As of 2022, individuals with disabilities face a significantly lower employment rate of 21% compared to 65% for those without disabilities. Moreover, only around 36% of them have the chance to work in management or professional careers, while only 3% of STEM employees identify themselves as individuals with disabilities. We’ve created a website full of career growth resources for people affected with disabilities by leveraging reliable online data sources, Azure Cognitive Search, and OpenAI tools to identify relevant information to help people with disabilities get started in Tech. Accessible design, assistive technology, and online resources empower disabled tech learners.

“Compose A New Canon” is a report analyzing the repertoire performed by the Reno Philharmonic from 2009 to 2024, looking specifically at the representation of composers who fall outside of the traditional classical canon. This analysis includes a comparison of the Reno Phil’s programming practices with national trends identified in the Institute for Composer Diversity’s 2022 Orchestra Repertoire Report. The written report resulting from this project will be distributed to the Reno Philharmonic’s Board, staff, and musicians in the hopes of promoting discussions of diversity, equity, and inclusion in orchestral programming.

Cybersecurity attacks are becoming increasingly complex, making it challenging for many Cybersecurity professionals to identify and respond to threats in a timely manner. Our sponsor, KPMG, aims to develop new cybersecurity tools that use machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to identify more risks and facilitate better risk-based decisions. CyberDawgs is an ML-based dashboard that helps identify suspicious user activity at scale by analyzing login patterns targeted by attackers across multiple features and entities. By analyzing large volumes of data quickly and providing real-time insights, CyberDawgs can enable cybersecurity professionals to respond to threats more effectively.

Government officials are currently searching for consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions analysis that is comprehensive, so that they can make educated carbon emission policy decisions for their city. Our sponsor, EcoDataLab, has created a Dashboard that allows city officials to understand their carbon emissions data through visualizations that would previously have been very complicated to comprehend. Our team transformed EcoDataLab’s platform by creating housing, transportation, and US data pages for their site that allow officials to make informed policy decisions in each respective area, while also making recommendations on their current platforms design and accessibility features.

Our project, Data Forensics, is part of our sponsor’s larger Data Afterlives project. The NSF asks researchers to make federally funded data available. We researched NSF awards to see if we could find data associated with these projects. Our findings demonstrate the challenges in finding data and how the accessibility of data varies depending on the NSF research area. We discuss the steps that we took in the course of our research, as well as why this research matters, particularly to information professionals and how national policy shapes the future of open research. We offer future avenues of research.

dService provides international students with detailed information and personalized insights on over 50 US-based data science master's programs. The "by students for students" project simplifies the process of selecting a graduate program and provides helpful information to international students. dService is a one-stop shop for all their needs, providing accurate and up-to-date information that empowers students to make informed decisions that align with their academic and career goals.

The E-Rate program provides funding for libraries and schools to access affordable internet and telecommunications services. However, the participation rate of libraries is significantly lower than schools. Our project aimed to address this issue by creating a tool that would increase library participation rates. Through surveying over 60 libraries, we created multiple features for our tool to help increase library participation: an application walkthrough, discount rate calculator, peer library comparison, and many more. By making the E-Rate program more accessible to libraries, we hope to bridge the digital divide and improve the lives of those who rely on these services.

With 1 million species on the brink of extinction, it’s clear that the endangered animal crisis is becoming increasingly severe each day. By providing high school and college students with the appropriate resources, they can be the leaders of change needed to protect our ecosystems. Habitat is a website designed with the intention of guiding students by providing them with personalized resources based on their hobbies, that they can easily integrate into their lifestyles. With this project, we strive to help students realize the urgency of the crisis and make sustainable changes to make a positive impact on our ecosystems.

Geohazards in the Pacific Northwest cause significant annual financial losses. To address this, the University of Washington's Photonic Sensing Facility (PSF) collects seismic data using advanced Distributed Acoustic Sensing technology. Their primary objective is to develop a user-friendly web application for widespread data access and visualization. The target audience includes researchers, public scientists, geohazard enthusiasts, and educators. This initiative aims to enhance geohazard monitoring, mitigate risks, and promote knowledge sharing. PSF's efforts contribute to addressing the pressing issue of geohazards monitoring while facilitating collaboration and informed decision-making.