Yesterday approximately 25 faculty members and graduate students gathered in the Guerlac room of the A.D. White House to consider ways to improve interdepartmental collaboration by bridging gaps between related fields of study at the University.

All that time you spent on Facebook when you should have been studying may not be a waste after all. In a recent study, Prof. Jeff Hancock, communication, found that use of information on Facebook can be harnessed to gain influence and popularity amongst peers.

Hancock’s study paired participants who had not met each other over instant messenger. Some were asked to look at the opposite person’s Facebook profile before the conversation.

Those who looked at their partner’s Facebook beforehand were able to use the information obtained to ask questions and make themselves seem more similar to their partners. Hancock found that the more people used the information found out beforehand through Facebook, the higher likelihood that their partner would like them.

Weill Cornell Medical College, the communications department and the Leukemia Lymphoma Society are collaborating in a research team called the IMPACT project (Improving Methods for Patient Accrual to Clinical Trials), which will investigate the ways people receive medical information and the factors that influence their consequent decisions.

Dr. John Leonard, who initiated the project, was concerned about the low number of patients in the U.S. enrolling in clinical trials. Every new treatment must undergo a certain number of trials, and Leonard said he hopes that IMPACT will help speed up this process.