Prof. Marti Hearst

Presentation to the InternationalConference on Informatics Education and

Research for Knowledge-Circulation Society

January 17, 2008

Education and Researchat UC Berkeley’s

School of Information

A Brief History of the iSchool

SIMS created by recommendation of Information Planning Group

Hal Varian named Founding Dean

First class admitted

• Anno Saxenian named Dean

• 9th Masters class graduates

• First doctoral graduates hired1994

19951997

2005

School of Library & InformationStudies

2007

Name changed to iSchool

Our Mission

We are developing scholars, entrepreneurs, and public leaders who can transform

information into knowledge and understanding.

Program Overview

• Small interdisciplinary faculty

– 12 ladder faculty

– Joint appointments with Law, Computer Science, Business, Economics, City Planning

– Research & curriculum combine leading edge social science and technology capabilities

• High caliber program

– 40 masters students admitted annually to 2-year program; many professionally experienced

– 2-5 PhD students admitted each year

Competitive position

• Information schools are becoming more common and more visible

– Over a dozen leading US universities and colleges: Michigan, Washington, Syracuse, CMU, Penn State

– Several important programs overseas, e.g., Singapore

• UC Berkeley’s iSchool leads the field

– Distinguished faculty conducting leading-edge research

– Our program and curriculum already a model for others

– Advantage of size: Team-based projects, small classes

– Important synergies with rest of the Berkeley campus

– Close proximity to Silicon Valley technology community

– Outstanding students from varied backgrounds

Intellectual Landscape

iSchool

Information economics and policy

Sociology of information

Human-computer

interaction

Information assurance

Information design and architecture Computer Science

Social Sciences

Law and Policy

Management Science

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

SCHOLARSHIP

Education

Masters Program

• A 2 year, full-time program– Many students work 10 hours/week

• Students take about 15 courses– About 15% of these are outside the school– Five required core courses

• The final project is very important– Goal: integrate concepts learned from all of their

classes.– Schedule:

• Propose a topic in Fall of second semester• Spend much of the Spring semester completing it

Masters Curriculum

• Five required Core Courses:– Information Organization and Retrieval– Social & Organizational Issues of

Information– Computer Science and Distributed Systems– Information Law and Policy– Project Management or Systems Analysis

Masters Curriculum: Electives

• Human-Computer Interaction Track:– User Interface Design & Development– Needs and Usability Assessment– Information Visualization and Presentation– Information Aesthetics/Graphic Design– Tangible User Interfaces– Technologies for Creativity & Learning– Qualitative Research Methods

Masters Curriculum: Electives

• Information Architecture & Retrieval– Database Design– Principles of Information Retrieval– Web Services– Applied Natural Language Processing– Organization of Information in Collections– The Quality of Information– The History of Information– Search Engines: Technology, Society, &

Business

Masters Curriculum: Electives

• Information and Service Design• (Document Engineering / ePublishing)

– Document Engineering– Web Services– Web Architecture– Web-based Publishing– XML Foundations– Mixing & Remixing Information– ISD Clinic

• Develop final projects into long-running and substantial systems.

Masters Curriculum: Electives

• Information Economics & Policy– Information Policy– Economics of Information– Economics of Network Security & Privacy– Intellectual Property Law for the

Information Industry– Privacy, Security, & Cryptography– Cyberlaw

Masters Curriculum: Electives

• Social and Organizational Aspects of IT– Computer-Mediated Communication– Information in Society– Studies in Regional Growth & Development– Quantitative Research Methods– The Social Life of Visual Media– Virtual Communities & Social Media

Masters Curriculum: Electives

• Management / Business / Services Science– Strategic Computing & Communications

Technology– Services Science Seminar– Professional Skills Workshop– Courses from the Business School:

• Marketing for High-Tech Entrepreneurs• Innovation in Services and Business Models• Energy, Sustainability and Business

Innovation • Various Management courses

Final projects contribute to campus

Project Campus Client

UCB IT System Map Central Computing

Event Calendar Network Public Affairs

IARS Bears Intercollegiate Athletics

Course Approval System Academic Senate, IS&T

BriefBank Law School

Telebears Redesign Registrar’s Office, IS&T

MaNIS Interface Project Biology Dept/ NSF

Master’s student placements

Typical functions:

• Human computer interaction, user interface design

• Product or project management

• Web services, web content, or applications engineer

• Information architecture, database design & management

• Library and information services

Representative employers:

• Google, eBay, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Oracle, HP

• UC, Kaiser (Hospital), US Government, CA Digital Library

• Start-up Businesses

Research

Information Technologies for the Developing World

Security and Human-Computer Interaction

Network & Telecom Economics

Search User Interfaces

Social Media

• Trust and Computer-Mediated Communication

• The Social Life of Photo Usage• Presentation of Self in Social Networks• Large-Scale Study of Relationship

Formation

PhD Program

• Graduates of the program have taken diverse jobs:– Professor of Information Technology &

Public Policy at the Heinz School at CMU– Researcher at Intel Research– Researcher at PARC– Postdoctoral researcher at Harvard– Postdoctoral researcher at Tel-Aviv U.

Summary

• UC Berkeley’s School of Information:– Providing masters students with an

interdisciplinary professional degree.– Studying the intersection of society,

information, and technology.