Outstanding individual and group outreach efforts will be recognized April 30 with the 2013 Campus Awards for Excellence in Public Engagement.

The awards recognize faculty members, academic professionals and students who have consistently applied their knowledge and expertise to issues of societal importance for the public good.

Martin Wolske, a senior research scientist with the Center for Digital Inclusion in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, has demonstrated a deep commitment to people in the communities in which he works. The center’s goal is to foster inclusive and sustainable societies through research, teaching and public engagement using information and communication technologies. Wolske is a faculty mentor for Action Research Illinois (formerly the East St. Louis Action Research Project) and also is an instructor of an Introduction to Network Systems class in East St. Louis. His most recent work with the Urbana Free Library – redesigning its computer lab, then building the custom furniture for it – is an important focus of his teaching and research. He also incorporates service learning and community engagement in two of his courses, in which students engage in projects that can have a significant impact on a community. While technology is a focus for the projects in his classes, it is technology embedded in a public space, designed to help members of a community accomplish their goals.

Source: http://news.illinois.edu/ii/13/0404/caepe_awards.html

Photo: L. Brian Stauffer