Faculty tap into Penn Expertise

Those searching for a University expert who studies anything from the sexual behavior of penguins to tropical vegetation in South America will no longer have to spend hours searching through resumes and books. PennExpertise is making information about University faculty, their research interests and their expertise more accessible than ever before. The University's new database of faculty is available through Gopher to anyone with a PennNet ID. "You can type in a name, department or a keyword, and get a printout of all the pertinent information, " said Janine Corbett, assistant vice provost for research. By simply entering in a faculty member's name, anyone can get a listing of his academic interests, research background and publications, among other things. Almost 50 percent of the standing faculty and research faculty members are currently listed, according to information available on the system. "Corporations' interest in faculty members here will stimulate more sponsored research for the University," said Stuart Watson of the Office of Research Administration."We hope more faculty will see the advantages and then want to sign on." The information used in PennExpertise is owned by Building Expertise in Science and Technology, a division of Cartermill Inc., of Baltimore. BEST is a profit making group which hopes to sell the information to industry and make it available to the University in the meantime. "We charge research driven companies for subscriptions to the service and charge the University modest fees," said Edwin Van Dusen, Cartermill's director of marketing. While helping the University form its own database, BEST is working with over 150 North American research universities to form an international database of faculty, an expanded version of PennExpertise. "We build databases for [the universities'] internal use," said Van Dusen. "It is a tremendous resource to have everyone accessible from the same base." Several University offices have access to this international database already. And, if things run on schedule, the internet server - which will make the international service available through Gopher - will be ready in early February, according to Van Dusen. The cost to the University for such convenience, which has not yet been fully determined, is to this date minimal. "At this point, the only cost has been in personnel [to get the system running at the University]," Watson said. PennExpertise replaces the Faculty Research Interest book, which became quickly outdated after its printing. The book cost several thousand dollars to print and did not include a lot of information about faculty members. Today, the BEST database is expanding with more universities and faculty on-line. Potentially, graduate students will also be able to take advantage of the technology. "We hope to start a file of graduate students so Ph.D. recruiters can come on to find potential employers," Van Dusen said.

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