iSchool Capstone

2018

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Shelves

Shelves transforms KEXP's library of 70,000 vinyl and CD albums into a digital curation tool that preserves the sonic identity of the world's premier listener-supported radio station. It amplifies radio hosts’ abilities to craft creative broadcasts by augmenting the physical music library with tools for searching, organizing, and discovering music in the collection. In response to a musical landscape dominated by algorithmic suggestion, Shelves uses technology to aid KEXP in its mission to preserve “robot-free radio” and place human curation and connection back at the heart of the listener experience.
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Shield

In 2015, Washington State Public Defenders were taking over 1000 cases a month and spending an inadequate 36 minutes per case. Current legal processes do not support the variety of clients defenders must serve, such as the low income populations where permanent residence affects legal information delivery. By automating reminders of critical dates and visualizing long-term history, our client-case management system, Shield , allows public defenders to focus on protecting the public interest without getting caught up in tedious workflows
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Smart Hire: Hiring The Right People Made Easier!

Amazon's Strategic Recruitment Team (SRT) handles their Executive level hiring for Machine learning (ML) experts. The current challenge with their hiring procedure is that it needs a lot of manual effort to browse through Google Scholar/other academic websites to know about a ML expert’s research. We proposed an academic perspective solution which provides Amazon’s SRT with a portal displaying their well sought ML expert's collaboration network, conference research trends and his affiliations. Our solution makes it easier for recruiters to initiate networking with ML experts at Top conferences as it provides vital information about the candidate.
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So You Want to Print a Narwhal: Participatory Design of Children’s Library Programming

We used participatory design (PD) as a way to fully incorporate the voice of children in the development of children’s library programming. Using KidsTeam-UW as a model, we worked for ten weeks with a group of eight 6-9 year-old children, focusing on a different aspect of 3D printing each week. Data in the form of session notes, photos, and video recordings were analyzed to determine important elements and best practices for a printing program, as well as guidelines for librarians to incorporate the practice of PD in their own program development.
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Social Dynamics Within Tabletop Roleplaying Games

Have you ever wondered whether your own experiences playing a game were mirrored by others? I have. Many months later and hours of research & cursing...here we are. This project explores the relationship between Tabletop Roleplaying Games (TRPG's) and Social Dynamics. This was done by conducting interviews and an online survey discussing gamer demographics, gameplay, and social dynamics. Analysis of this self-reported data will help to bridge the current information gap regarding the social dynamics of TRPG's. It will also be the first step in discussing the benefits of playing TRPG's on social behavior skill development.
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STAGE: Simple Technology Assisting Genuine Expression

STAGE is the modern solution to an age-old practice in the arts - producing a show. UW’s Department of Dance currently employs an entirely paper-based system to manage their productions, resulting in unnecessary miscommunications and information redundancy. Our application solves these problems by allowing users to easily manage critical aspects of a production. Every dancer creates a profile, every choreographer can easily select their cast, and directors get a comprehensive look at every show. Our goal is to reduce the stress of scheduling and communication, and let artists focus on what really matters - getting their work on STAGE.
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Starbucks Ontology

The goal of this project was the creation of a beverage and flavor taxonomy and ontology to allow the Starbucks Business Intelligence Team to successfully complete analytics and pick up trends. Terms, definitions, and structures were developed through a combination of current-state domain research, stakeholder interviews, and use case scenarios. Our ontology will enable Starbucks to better understand the relationships between their products and the metadata around them. The taxonomy and controlled vocabulary we have established will aid the analytics team by demonstrating hierarchies and relationships so that their is data more organized so it can be effectively used.
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STEM Analysis: Analyzing the Biology Collection at the Biola University Library

To demonstrate what the Biola University library can offer to strengthen faculty research in STEM, this project performed an evaluation of the Biology collection examining age, usage, faculty opinion, and a peer collection comparison. The library has a current but very under used collection that is on-par with peers, but faculty want journals, not books. I recommend finishing the STEM analysis to see if trends hold across all the sciences. If that's the case, the library may have to think beyond journals and books. This project creates a research template to use for future evaluations.
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Strategic information management consulting and systems update for King County Dispute Resolution Center

The nonprofit King County Dispute Resolution Center (KCDRC) provides affordable mediation and conflict resolution services to individuals, businesses, and families in pursuit of justice and peace. Recent loss of major funding has placed heavy pressure on KCDRC’s people, processes, and information systems, which must now function more competitively despite loss of resources. Our team spent five months researching the organization’s needs, current practices, and nonprofit best practices, then delivered two workshops, a comprehensive strategic report with recommendations, and several information system interventions to support better document, data, and project management in service of crucial fundraising activities.
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Streamlining Online Video Delivery

The online video archive at Slavic Christian Center church is neither easily browsable nor searchable. By utilizing Google Sheets and a freemium AwesomeTable tool, it is possible to transform the look and feel of the digital archive into a beautiful and easy to navigate table. This cost efficient and low maintenance method is expected to greatly increase the number of video views and user satisfaction. Anyone who visits the church’s archive will be able to easily sort and filter the content by desired categories. It solves the problem of organization of content and searching (filtering) – crucial to large collections.