Capstone Projects | Information School | University of Washington

FanCentral: A social media platform for sports fans that incentivizes interaction

Currently, there is no centralized social media platform for sports fans, or a way that teams can directly encourage fans to interact with their social media posts to further engagement. FanCentral is a social media platform for teams to share social media posts from various platforms to their fans. Teams can also reward fans for interacting with posts, incentivizing engagement. Fans are able to view detailed information and post history for their favorite teams and earn rewards by supporting their favorite teams.

FindMyTeam

It can be a pain to find a good group to work with in your classes. That’s why we created FindMyTeam. This application is a platform that will enable iSchool students to join and create teams with their peers, preview student profiles, and find team recommendations based on skills and interests. This can be entirely student-driven, but we want to encourage instructors to use this in their classes. Instructor users will be able to add students to their classes and form teams as well. Ideally, FindMyTeam will help students and instructors form teams that work well for each individual.

Funding Finder: Connecting WA Small Businesses to Funding

Small businesses have been hit hard by COVID-19 and need support to stay in operation. Recognizing that not all communities have equal information access, Team kala worked with the Washington State Department of Commerce to create Funding Finder, a website that connects small businesses to funding opportunities, assistance organizations, and resources. During development, kala prioritized the needs of tribal small businesses, a community whose needs are often unmet. Funding Finder was designed alongside community representatives and business owners to offer an easy-to-use platform listing financial support to keep these businesses afloat and address information access.

Funds to Votes: Informing Curious Voters on their Representatives' Campaign Finances

According to AP-NORC, 53% of Americans know nothing or very little about how money works in politics. After the Citizens United ruling allowed more money in politics, understanding campaign finance became more important than ever. Funds to Votes helps by displaying this data in a user-friendly and beginner researcher-friendly manner, allowing voters to make more informed decisions. Finally, in addition to helping ordinary citizens research their own representatives, our product is designed to aid endorsement groups in their research. This helps them decide who to endorse, which enables voters to select candidates according to their values.

GetMDPP: Reducing Type 2 Diabetes Risk with Web Matching Platform

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the US has been growing despite it being preventable through lifestyle changes. Unclear communication between healthcare providers and diabetes prevention programs makes it challenging for people at risk to seek and receive the help they deserve. Building off our sponsor’s alpha of a web-based matching application, we met an epidemiologist, an economist, healthcare providers, and prior participants of the Medicare’s Diabetes Prevention Program (MDPP) to make the web application more accessible. GetMDPP provides a way for at-risk individuals to be informed about and connect to MDPP and change their lives for the better.

Hearing Aid App: Everyone Deserves To Hear

Hearing impairment is a common health issue among seniors in the US. Due to social stigma, costliness, and limited awareness, many do not seek help with their hearing health in time, or even at all. Moreover, the cost of hearing aids and audiologist appointments costs thousands even with insurance. Additionally, present smart technology pairing solutions are either unsuccessful, or designed inefficiently. Working with Sound Sustainability, a hearing health company, our project aims to not only provide resources for affordable OTC hearing aids, but also develop an easy-to-use mobile app that pairs with hearing devices and allows for easy consumer control.

Hook and Tell: The online solution for fish catch reporting

In the State of Washington, catches of popular fish species are reported by recreational fisherman through paper cards. With this system, only an estimated 15 percent of fish catches are reported. Hook and Tell solves this problem by giving users a digital solution to report their catches and connect with other fisherfolk. Our platform will increase the catch reporting on recreational fishing, resulting in an increase in data and resources for Washington State to better protect its fish and wildlife.

iKeep for iSchool

Students spend thousands of dollars on a university degree only to forget much of the information learned a few years later. Research shows reviewing information regularly is the key to building long-term information recall. iKeep is a mobile app which provides users with quick, targeted questions based on University of Washington iSchool curriculum to improve recall over time. The mobile application assists students who have taken iSchool core courses in retaining these fundamental skills to remain competitive in both their academic and professional careers.

Inked Sports

Inked Sports is a start-up helping collegiate athletes achieve name, image, and likeness (NIL) success through branding opportunities in anticipation of forthcoming NCAA legislation. This new legislation will allow college athletes to profit off their NIL. Our team created a dashboard for our sponsor to provide insights to potential brand partners looking to work with college athletes. The dashboard includes information such as audience location, reach, and impressions for both athletes and custom campaigns. The resulting dashboard contributes to the start-up’s larger effort to help collegiate athletes generate well-deserved income.

Internationary

It is very difficult for the numerous international students at UW, coming from countries with a very different cultures, academics, and people, to adjust here. It becomes even harder without having easy access to correct information about important things such as finances, housing etc. We made a one stop website which students can use to easily get information about important things and adapt well to this new place and system and in turn succeed in their lives!

iSchool Capstone

2021