Summer 2019

INFO 498 A: Digital Humanities

• Instructor: Sarah Ketchley
• 3 credits, standard grading

This course will explore current Digital Humanities methods, tools, topics and debates. Students will have a unique and exciting opportunity to investigate the hands-on application of digital tools to primary source material, using computational methodologies to answer a range of humanities research questions.

INFO 498 B - Games and Information

• Instructor: Travis Windleharth
• 4 credits, standard grading

This course explores games from the perspective of information. As media artefacts, both digital and non-digital games are increasingly utilized not just for entertainment and expression, but also for learning, training, persuasion, data collection, therapy, and community building. This course examines games and information from four perspectives including i) the form and elements of games as designed interactive media artefacts, ii) existing and emerging game functions across multiple domains of human activity, iii) learning and rhetoric in games, and iv) games as information objects. Students will build a solid understanding of the informational aspects of games, the breadth of their use, their potential and limitations, and their place in modern society as an increasingly important media format. In addition to course readings, interactive lectures, and guest speakers, students will engage in a range of in-class gameplay to actively experience concepts.

INFO 498 C - Administration of Relational Database Systems

• Instructor: Randal J. Root
• 5 credits, standard grading

Deeper investigation into construction and administration of high-volume, robust database systems from conception through deployment. Topics include Enhanced ERDs, explicit transaction-management (control-of-flow, error-handling and concurrency control), definition and coding business rules, troubleshooting/optimization of database processes. Investigation of disaster recovery, security, high-availability and scalability solutions as well as data warehousing topics.

Spring 2019

BIME 498 B: Transformational Technologies for Biology, Medicine and Health

• Instructor: John Gennari
• 5 credits; standard grading

In this course we introduce biomedical & health informatics through three modules that focus on current technologies: (1) Electronic health records, (2) Personal health informatics applications and (3) Translational bioinformatics & personalized medicine. Each module will include hands-on exercises, and course evaluation will be based primarily on team projects that explore the technologies involved.

IMT 589 C: Technologies of Cities

• Instructors: Ryan Biava and Jan Whittington
• 3 credits; standard grading

Offered in partnership with the Department of Urban Planning, this course examines how the technologies that cities depend on have been increasingly digitized, interconnected, and viewed as more than the sum of their parts, as well as the social and political issues and controversies this implies.

The emergence and economic endurance of cities depends on their ability to establish and maintain efficient, networked technologies for transport, communication, energy, water, public health, and waste. Since the advent of digital and networking technologies, these infrastructures have been more easily monitored, interconnected, and present in our everyday lives, forming what many call “smart cities.” This course examines the evolving uses of technology in cities, the policies that are meant to ensure the public benefits of their application, and the unintended social, political, and economic consequences of this movement.

IMT 598 A: Blockchain Technologies and Strategies

• Instructor: Frank Coker
• 3 credits; standard grading

Blockchain technology is a game changer and is becoming integral to information management strategies and architecture options. It is going to impact the global economy and change the way companies and individuals share important data. Blockchain began as the underlying technology that enabled cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and is having an even bigger impact in broader forms of data tracking in areas such as contracts, deeds, intellectual property, music, aircraft assemblies, drugs, agriculture and much more. This course provides an understanding how blockchain works and how it is evolving and how it can be an important part of a personal career development. This course is for information professionals whether pursuing a technical systems development track or a career in design and architecture; the goal is to bring technology and users together with systems and technologies that manage and deliver reliable data with certainty and trust.

INFO 415 A: Emerging Topics In Information Assurance and Cybersecurity

• Instructor: Jeffrey Cox
• 5 credits; standard grading

This course will examine how concerns for personal privacy are addressed differently by laws in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, and how information technologists should respond to this dynamic legal landscape during the design and implementation of applications, systems, and information governance programs.

INFO 498 A: Designing for Evil

• Instructor: Alexis Hiniker
• 4 credits; standard grading

What does it mean for a technology to be evil? What, if any, responsibility do designers and developers have to create systems that serve the greater good? In "Designing for Evil," we explore frameworks for considering these questions, tease apart moral panics from credible threats, study manipulative, addictive, and exploitative interfaces, critique existing designs, and create the evil--and not so evil--technologies of the future.

