This project aims at helping organizations find the best talent with minimal effort. The idea is to utilize data analytics and machine learning methodologies to identify the common characteristics of the top-performing employees in a company. The project is targeting two main research questions: 1. Finding a good fit employee within the top 5 technology companies 2. Identifying what makes a successful Individual Contributor vs Manager The project concludes that certain features such as title and tenure are strong predictors of top-performing employees in an organization. Good hiring is an essential factor for the growth and success of any company.

Mazama Science is a consulting group that brings together a wide variety of experience in support of web-based access to scientific data and information. We believe the world will be a better place when rich datasets and vetted analyses are easily available through the power of visualizations.   The project involves redesigning Mazama’s existing databrowser, port the visualizations along with other interactive visualizations with rich readability. Through careful design, the project progressed from creating a pipeline to homogenize the raw data, create interactive visualization and finally culminating to a website which will help people interact with energy data in new ways.

Children and teens who are hospitalized and/or with special needs are groups of patrons who can benefit from library resources, but most of them may not be able to visit libraries to seek information or attend the programs that they like due to health problems. The Hand-in-Hand Portal aims to facilitate the information needs of hospitalized young patrons and/or children and teens with special needs, which allows them to have opportunities to engage in library programs, look for library resources and interact with library staff from San Francisco Public Library.

The San Francisco History Center (SFHC) at the San Francisco Public Library’s main branch houses a wealth of primary sources and ephemera that document life in San Francisco. While SFHC has increased its classroom visits for youth in recent years, there is opportunity to better engage K-12 students by while following educational standards such as Common Core, California History-Social Science Framework, and Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy. This project investigates and recommends methods to streamline the educational offerings of the SFHC and design a sample lesson plan that equips students with primary source literacy and neighborhood research skills.

The usability of online collections is predicated on their information architecture and the quality of user experience design. Institutions investing in digitizing collections are dually tasked with creating an online experience that intuitively facilitates casual and curated browsing, search features, and logical connections to relevant content. Utilizing qualitative research methods - structured interviews, usability tests, affinity mapping, etc. - this work sought to discover the challenges faced by cultural institutions who provide online collections, and how those collections might be experienced by lay users. The resulting identified trends indicate an industry-wide need for improved user experience design and information architecture.

My task was to curate an online exhibit for University of Washington Special Collections, highlighting the rare early twentieth-century Russian children’s books that were recently donated to Special Collections by the Harer family. I selected and digitized fifty of the most historically significant books, conducted background research, and wrote contextual essays on children’s book design, juxtaposing the pre-revolutionary dream-world of stylized ornament with the constructivist, geometrical forms of the revolutionary era. Now people throughout the world will have access to these important books, which are not only for children but are also works of art in themselves.

FAVR aims to change the way volunteering works. Based in community instead of charity, FAVR provides low-time commitment volunteer opportunities while allowing users to easily give and receive favors from one another. FAVR seeks to empower all of its users, whether they are in need of assistance or lending a helping hand. Our simple application helps facilitate a connection between members, building a system based on trust instead of paperwork. It encourages volunteers with busier lives to get involved and help out in ways that their lifestyles allow. Through FAVR, users will feel more in control of their day-to-day routines.

Kalapuya High School, an alternative school in Eugene, Oregon, has accumulated a collection of books that serve as the school’s library. However, they had no system to inventory the collection, nor was there a method for borrowing or organizing materials. This limited patrons' ability to assess the collection and use the library as a tool. By digitally cataloging the collection, implementing an organizational system for the materials, and by creating a blueprint for a designated library space, access to the collection has been increased and the library can be used as a tool for recreational and academic purposes.

The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) would like to launch the first interactive program where families read a picture book with a corresponding art work in the galleries. Currently, SAM is unsure about how to create a program involving literacy and programming. The skills I acquired at the iSchool will be beneficial from a library information perspective. I created a teaching plan that included my philosophy on best practices, two new book/art pairings, and a survey that will help the museum launch a successful, ongoing literacy program that will promote art appreciation, diversity, and encourage creative freedom in children.

Portland Pedal Power (PPP), is a delivery and catering delivery service, based out of Portland that differentiates itself from the competition with the usage of bicycles. Business Intelligence is the process of equipping organizations to make better decisions with the usage of data. A data warehouse architecture coupled with reporting capabilities will allow the leadership of PPP to better understand their customers. This project warranted the capstone team to upgrade the existing data infrastructure, define and automate ETL (Extract Transform, Load) processes to combine disparate sources of data and build interactive data visualizations and report to make everyday decisions easier.