A career connecting
people and technology.

Professional biography

Dr. Vandana Singh is a Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is an academic leader with extensive experience in transdisciplinary program development and collaborative curriculum innovation.

At the College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies (CECS) at UT Knoxville, she led cross-campus faculty teams to design forward-looking undergraduate and graduate programs aligned with emerging industry needs. She led the successful development and Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) approval of four undergraduate degrees in Applied Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Innovative Transdisciplinary Studies (ITS), and Cybersecurity.

The ITS program offers a customizable curriculum through stackable certificates developed in partnership with faculty from thirteen colleges. Dr. Singh also led the development and approval of two graduate programs in Sustainability and Data Science, while coordinating several new university-wide undergraduate and graduate certificates. Her strategic engagement with industry partners, department heads, associate deans, and advisory boards brings faculty and stakeholders together to shape transdisciplinary academic offerings that prepare students for the future.

Dr. Singh brings more than two decades of experience leading interdisciplinary research and educating future professionals and leaders in information science and technology. Her research has had international impact through extensive collaborations across computer science, engineering, information sciences, nursing, education, business information systems, the arts, and the sciences. She has participated in global research teams with scholars from up to ten countries, advancing knowledge through cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary partnerships.

Her scholarship examines how people learn, participate, and thrive with technology. Her research spans AI education and ethics, open source communities, gender and information technology, online learning, and technology for rural libraries. Current directions include AI literacy and adolescents’ interactions with educational social robots.

Her doctoral research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign examined knowledge creation, sharing, and reuse in online technical support for open source software.