INFO 498 E: Software Architecture: Analysis and Applications

• Instructor: Joel Ross
• 5 credits; standard grading

Creating and managing information technology systems requires careful consideration of the architectural structure of these systems, particularly as the systems grow in size. These technologies may merge together disparate services and libraries (and their associate APIs), yet often utilize similar software design patterns. Understanding these patterns and how they shape existing libraries is highly important in successfully managing current systems or developing new ones.

This course will introduce students to these software architecture and design patterns. This will allow them to make informed decisions about when to use particular structures, as well as how to integrate these structures, the libraries that contain them, and the APIs that encapsulate them into software projects.

INFO 498 F: Population Health Informatics

• Instructor: Michael Freeman
• 5 credits; standard grading

Introduces applications of Informatics skills to evaluating public health. Students will learn how to leverage their programming and data competencies towards measuring and describing the health of a population. Students will learn about and compute metrics of population health, and leverage visualization to communicate statistical insights to broad audiences.

LIS 598 D: Language and Script Issues in Information Access

• Instructor: Allyson Carlyle
• 1 credit; credit/no credit grading

The focus of this course is information searching, retrieval, and access in languages and scripts. The course will introduce goals and principles for providing access to non-English language and non-Latin script materials in libraries.

The course is online and takes place over the first 4 weeks of Spring Quarter only. The last day of the class is April 28.

Seminar style in which students select a particular topic in this area to explore and share with the class. Possible topics include:

• Script encoding standards (Unicode, ASCII, Morse code, etc.)
• Access to multilingual materials in libraries
• Information retrieval of materials in a specific language or script
• Access issues in a particular language (Spanish, Arabic, etc.) or across multiple languages
• Translation issues between two specific languages
• Transliteration (the conversion of one script to another) issues in a specific language/script or across multiple languages/scripts

Coursework includes a participation assignment and a presentation/discussion assignment.

LIS 598 F: Cultural History of Children’s and Young Adult Literature

• Instructor: Michelle Martin
• 3 credits; standard grading

This historical overview of children's and young adult literature studies the evolution of the genre written in English. It examines the influence of movements such as Romanticism, Rationalism, and postmodernism, and considers texts about minoritized children from a wide variety of cultures.

LIS 598 G: Digital Preservation

• Instructor: Nicholas Weber
• 4 credits; standard grading

Libraries, archives, and museums are increasingly charged with the curation and long-term preservation of digital objects – including collections of cultural heritage objects, born-digital scientific data, new digital media (such as video games), and software. This course focuses on tools, techniques, and policies for delivering trustworthy preservation in these settings. Practical activities will include the design and implementation of a digital preservation plan, using established frameworks to audit preservation services, and learning digital preservation standards such as reference models, file formats, metadata schemas, and certifications for trustworthy digital repositories.

LIS 598 H: Information Beyond Borders

• Instructor: Karen Fisher
• 3 credits; credit/no credit grading

To date over 65 million people are forcibly displaced by war and persecution worldwide, over half of whom are children, marking the worst global humanitarian crisis since World War II. The UNHCR reports that the vast majority of refugees (86%) remain in low to middle income countries close to situations of conflict. The aim of this course is to learn methods for understanding and supporting the vast and complex information worlds of refugees. Sophisticated methods supported by extended engagement with refugees and stakeholders and triangulated data are required to understand subtleties across populations, and the implicit, hidden roles played by different people such as youth, elders, and mentors in refugees’ social networks and their effects across wider society. Such understandings can be linked to broader economic, education and environmental outcomes. Indeed, based on extensive fieldwork, Fisher (Forthcoming, 2017) identifies the following topline field and design insights for engaging in with displaced people by conflict zones—need for humanitarian research; the disruption of social fabric; closed, low resource environments; building capacity for all; the differing ubiquity of time, place and gender; iterative long-term, social engagement; universal design archetypes; youth as ICT wayfarers; connected learning; and innovating futures.

