IREPS 2016 - Special Track on Integrating Research, Education, and Problem Solving: IREPS 2016

Based on Eli Cohen's seminal paper1, Informing Science has evolved into an important and useful trans-discipline, and T. Grandon Gill2 applied this emerging trans-discipline in the context of a detailed critical analysis of the academic activities in Business Schools, and made very important suggestions for the design (or re-design) of this academic field. Gill's analysis and design recommendation are also important for other academic fields especially those related to professional activities like Engineering, Medicine, Scientific Consulting, problem oriented research, action research, etc. Cohen's and Gill's seminal works inspired the organization of the Special Track on Integrating Research, Education, and Problem Solving: IREPS 2016.
IREPS 2016's Organizing Committee preferred to also include the engineering perspective to the content of the special track because of the very important complementary, synergic, and cybernetic relationships between Science and Engineering3, in general, and especially in the specific case of Academic Informing. Information Systems Engineering, along with soft engineering4, organizational engineering and an increasing number of non-traditional fields in engineering (along with the experience in research, teaching and consulting in traditional engineering fields) are highly desirable, if not necessary, for designing and implementing processes and support technologies related to new findings and new ways for integrating the academic activities (research, education, consulting, and problem solving) among themselves and with Society, including the Private and the Public Sectors.
IREPS 2016 is oriented to academics and their clients: researchers, students, and practitioners. Contributions are accepted regarding the three basic academic informing activities, especially those related to relationships among them. As it is known, cybernetic loops among the basic academic informing activities can provide co-regulative processes (via negative feedback and feedforward) and synergic co-amplifying processes (via positive feedback). Two-way informing between any two of the three basic academic informing activities would make possible the required cybernetic loops.