The School of Information Sciences welcomed interdisciplinary faculty member Nic DePaula to the school's faculty in August 2019. He is one of nine faculty members recruited in the multidisciplinary initiative in Big Data and his focus will fall in the arts and humanities area. The intent of this initiative is to build on Wayne State's existing strengths in research and curricula in Big Data and its applications in business, health, social sciences, arts, humanities, physical sciences and engineering.

Prior to joining SIS and Wayne State, DePaula worked on his Ph.D. in Information Science at the University at Albany, State University of New York. His research addresses questions of social media use in government, discourse analysis and questions concerning environmental information and communication. His research bridges distinct fields such as public administration, environmental communication and information science. DePaula previously worked at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation as a GIS Analyst as well as the Center for Technology in Government as a research assistant. His work has been published in journals including Government Information Quarterly, Social Science Computer Review and First Monday, and he has presented at various conferences around the world. DePaula holds degrees in geography and urban Planning from SUNY Albany and has taught courses on database management, information and society, and text mining.

Since joining Wayne State, DePaula has partnered with fellow interdisciplinary faculty member Jessica Rajko from the Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre & Dance to launch Critical Conversations: (Big) Data, Algorithms & Interfaces, a series of intimate luncheons that provide an informal yet structured environment for researchers to meet and find mutual interests.