LIS 598 I: Native American Knowledge Systems: Sovereign Rights, Protections and Protocols

• Instructor: Clarita Lefthand-Begay
• 3 credits; standard grading

Who owns, protects and disseminates the knowledge systems and data among tribal communities? For several years, tribal nations in the United States have established internal mechanisms and protocols to protect their traditional knowledge from appropriation, exploitation and misuse. In this course, students will engage multidisciplinary literature to examine the complexities tribes face when protecting their communities, become familiar with efforts of tribal citizens to revitalize their knowledge and demonstrate understanding by synthesizing topics discussed in class. To illustrate these concepts, the course will include case studies, interactive lectures, guest speakers, and in-class discussions.

LIS 598 J: Advanced Data Curation

• Instructor: Nicholas Weber
• 4 credits; standard grading

This course examines a broad range of practical and conceptual issues in the emerging field of data curation. It focuses on recent advances and challenging problems in the curation of research data across disciplines and new trends in open data resources and services for the general public. The course will draw on research, case studies, and current initiatives to examine key challenges in the field and and practical solutions applied by data professionals. In-depth study of topics will be driven by student interests and their contributions to the course through presentations, discussion facilitation, and a final project.

Winter 2019

IMT 589 C: Data Ethics

• Instructor: Anna Lauren Hoffman
• 4 credits; standard grading

This course provides an introduction to critical and ethical issues surrounding data and society. It blends social and historical perspectives on data with ethics, policy, and case examples — from Facebook’s “Emotional Contagion” experiment to search engine algorithms to self-driving cars — to help students develop a workable understanding of current ethical issues in data science. Ethical and policy-related concepts addressed include: research ethics; privacy and surveillance; data and discrimination; and the “black box” of algorithms. Importantly, these issues will be addressed throughout the lifecycle of data — from collection to storage to analysis and application.

IMT 589 E: Reading Seminar in Information Visualization

• Instructor: Matt Saxton
• 3 credits; credit/no credit grading
• Meeting times: arranged

NOTES: Restricted to 2^nd year MSIM students in UX specialization. Permission of instructor. Add code only.

IMT 598 A: Digital Transformation: Developing Solutions using Cloud's Emerging Technologies

• Instructor: Fawad Khan
• 3 credits; standard grading

This course is going to introduce the concept of Digital Transformation and Cloud's key emerging technologies and how they are forcing companies to review and formulate a digital strategy which affects the bottom line of any company. We will review the key digital transformation strategy pillars and use Cloud's key emerging technologies, including Cognitive Computing, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and IoT to build solutions and applications to help the organizations along this digital journey. 

INFO 415 A: Cyber Concepts and Risk Frameworks

• Instructor: Annie Searle
• 4 credits; standard grading
• Counts toward HCI degree option

A course that sets out to blur the distinction between risk and cybersecurity in practice and policy both, in the interest of examining paradigms that exist in both practice areas. We will be reading, writing and presenting on relatively new aspects of existing risk and security methodologies. Expert guest speakers will be featured most weeks, and the final project includes both a long paper and a stand-up executive presentation in just five minutes. Draft syllabus available on request.

INFO 498 A: Time By Design

• Instructor: Batya Friedman
• 4 credits; standard grading
• Counts toward HCI degree option
• Completion of INFO 360 is highly recommended 

From issues of shortened attention spans, to interruption, to longer-term perspectives on data curation and archiving and meaning making across generations, time is a crucial element in how we experience our lived lives. Moreover, technology has a critical role to play in that experience. This course examines the relationship between technology and time, with an eye toward how to design information and computing technologies to “humanize” and enhance the temporal element of human experience.

INFO 498 B: Designing for Personal Health and Wellness

• Instructor: Wanda Pratt
• 3 credits; standard grading
• Counts toward HCI degree option

Reviews the state of the art in technology to measure and support personal health and wellness. Students will learn how to improve upon that work to understand and design tools that support people’s needs for health and wellness technologies. Students will learn theoretical and empirical approaches to evaluating their success.

