search and get results with all of these different types of media quickly and efficiently.”
It’s just a concept at present. But Hicks said he is confident that with the backing of David Krane, as well as his mentors both in the journalism and informatics departments, he will bring it to fruition.
“I hope to create not just a multimedia search but Android and Mac apps that will serve largely the same function for mobile devices as well,” says Hicks.
Hicks discussed his project with his benefactor in person during Krane’s Oct. 13 visit to campus.
“I came away from the meeting so much more driven in terms of my goals,” Hicks said. “David is obviously a person who is truly in love with what he does.”
Hicks plans to graduate in May with a major in journalism and minor in human-centered computing from the School of Informatics and Computing. He said he hopes his new-found support from industry greats like Krane will help him continue on to pursue a master’s degree at IU as well.
“I really want to travel and see the world,” he said. “But I can’t find another informatics department that seems as creative as IU’s, so I’m going to stay right here if I can.”
More:
- Read about David Krane's visit.
- Learn more about Krane Scholars.
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