Center for an Informed Public launches; UW, WSU to team up

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

With more than 400 people packed into the UW HUB’s South Ballroom, Jevin West started off with a puzzle. The Center for an Informed Public’s inaugural director showed side-by-side images of two women’s faces and asked the crowd which image was real. Only about half got it right, illustrating one of the challenges ahead for the CIP. Modern technology has made it increasingly easy to manipulate information and increasingly difficult to discern the truth. The Dec. 3 event, which featured the presidents of the University of Washington and Washington State University, celebrated the lau

iSchool's Jacob Wobbrock, student authors honored for paper

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

A paper by Jacob O. Wobbrock, professor in the UW Information School, and a team of undergraduate researchers has won the Douglas Engelbart Award for Best Paper at ACM Hypertext & Social Media 2019, an annual conference of the Association for Computing Machinery. Wobbrock collaborated with a team of undergraduate students on the paper “Isolating the Effects of Web Page Visual Appearance on the Perceived Credibility of Online News among College Students.” The paper was selected from 102 submissions in all, 30 of which were accepted for the conference. Co-authoring the paper were

Informatics students win Samsung hackathon

Monday, November 25, 2019

A team of iSchoolers recently won two awards at the Samsung Enterprise App Dev Launchpad Hackathon hosted in Seattle. Composed of current, graduated and prospective Informatics students, the group included alumnus Zoshua Colah, senior Soham Hinduja, sophomore Tongxi Liu and intended transfer student Stanley Susanto. The hackathon fosters innovative solutions for real-world enterprise challenges. Using Samsung devices, hackers, developers and designers address key issues in finance, health care, manufacturing, public safety and retail. Colah, Hinduja, Liu and Susanto designed a hos

Informatics students take diversity efforts to local high schools

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

“How did you hear about the iSchool?” The answer to that question is, very often, word of mouth. Information about the iSchool is frequently passed from friend to friend or among families. That’s a powerful way for students to learn about all the school offers. But it’s also limiting. “When I talked to students about how they’d found Informatics, they all told me it was through word of mouth,” said Eva Perez, an Informatics student. “And that’s not equitable or sustainable.” When knowledge of the program is mainly spread among friends or families, it reinforces

Ph.D. students have a passion for inclusive tech education

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Technology studies in college can be a turnoff for many. Women and people of color have long been underrepresented in the IT workplace, and it’s easy to see why. They may encounter computer science courses dominated by condescending white men; classrooms that are competitive instead of collaborative; large, packed, impersonal lecture halls; and dense, discouraging instruction. They stay away. Or walk away, which Mina Tari (pictured above at left) almost did her freshman year at the University of Washington as she waded through STEM and computer science courses. “I did not find any of

Why a marine scientist set sail for her MSIM

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

When Amanda Phillips came to the iSchool, she’d already had a successful career, albeit in a field quite different from those of most fellow students. In her 10 years in marine science, she’d worked on fishing vessels as a biological observer, sailed with a poop-sniffing dog to collect orca fecal matter, and piloted a remotely operated vehicle to study endangered rockfish. Now in her second year of the iSchool’s Master of Science in Information Management program, Phillips is learning skills to move from collecting data to analyzing it. Through an internship over the summer, she has a

After success in Chicago, Brian Bannon takes the helm in New York

Friday, November 8, 2019

Visionary Brian Bannon has a reputation for reinventing the concept of public libraries. After seven years in Chicago, he’s ready for his next challenge: leading the efforts of the New York Public Library’s 88 circulating branch libraries. The 1999 iSchool MLIS graduate and 2015 Distinguished Alumnus moved to the NYPL in September after earning acclaim and a National Medal for Museum and Library Service during his time as commissioner of the Chicago Public Library (CPL). Bannon said recently that he was excited by the chance to move from the Windy City to the Big Apple. “The New Yo