INFO 498 D: Emotion and Design

• Instructor: Margaret Morris
• 3 credits; standard grading
• Counts toward HCI degree option

This course will explore how we relate to technology. We will discuss emotion, emotional intelligence and identity, to set the stage for examining current and emerging technologies. Students will reflect on their own use of technology, interview others and develop ideas for emotionally helpful technologies.

LIS 598 B: Interrupting Privilege 

• Instructor: Ralina Joseph
• 1 credit; credit/no credit grading

Most discussions of inequality focus on violence, disproportionality, and discrimination. But what about the concept of privilege? How does privilege — in terms of race, gender, sexuality, and citizenship status — shore up inequality? This seminar engages questions of privilege through facilitated discussions with a classroom community of students and librarians.

This is a 4-day course held Jan 9, Jan 23, and Jan 30 at the Central Branch of the Seattle Public Library and Mar 13 in the Walker-Ames Room in Kane Hall on the UW main campus.

LIS 598 D: Digital Preservation

• Instructor: Nic Weber
• 4 credits; standard grading

Libraries, archives and museums are increasingly charged with the curation and long-term preservation of digital objects – including collections of cultural heritage objects, born-digital scientific data, new digital media (such as video games) and software. This course focuses on tools, techniques and policies for delivering trustworthy preservation in these settings. Practical activities will include the design and implementation of a digital preservation plan, using established frameworks to audit preservation services and learning digital preservation standards such as reference models, file formats, metadata schemas and certifications for trustworthy digital repositories.

LIS 598 G: Visual Research Methods

• Instructor: Jaime Snyder
• 4 credits; standard grading

As a result of increasingly powerful and available digital tools, visual methods are being used with increasing frequency in information science and related domains of research. In order to train students in appropriate, effective and ethical use of these methods, this seminar course offers an explicitly cross-disciplinary perspective on theoretical and practical dimensions of visual research methods in social science. Through interactive seminar discussions and self-directed research projects students will develop critical frameworks and practical skills for working with both qualitative and quantitative visual data.

Material covered includes 1) visual theories; 2) qualitative and quantitative approaches to visual representation; 3) visual techniques for data elicitation, collection and analysis including photo and video documentation, data visualization and participatory elicitation techniques; 4) assessing, evaluating, and interpreting visual evidence; and 4) ethical issues related to visual approaches to empirical research. Exploring these topics will enable students to build an understanding of technical, analytic and ethical factors that influence image-centered research practices.

LIS 598 I: Leadership for the Future of Libraries

• Instructor: Harry Bruce
• 3 credits; standard grading

Students completing this course will realize a heightened sense of optimism and passion for the future of libraries. They will have developed a deeper understanding of themselves as leaders and confidence that they can actively participate in "making" a desired future for libraries.

LIS 598 J: Indigenous Art is Indigenous Knowledge

• Instructor: Miranda Belarde-Lewis
• 4 credits; standard grading

This course examines the relationship between Indigenous art and Indigenous Knowledge (IK) with an emphasis on tribal groups in North America. How have Native artists documented oral history, cosmologies, maps and plant knowledge through art? How are the customary forms of art evolving to keep up with the needs of contemporary Native peoples? This course draws on theory from Indigenous Studies, Information Science, Art History and, visual and museum studies to unpack the intention, purpose and interpretation of Indigenous art and artifacts. 

In this course, students will be asked to explore: the concept of Indigenous Knowledge; the role of the arts in Native communities in ancient times and in the present-day; the complicated colonial legacy between museums and Indigenous peoples; and, the push by Native peoples to be consulted with and their views respected about objects from their home communities that reside in museum collections. In addition to engaging with research, theory and the practices related to the study of Native art, Native history and IK, students will be asked to complete an in-depth research project about a particular group of art works, a community-based effort to maintain the transfer of IK through Indigenous art, or, the presentation and incorporation of IK through a museum exhibit.

Autumn 2018

INFO 498 B - Tech Startup Launch Lab

• Instructor: Jacob Colker
• 3 credits, credit/no credit grading

Most first-time entrepreneurs have no idea what's involved. It's a long journey from the day you quit your job to the day you buy your yacht. Working in a hands-on team-based environment, this course provides an overview of the major aspects of entrepreneurship and a blueprint for how to properly build a startup company, using modern innovation methods.

