Penn State connections lead doctoral student to interdisciplinary College of IST

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — With guidance from a long-time Penn State professor who now teaches in the West Indies, Jason Lucas found his way to the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST). Today, Lucas is pursuing a doctoral degree in informatics at IST and credits his mentors, past and present, for helping him define his interdisciplinary research path. 

Lucas’s academic journey has been shaped by a passion for integrating technology with health sciences. While earning his bachelor’s degree in information technology at St. George’s University (SGU) in Grenada, West Indies, he said, he developed a fascination with the intersection of technology, medicine and public health. This interdisciplinary interest led him to Boston University, where he earned a master’s degree in computer information systems with a concentration in health informatics.  

As he strengthened his technical foundation, Lucas said he felt he needed deeper expertise in the health sciences. He returned to SGU to pursue a master of public health degree, which provided him with a comprehensive understanding of public health principles and practices. 

“Throughout this journey, I was unconsciously building a multidisciplinary background that would later become my greatest strength,” Lucas said. “Learning directly from leading clinicians, public health professionals and technology experts across these institutions gave me a unique perspective on solving complex problems at the intersection of these fields.” 

Lucas was searching for a field that would allow him to apply his multidisciplinary foundation to real-world problems — a field that would bring together computational methods, health informatics and public health approaches in meaningful ways. 

“Informatics was the perfect match for this ambition,” Lucas said. “The field's interdisciplinary nature aligns perfectly with my background and research interests, particularly in developing artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) solutions that can address significant societal challenges in health care accessibility, information integrity and technology equity.” 

Lucas’s decision to come to Penn State to pursue a doctoral degree was influenced by Theodore Hollis, his mentor at SGU. Hollis is a professor emeritus in Penn State’s Eberly College of Science, where he served on the faculty from 1969 to 2018. Hollis recommended the College of IST, noting how well its informatics program — with an emphasis on both technological innovation and social impact — aligned with Lucas’s goals and interests. 

In 2022, shortly after beginning his doctoral studies at Penn State, Lucas received the linguistic diversity (LinDiV) fellowship, and he continues to participate in the program. 

“While IST provided me with strong foundations in data sciences, AI and social informatics, I recognized I was missing depth in linguistics and language sciences — critical components for my research focus on multilingual NLP,” Lucas said. “LinDiV has filled this gap perfectly, enhancing my knowledge and research direction in multilingual natural language processing, especially for languages with limited resources.” 

According to Lucas, the program's transdisciplinary approach has been transformative, providing him with specialized training that combines computational methods with linguistic theory to prepare him to address real-world problems in more holistic ways. 

“Beyond the academic benefits, LinDiV has connected me with a community of researchers across disciplines who share my interest in language technologies, creating valuable collaborative opportunities that have significantly shaped my research trajectory,” Lucas said.  

Lucas is a member of the Penn State Information Knowledge and Web (PIKE) Research Group, which studies research issues involving the management and mining of data in diverse forms and their social or security applications. The group is led by Dongwon Lee, professor and director of doctoral programs in the College of IST and Lucas’s graduate adviser. Lucas’s work at the PIKE research lab, along with guidance from Lee, has influenced his research focus on combating low-resource, multilingual harmful content.  

Lucas aims to develop more inclusive language technologies that can detect and counter harmful content across multiple languages, including those with limited digital resources. According to Lucas, this has particular relevance for defending communities whose languages aren't prioritized by major tech platforms. 

“Success in my work would look like advancing research for social good and developing deployable technologies that protect vulnerable populations from manipulation and harmful content,” he said. “My ultimate goal is to further the development of inclusive language technology that not only bridges the digital language divide but also protects people from hidden manipulations that exploit psychosocial biases.” 

Lucas said he is now preparing for his upcoming experience at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) Data Science Summer Institute, where he will have an opportunity to apply his research to projects of national importance and see direct impact from his work.  

“At LLNL, I'll be collaborating with leading scientists and engineers on cutting-edge research directly related to my interests in AI, multilingual NLP and information security,” he said. “What particularly excites me is the chance to apply my multidisciplinary background — combining computer science, public health informatics and linguistics — to complex problems that have real-world implications for national security and public welfare.” 

The internship will allow Lucas to bridge academic research with practical applications in a national laboratory setting, he said.  

“I look forward to gaining experience with high-performance computing resources and learning from LLNL researchers while contributing his own unique perspective to their mission,” he said.