One of the central elements to UMass Boston's mission is serving the community beyond its student body. As a public university, UMass Boston is a public resource, but like so many public resources, it can be overlooked easily if it's not in someone's backyard. So if you can't bring the public to you, what about bringing you to the public? That's at least part of the approach behind an internet-accessible faculty database being developed by UMass Boston. The database is now ready for faculty input and can be accessed via the world wide web at http://www.cs.umb.edu/~serl/facdb/
The project actually demonstrates the collective power of academia.
Developed by the Math & Computer Sciences Department's Software
Engineering Research Laboratory (SERL), the database highlights the
skill of SERL in addition to opening the resources of individual
faculty to the world.
Most universities list somewhere, somehow, the resources of their faculty. This database stands out among others in its recording and search of a variety of criteria. From an attorney looking for an expert witness in a rare field to an individual suffering from an affliction looking for people who have published research on his or her disease or disorder, this database links faculty to the people who need them.
SERL Director Bob Morris says he expects it will take a few months
before the database fills up. "We did a lot of research before we put
this together, and what we found is the success is entirely dependent
on how many people get involved," he said.
As the mechanics of the database have just been finished, it is now
up to faculty to join in the project. The easiest way is to visit the
site and fill out the form. It takes about 15 minutes or so to input
all the information. All the information submitted is confirmed as
coming from the person in question before it is added to the
database.