Students will learn how to identify a problem, test solutions, conduct research using qualitative and quantitative methods, and do customer discovery.

Students will also learn the basics of a go-to-market strategy, a fundraising strategy, and how to avoid many of the pitfalls of entrepreneurship.

Throughout the course, we will also take several field trips to innovation labs around Seattle to meet with entrepreneurs and other notable members of the startup community. Students will need to provide their own transportation. 

INFO 498 C - Introduction to Digital Humanities 

• Instructor: Sarah Ketchley
• 3 credits, standard grading

This course will explore current Digital Humanities methods, tools, topics and debates. Students will have a unique and exciting opportunity to investigate the hands-on application of digital tools to primary source material, using computational methodologies to answer a range of humanities research questions.

LIS 598 A - Participatory Design in Libraries

• Instructor: Jason Yip
• 4 credits, standard grading

Design is a traditional part of librarianship, and yet only has been explored more recently. Given the importance of “design thinking” in libraries, this course explores the notion of participatory design, a method focusing on engaging users in the design process, and emphasizing a democratic and collaborative relationship between users and designers to create new technologies and learning activities. There is rich work around how to interact with stakeholders together in the co-design space, the role of design techniques in co-design, and the different stages and phases of co-design. 

In this particular course, we will work with children and librarians in public libraries as an example of participatory design in context. Specifically, participants of this course will have a chance to engage in KidsTeam SPL (Seattle Public Library), an intergenerational co-design team of children (ages 7 – 12) and design researchers in public library settings.

On Monday afternoons, we will hold discussion groups on readings and concepts in participatory design. On Wednesday afternoons, students will travel to The Seattle Public Library together with Dr. Yip to run participatory design sessions with children and stakeholders in the library. Activities of this class will include interacting as an adult design partner with children in co-design, working with researchers on a single project involving children and design, and running overall logistics to support the intergenerational design team. 

This course is well suited for librarians, educators, HCI researchers, and designers interested in understanding in design processes.

LIS 598 B - Leadership for the Future of Libraries 

• Instructor: Harry Bruce
• 3 credits, standard grading

Libraries face a future greatly influenced by accelerating technological innovation, rapid social change, and complex community needs. Some voices doubt that there will be a place for libraries in the future, while others claim that libraries will be more crucial than ever. Strategic envisioning for the future of libraries is essential, and this will depend upon effective leadership to identify a desired and relevant future, and to facilitate actions to achieve that vision. With this course, each student will develop the self-awareness to understand their leadership style and the competencies that they need to bring to the question of the future of libraries. Students will learn to think like a futurist and to use multiple resources for strategic envisioning and scenario development. They will also explore the actions of leadership that will facilitate achieving their vision for the future of libraries.

LIS 598 C - Grant-Writing Workshop

• Instructor: Stephanie Gerding
• 1 credit, credit/no credit grading

Would you like to know how to plan and write grant proposals?
Are you new to library grant work or do you want to update your skills?
Would you like personalized advice and best practices for grant writing from an expert?

In this course, you will discover the confidence, knowledge, and skills you need to win library grants with instructor Stephanie Gerding, grants expert and an author of Winning Grants. This course will cover all aspects of grant work, including understanding the process, planning, developing grant project ideas, finding the best funding sources and grant opportunities, and writing winning grant proposals. Learn an easy-to-follow grant process cycle and receive practical advice, including valuable time-saving strategies. Learn exactly what grant reviewers are looking for and how to bring clarity and professionalism to grant proposals. You will apply the concepts learned to discover grant opportunities, create a grant project, and get personalized feedback from an expert grant reviewer. When you complete the course, you'll be excited, motivated, and ready with the knowledge you need to win library grants!

LIS 598 D - Information and Migration

• Instructor: Ricardo Gomez
• 3 credits, credit/no credit grading

Graduate reading seminar about the intersection between human migration and information practices and behaviors. What are the particular needs, behaviors and practices of migrants, in the US or abroad? How is migration changing social movements? How do refugees, undocumented migrants and DREAMers in the US change the discourse about immigration?