UW Informatics – A Brief History

The UW has been educating information professionals for more than a century. However, the Bachelor of Science in Informatics program began in 1999, with the first courses offered in Autumn quarter of 2000.

The Informatics major was launched at the same time as what is now called the UW iSchool. The major was an integral part of the university’s vision for a new information school on the UW campus and a response to the need for a competitive information-focused program for undergraduates. Informatics was designed to be both conceptual and practical, academic and professional, and focused on the human and humanistic dimensions of the design and use of information systems.

UW Informatics – The First Years

From inception, the Informatics major has contained a strong emphasis on developing technical expertise, filtered through a focus on the users and uses of information systems and technologies. Among the questions the first group of Informatics courses asked were:

• What is information?
• How can it be supported by technology?
• What is the relationship between human activity, information, and information technology?

Students in the first cohort in 2000 were asked to investigate interfaces, interactive design, the Internet, augmented reality and ubiquitous computing. By drawing on their understanding of information and information technology, students were encouraged to explore the implications of information systems for human values and human activity.

As the program grew in popularity, the size of cohorts grew. By 2004, the cohort size had grown to its current level of 70 students, a figure which allows the major to remain competitive and still support the personal interaction among students and between students and faculty for which Informatics is known.

The program has evolved to better prepare students for the demands that will be made of them as professionals. From the beginning, the focus of the program has positioned majors to exhibit leadership, by giving them a broad theoretical and practical understanding of information systems. In many instances, the jobs students prepare for do not exist when they enter the university — students choose the Informatics major because the skills they develop (including systems analysis and project management) can be used to address information problems using legal, technical and social lenses. Graduates’ skills remain relevant because as computing becomes more ubiquitous, designers are increasingly relied upon to eliminate barriers to adoption and access.