The Washington State Department of Ecology works to manage and conserve public resources and collects information about the effectiveness of its conservation programs. Our project will help in the Open Data Literacy initiatives of the Department of Ecology by transferring this information to the open data portal of Washington state (data.wa.gov) and designing user-friendly data visualizations. This project will create a positive social impact by presenting the existing waste management information through interactive and powerful visualizations to the public. It will also help the department and government officials in tracking of the progress of their conservation efforts more effectively.

The City of Seattle's Demographic Disaggregation Task Force (DDTF) is a cross-departmental group charged by City Council to change the way the City collects race/ethnicity data. With this more accurate information, City services can be targeted more equitably. Our project is a pilot of demographic disaggregation at the Utilities Discount Program (UDP), which provides discounted electric utility rates for low-income households. Through organizational research, observations of staff, and interviews with key UDP players, we came to understand the current practices around race/ethnicity data. From here, we made recommendations on how to integrate the disaggregated race/ethnicity data practices into UDP's framework.

Our team is working on improving the earphone paradigm for better usability and customizability by creating a modular device that will separate the ear attachment from the audio driver along with the rest of the assembly in addition to modifying the software behavior. Allowing users to customize what has historically been a one-piece device will enable them to selectively improve one aspect of their earphones without sacrificing any others. The modular design will also enable the customization of style and color, allowing the headset to double as functional jewelry and providing flexibility to the ever changing modern man.

Traditional disaster planning concerns what to do during an emergency. This document contains tools youth services personnel can use to prepare for what to do after. This toolkit is a customizable guide for youth services (serving ages 0 - 18) when their communities experience a time of crisis. Youth are especially vulnerable during this time, and library programs can help them process change and deal with emotions. Even better, most of the tools to deliver this service - like storytimes or tween programming - are already in place! From collection management to teen advisory boards - this toolkit covers it all!

Seattle Public library is interested in purchasing technolgies for the youth which can be used for learning. One of the projects is the Minecraft club. It is a learning sessions for youth to learn the process of designing characters, prototyping, and creating a story out of the character. In implementing the project, there are information gaps in the management and implementation process. The first one is between librarians familiarity with the content and the purpose of the project. And the other one is between librarians facilitation skills with technology and youth development. To fill these gaps, our capstone group will look at the curriculum of the 3D printer club and try to find ways to revise the curriculum which will make a successful session for the children.

Since 2013 the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives (OHBA) has been dedicated to collecting and archiving materials related to hops and brewing in Oregon. Currently, OHBA lacks a formal Loan & Digitization agreement form that addresses intricate copyright issues, and is concise and understandable for OHBA and Special Collections and Archives Research Center (SCARC) donors. To address this problem we researched the practices of similar institutions and copyright issues, created multiple form drafts, a supplemental LibGuide, and conducted a usability survey. The end product of our capstone project is a Loan & Digitization form that is organized, offers room for thorough description, contains copyright information and protects the OHBA and donors from potential donation problems. The addition of a LibGuide keeps the form concise while still providing users with supplemental information that will save the OHBA time and work in the future. The final form will be adopted by OHBA and SCARC.

In an effort to address the persistent opportunity gap in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines, Jon Madamba founded STEM Paths. STEM Paths is an organization that empowers disadvantaged, multicultural youth in STEM disciplines through class-based workshops. The organization’s information problem is that it does not have a centralized repository for the data they gather from the students and families they work with. The staff at STEM Paths conceive this central repository as a user-friendly, multi-user database with a mobile counterpart to collect, store, and safeguard such data. This can result in two important outcomes for the organization. The first outcome is that be able to continue its mission by processing data and tracking student performance, The other outcome is that it’ll have meaningful information to present to stakeholders expand their operations and improve the database’s reach to enterprise-wide integration.

The archival record of the U.S. Navy Band has suffered from limited personnel and financial resources for maintenance. The archives consist primarily of images, video footage, operational documents, and musical programs stretching back more than 100 years. As part of its commitment to showcasing history and heritage, the band sought to improve public access to its archives in the immediate and long-term future. I first surveyed the contents and selected items to be a part of an exhibit hosted on the band’s website that highlights its mission to support the President of the United States. I digitized those items, cataloged them using commercial museum software, and wrote the captions to craft the story for the exhibit. Future exhibits now have a template to follow for creation, and a general outline of the contents of the archive provide the band with guidance on how best to allocate their resources.

The experience of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is often stigmatized and poorly understood by those without anxiety. Further, there are very few interactive media forms that focus on the experiences of GAD. Of those that do, the vast majority fall within the horror genre intended to induce anxiety and provide shock-value without representing an overcoming of such experiences. Fragments uses the HTC Vive Virtual Reality Headset as an exploratory medium for representing a fictional experience through anxiety. Using dramatic storytelling, thorough domain research, and principles of immersive play, we aim to present a positive, fantasy adventure about a personal experience of overcoming anxiety. Fragments will simulate the physical and emotional responses of anxiety to help those without anxiety understand these experiences and critique the stigma toward anxiety. Our audience will be traversing a world rife in metaphor and symbolism that can encourage those with or without anxiety to discuss together.