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I’ve got 1 more semester of school left and I still have problems explaining what my major, Informatics, is.  Here is some more information i found on one of IU’s webpages:

Informatics questions and answers

Formally established in 1999, the nation’s first school of informatics is located on the Indiana University Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses. The school is growing rapidly with more than 700 undergraduates and graduates enrolled in informatics programs.The undergraduate degree program in informatics presents a multidisciplinary curriculum that combines knowledge of a specific subject area, or cognate area, with a foundation in informatics. This educational background prepares students to adapt to technologic changes throughout their careers.

The newest figures indicate that in Bloomington, 85 undergraduates have declared informatics majors, with another 171 in University Division indicating such intentions as well. Two hundred ninety-one students are enrolled in the various sections of I101–Introduction to Informatics. At IUPUI, 600 undergraduate majors are enrolled in informatics degree programs. At the graduate level, 72 students are in degree programs in Bloomington and Indianapolis ranging from bioinformatics to human

How does informatics differ from computer science?

Computer science is theoretical and highly technical. People who study computer science learn to write programs with programming languages and study the mathematical foundations of computer science, software methodologies, operating systems and applications like graphics, robotics and artificial intelligence. Informatics requires an understanding of these areas, but is more focused on the best applications of these technologies and is therefore more applied and less technical.

What is a cognate area?

A cognate area is an integrated program of approved courses taken outside of the School of Informatics. These courses emphasize the foundations, applications and/or implications of information technology in the chosen area. Among the many diverse examples of cognate areas currently available are: geography, telecommunications, instructional systems technology, chemistry, journalism, fine arts and computer science. Many other areas have been proposed.

How does a cognate area relate to careers?

Because informatics gives students skills to apply IT to another field, the kinds of people or things that a person would be working with would certainly have a lot to do with the cognate area that the student studies along with informatics. Someone who studied psychology and informatics, for example, might become a usability tester, working as part of a development team to make new software applications easier for people to use. Informatics at IU gives the student the opportunity to choose a specific area of concentration–a cognate area–to better determine what people or systems meet the student’s career objectives.

What does a student learn in pursuing an informatics degree?

An informatics degree allows a student to develop marketable information technology skills that can be transported to a number of job settings:

• a technical understanding of how computing systems operate
• ability to adapt, assess and apply new trends in information technology
• well developed problem-solving skills
• ability to work in a team
• well developed communications skills to clearly convey solutions and observations to others
• an understanding of social and ethical principles as they relate to information technology issues.

E-mail: informat@indiana.edu

http://informatics.indiana.edu/

http://www.informatics.iupui.edu/