UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — James Z. Wang, distinguished professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) at Penn State, will present the college’s annual McMurtry Lecture at noon on Thursday, Nov. 7, in E202 Westgate Building at Penn State University Park.
The 2023-24 recipient of the George McMurtry Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award, Wang will reflect on his approach to teaching through his talk titled “Unleashing the Problem-Solving Potential of Next-Generation Data Scientists.”
In this talk, Wang will discuss the strategies he has developed to inspire and empower students in the rapidly evolving field of data science. He’ll explore the value of mentorship and hands-on learning and how these experiences help students reach their full potential. He’ll also highlight key principles such as critical thinking, active learning and fostering independence to demonstrate how these approaches enable students to navigate complex interdisciplinary challenges.
“A supportive and dynamic educational environment enables students not just to complete tasks but to grow into independent problem solvers,” Wang said.
Wang joined the IST faculty in 2000. His research interests include image analysis, affective computing, image modeling and image retrieval and their applications. He guides a group of graduate and undergraduate researchers through the James Z. Wang Research Group at Penn State, with a mission of advancing knowledge related to the analysis, management and understanding of large and complex visual data and contributing to society through the dissemination of research findings and education of future leaders in the field.
He has received an NSF CAREER Award and four Amazon Research Awards and held the endowed PNC Technologies Career Development Professorship in IST. He received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, summa cum laude, from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in 1994, and earned a master’s degree in mathematics in 1997, a master’s degree in computer science in 1997 and a doctoral degree in medical information sciences in 2000, all from Stanford University.
The George J. McMurtry Faculty Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award is named for the former associate dean of the College of Engineering who was instrumental in the founding of the College of IST. The award highlights recipients’ innovative teaching, commitment to learning and creative interface in the classroom or in online courses they teach.
More information on Wang’s Nov. 7 lecture can be found here. The talk is open to the Penn State community.