
Karen is the Assistant Director of Information Technology at the U of A System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service. She started with COSMOS as an undergraduate in Spring 2017. She graduated in December 2018 with her bachelor’s degree in Information Science and Graduate Certificate in Data Science, master’s degree in Information Science in December 2019, and PH.D. in Computer an Information Science in May 2022.
Achievements:
- Award for Innovation at the National Extension Community (NETC) 2020 Conference
- Brett Barham Extension Innovation Award 2020 from the Arkansas Association of Cooperative Extension Specialists
- Outstanding MS Graduate Award 2020 from Department of Information Science
- Outstanding Masters Degree Award 2020 from the College of Engineering and Information Technology
- Extension Excellence Award for Early Career: Project/Program Administrator
- EIT Open House Outstanding Graduate Award Recipient
- Winner of J.B. Hunt’s Use Case Challenge at UA Blockchain Hackathon 2018
- 1st place and “Best Use of AWS” at CrimsonHacks 2018
- “Best Use of AWS” at CrimsonHacks at University of Alabama 2017
- EIT Open House Mainstream Technologies Award “Professional Presentation”
- “Outstanding Student Team” award for Information Science at the JOLT! Hackathon
In the news:
- Karen DiCicco Successfully Defended her Master’s Thesis.
- EIT Open House Awards
- Connecting Technology and Agriculture: Karen Watts’ innovative work at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
- Karen Watts named Fall 2018 Chancellor’s List Honoree
- Cosmographer’s Capstone II Project: A real-life website challenge receives a real-life solution
- COSMOS showcases technological solutions during Department of State delegation visit at UA Little Rock
- UA Blockchain Hackathon: COSMOS Researchers Leading the Way
- Hackathons: A fun and challenging learning experience
- COSMOS members win big at EIT Open House
- UA Little Rock students win Alabama hackathon with cryptocurrency prototype app