iSchool Capstone

2016

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aWear

There are currently no effective methods of monitoring the health of your loved ones in a real-time, automated, and efficient way. aWear provides a solution in the form of a companion application to a user’s wearable technology (such as Microsoft Band 2) that allows family members to control and monitor when they receive alerts of their loved one’s health information when they cannot be by their side. In doing so, we have increased interconnection between elders and their loved ones, expanded the usage of wearable technology to a new demographic, and help raise awareness for heart related health problems.
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Beaverton Symphony Orchestra Sheet Music Collection

The Beaverton Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an-all volunteer community ensemble in Beaverton, Oregon. In more than 30 years, the organization has amassed a collection of more than 220 separate works, with dozens of parts for each. The sheet music library lacked any digital cataloging or inventory system, making it difficult for the music director to select works and for the volunteer music librarian to keep track of the collection. I assessed and weeded the collection, researched cataloging systems and recommended a free online option (musiclibrarian.net), established metadata schema, developed unique identifiers for parts and works, and cataloged a sample selection of music. This new system provides better management and access of the collection at no cost to the orchestra, which will assist with future programming, allow easy addition of future works, and support the BSO’s mission of providing quality, affordable classical music and outreach to the community.
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beGreatful: an online gratitude platform bringing mindful thinking to university students

Research shows that online mindfulness training is effective in reducing stress and increasing coping mechanisms among university students. beGreatful builds on these findings by providing an online platform with two key components students can use for mindful practices. The first component is an online gratitude journal designed to encourage mindful thinking through the completion of a journal entry. This helps students build the habit of taking time to reflect upon their day and foster a habit of positive thinking which can lead to increased resilience. The second component is an analytical feature designed to help users visualize patterns in their journal entries and be more aware of their thought patterns. This also reinforces the habit of writing journal entries everyday by providing a snapshot of each day and showing improvements overtime. The online platform will serve as a low-cost, accessible tool for college students to maintain a healthy mindset.
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BinHub

95% of all clothing items that are thrown away can be reused or recycled. Specifically, out-of-state college students who want to donate but are unfamiliar with the locations of donation bins end up contributing to this statistic. While there are so many resources to find donation bins, they are all scattered on different organizations’ websites. Searching through all of these resources to find the most convenient donation bin is time consuming and frustrating. The purpose of Binhub is to make it easier for university and college students to find donation bins around them by combining the necessary information into one central application. Users will be able to locate bins that accept different donation types and are owned by different organizations. By presenting this information in a comprehensive and integrated web application, we will help promote the donating of goods to those in need in the greater Seattle area.
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Boise State University Digital Theatre Costume Collection

A growing number of institutions are creating digital collections of historical costumes, but the same cannot be said for theatrical costumes. This form of non-traditional academic scholarship continues to go unmarked in the world of repositories with the exception of small collections of production stills. While a joint effort, there are separate elements of theatre (scenery, costumes, etc.) that should be documented with context for study and recognition to their corresponding designer(s). Constructed garments themselves are often altered and reused for subsequent performances making these pieces quite ephemeral in nature. This collection marks the beginning of Boise State University’s digitized costume collection that brings recognition not only to the designer, but also to the institution’s contribution to the theatre arts. The repository provides a means of officially publishing these records, which include not only photographs of select finished garments, but also renderings created by the costume designer himself.
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Brockman Memorial Tree Tour

The Frank Brockman Memorial Tree Tour takes visitors to explore 66 of the hundreds of tree species on the UW campus. The tour is currently given in the form of an informational black and white booklet, with each tree marked as a number over the campus map. Use of paper maps have switched in favor to real-time mapping and navigational services within mobile phones. Adapting the tree tour from the paper booklet to an Android application makes it easy for visitors to the UW to choose which trees they wish to visit on their tour, and GPS navigation makes tours simple and accessible. Not only does this app bring a new and interactive experience, it will result in an increased appreciation of the unique trees on campus through customized tours, sharing features, and user-to-tree navigation.
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Building a Digital Collection: Annual Reports at SAM

Seattle Art Museum’s Dorothy Stimson Bullitt Library has a collection of print annual reports dating from 1932 to the present. To digitize the collection, we scanned each report, assigned metadata, and uploaded the documents to a Shared Shelf webpage. We then built an online exhibit to showcase the collection using the web platform Omeka. Finally, we worked with marketing and communications to promote the new digital collection. By digitizing the entire set of reports, we empower users to access these materials independent of library staff, and we free valuable physical space in the library. This collection is also unique because while other museums nationwide do make some reports available online, their collections only include the prior 10-15 years. We believe through the promotion of these reports and the stories they tell, we share an important part of Seattle history, and help further SAM’s mission to Connect Art to Life.
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Building Community: The Social Justice and Libraries Open Conference

The first annual Social Justice and Libraries Open Conference was created to support library workers and students in theorizing, strategizing, and operationalizing ways for libraries to empower people and ideas. In response to the growing community of online social justice and critical community, this conference supports local efforts to build community around issues of inclusion, activism and information access. More than 100 attendees from the Pacific Northwest region, California, and British Columbia came together for a day­long event that included keynote speeches by educator Wayne Au and artist/community activist C. Davida Ingram. Discussion sessions on audience ­generated topics included serving homeless and LGBTQ patrons, supporting community activism through libraries, and diversity in the LIS field. Using feedback from participants, we have collectively created a framework for future social justice conferences to take place, creating spaces for local community to form around equity and justice in libraries.
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ClimateImpact

Today, indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest are already experiencing the effects of climate change because their livelihood, customs and traditions are deeply tied to their environment. However, current climate change planning tools are designed for and by users with scientific backgrounds and are generally hard to scale in way that maximizes their potential impact. In collaboration with the CTERRA group from the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences and students from Chief Kitsap Academy in Poulsbo, WA our team created a proof of concept application to address this information gap. ClimateImpact is a mobile and web application which includes a carbon accounting tool, visualization of environmental data, and encourages sustainable activities to users. In addition to bringing together quantitative data from various sources, our tool also places emphasis on the values and traditions of native communities in relation to environmental sustainability.
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Co-Aud

Co-Aud focuses on fostering a creative incubator for those interested in animating, game developing, and voice acting. Co-Aud aims to create a simple interface that will make collaborating between content creators and voice actors as easy as possible. Co-Aud will streamline the process for content creators to post an opportunity and to find the right voice actors/actresses the role. In addition, this will provide voice actors/actresses a way to increase their experience and skills. Not only will Co-Aud act as a central hub, it will also challenge the community with monthly contests. The goal is to connect communities in an organized and efficient manner to reach out and collaborate on communal projects. We would also like to provide a platform through which amateur voice actors can showcase their talents and contact others who are trying to get into the industry, and network with content creators who provide projects and feedback.