Dean's Message: We all reap the rewards of diversity

Friday, November 8, 2019

When Associate Professor Amy Ko came out as trans at the start of the academic year, I was filled with emotion. I was incredibly happy for my friend and colleague, and glad that she felt comfortable enough in her life and career to take this huge step publicly. But I was also saddened that someone I had known since she was a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University felt she had to conceal an important part of her identity for so many years. As she wrote in her powerful blog post announcing the news, Amy came out under the best possible conditions. She has a supportive family; she

Project VOICE promises social justice-oriented approach to library outreach

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Researchers from the iSchool and Kent State University’s School of Information are developing a toolkit to help library staff produce social justice-oriented outreach programs for families in underserved communities. The initiative, Project VOICE, is funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). VOICE is short for “Value-sensitive design of Outcomes Informing Community Engagement.” The research team consists of Ph.D. alumna Kathleen Campana, ’18, now an assistant professor at Kent State; Ph.D. candidate J. Elizabeth Mills; Beverly Cleary Professor and MLIS Pr

MSIM alumnus serves as UW's ambassador to tribes

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

In Iisaaksiichaa Ross Braine’s family, college education is an obligation, not an option. His father has a master’s degree in range science. His mother earned hers in counseling. But when a young Braine told the counselor in his rural Montana high school that he wanted to attend the University of Washington, the counselor advised him to forget it. “He said, ‘You should do something else. Indians don’t do well in college,’” recalls Braine, this year’s iSchool Distinguished Alumni Award winner. Braine, who earned his own graduate degree through the iSchool’s Master of Sci

Informatics student named winner of 'Out Astronaut' contest

Monday, November 4, 2019

Informatics student Shannon Gatta recently won the first phase of the “Out Astronaut” contest, aimed at sending the first openly LGTBQ person to space. Gatta’s winning entry earned her basic training at the Advanced PoSSUM Academy class at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. The next phase of the project includes advanced astronautics training with the eventual goal of conducting a science mission in space. As an Informatics major, Gatta is hoping to leverage data science to advance the aerospace industry. “I ultimately want to support building reli

Jason Reynolds captivates crowd at Shaw Lecture

Monday, November 4, 2019

Award-winning author and poet Jason Reynolds showed he can mesmerize a sold-out auditorium with just three words. The three words — humility, intimacy and gratitude — were the focus of Reynolds’ lecture Oct. 31 as a guest of the Information School. Reynolds fought through an illness, but held the audience at Kane Hall on the UW campus in rapt attention as he explained what each of the three words means to him and how he uses them when creating literature for young people. While those words help to guide his work, Reynolds said they are simply entry points toward achieving his goal

Summer study abroad program in Vienna focuses on semantic AI

Friday, October 25, 2019

The iSchool piloted a new study abroad program in Vienna, Austria, this summer, taking 16 students to explore the intricacies of using semantic and business artificial intelligence to address user information needs. The monthlong course examined how companies use data science and information science to collect and shape data for customers, employees, government agencies and companies. Using their knowledge from coursework, as well as real-world data, students worked on projects to develop insights and practical solutions for companies such as Microsoft, Starbucks and Expedia. Informa

iSchool alumni help Seattle-based Slalom race ahead

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Slalom is in the business of helping other businesses succeed. For instance, the Seattle-based consulting firm recently helped Alaska Airlines navigate the complex and potentially thorny acquisition of Virgin America. Slalom also specializes in helping companies keep pace with the light-speed evolution of technology. Hospitality company Hyatt sought Slalom’s assistance to produce an industry-leading mobile app that’s increased hotel booking revenue by 80 percent. For these types of technical challenges, Slalom has tapped the talents of numerous Information School graduates, such as I

Read-a-Rama branches out to Spokane library

Friday, October 18, 2019

Michelle Martin’s Camp Read-a-Rama had kids moving, creating and reading across the state this past summer, including the camp's first foray into a public library. Martin, the iSchool’s Beverly Cleary Professor for Children and Youth Services, has run the day camps with Rachelle D. Washington for kids ages 4 to 11 since 2009, when both were on the faculty at Clemson University in South Carolina. Read-a-Rama is a nonprofit that promotes literacy by using books as the springboard for hands-on activities, such as crafts and sing-alongs. Martin’s motto is “100 percent engagemen