iSchool Graduate Courses

View School of Information graduate courses—click a title to view course description:

The objective of the course is to provide a sound understanding of fundamental statistical theory underlying econometric techniques utilized in quantitative analysis of problems in economics, business, and finance, public health and other social sciences.

Econometric model-building, estimation, forecasting and simulation for problems in agricultural and resource economics. Applications with actual data and models emphasized.

Emphasis in the course is on econometric model specification, estimation, inference, forecasting, and simulation.  Applications with actual data and modeling techniques are emphasized.

Most of the web data today consists of unstructured text. Of course, the fact that this data exists is irrelevant, unless it is made available such that users can quickly find information that is relevant for their needs. This course will cover the fundamental knowledge necessary to build these systems, such as web crawling, index construction and compression, Boolean, vector-based, and probabilistic retrieval models, text classification and clustering, link analysis algorithms such as PageRank, and computational advertising. The students will also complete one programming project, in which they will construct one complex application that combines multiple algorithms into a system that solves real-world problems.

This course covers important algorithms useful for natural language processing (NLP), including distributional similarity algorithms such as word embeddings, recurrent and recursive neural networks (NN), probabilistic graphical models useful for sequence prediction, and parsing algorithms such as shift-reduce. This course will focus on the algorithms that underlie NLP, rather than the application of NLP to various problem domains.

Machine learning deals with the automated classification, identification, and/or characterizations of an unknown system and its parameters. There are an overwhelming number of application driven fields that can benefit from machine learning techniques. This course will introduce you to machine learning and develop core principles that allow you to determine which algorithm to use, or design a novel approach to solving to engineering task at hand. This course will also use software technology to supplement the theory learned in the class with applications using real-world data.

 

Cloud Computing is an emerging paradigm that aims at delivering computing, information services, and data storage as a utility service over a network (e.g., Internet). There is a strong interest in cloud computing due to their performance and host, but their rapid deployment will exacerbate the security problem. In cloud computing, organizations relinquish direct control of many security aspects to the service providers such as trust, privacy preservation, identity management, data and software isolation, and service availability. The adoption and proliferation of cloud computing and services will be severely impacted if cloud security is not adequately addressed. The main goal of this course is discuss the limitations of current cybersecurity approaches to clouds and then focus on the fundamental issues to address the cloud security and privacy such as the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data and computations in clouds. In this course we will examine cloud computing models, look into the threat model and security issues related to data and computations outsourcing, and explore practical applications to make cloud resources secure and resilient to cyber attacks.

Provides an introduction to problems and techniques of artificial intelligence (AI). Automated problem solving, methods and techniques; search and game strategies, knowledge representation using predicate logic; structured representations of knowledge; automatic theorem proving, system entity structures, frames and scripts; robotic planning; expert systems; implementing AI systems.  Graduate-level requirements include additional assignments.

The goal of this course is to gain an introductory understanding of geographic programming and data automation techniques using ModelBuilder and the Python language.

The focus of this class is to examine and apply GIS open source programming.  We will examine common languages used like Python, Java, html 5, as well as APIs, JSON, html, and SQL, to automate workflows, extend the tools, and create interactive web and mobile GS platforms. Topics include preparing data as strings, lists, tuples, and dictionaries prior to use, using Python to run SQL queries, working with roasters in Python, automating mapping tasks, and developing custom scripting tools.  In addition to weekly assignments and readings, assessment will be oriented around a single, student-directed project that will take the second half of the semester to complete.  It will require students to write a simple script to accomplish a specified task in ArcGIS and present the results of their work to peers.

Individual or small group research under the guidance of faculty.

The number of units this course satisfies is 1-6 units.

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of training and practice in actual service in a technical, business, or governmental establishment. Such work must be approved and supervised by a School of Information faculty member.

The number of units this course satisfies is 1-6 units.

Qualified students working on an individual basis with professors who have agreed to supervise such work.

The number of units this course satisfies is 1-4 units.

This course is a hands-on, project-based approach to understanding and designing art installations. Enrollees will learn principles, tools, and techniques of rapid prototyping and installation design, and will collaborate to design and implement a large-scale installation by the end of the semester. The course lectures will also provide an overview of the history, theory, and aesthetics of installation art. Graduate-level requirements include writing an analytical paper comparing several recent installation projects in relation to themes found in contemporary art (e.g., Artificial Life, Body/Identity Politics, Social Media/Hacktivism, Virtual or Augmented Reality, Databases and Information Visualization). The paper should be 15-20 pages in length.

This course explores ethical challenges stemming from data-driven decision making in society. Students will focus on important topics like bias, fairness, privacy, surveillance, discrimination, as well as data collection, storage, and management. Exploring dilemmas tied to data science, artificial intelligence, robotics, etc. will allow students to consider their own data behaviors as well as trends and problems across contexts like organizations, social media, health, and education. Special attention in the class will be given to matters of policy and governing protocols around the world. Related challenges tied to Internet governance, misinformation, fake video, automation, etc., will also be explored.

This course introduces fundamental ideas of the Information Age, focusing on the value, organization, use, and processing of information. The course is organized as a survey of these ideas, with readings from the research literature. Specific topics (e.g., visualization, retrieval) will be covered by guest faculty who research in each of these areas.

This course introduces fundamental methods for both qualitative and quantitative research in information studies. Additionally, the seminar introduces the student to established and emerging areas of scholarly research in Schools of Information to encourage them to identify a personal research agenda. The seminar is organized in two main parts: the first part introduces relevant research methods (quantitative and qualitative), whereas the second part overviews specific research directions currently active in the School of Information. The second part of the seminar will be covered by guest faculty who research in each of the covered areas.

Bayesian modeling and inference is a powerful modern approach to representing the statistics of the world, reasoning about the world in the face of uncertainty, and learning about it from data. It cleanly separates the notions of representation, reasoning, and learning. It provides a principled framework for combining multiple source of information such as prior knowledge about the world with evidence about a particular case in observed data. This course will provide a solid introduction to the methodology and associated techniques, and show how they are applied in diverse domains ranging from computer vision to molecular biology to astronomy.  Graduate-level requirements include different exams requiring greater depth of understanding of topics, and will be assigned questions based on graduate-student specific assignments topics.

This course will guide students through advanced applications of computational methods for social science research.  Students will be encouraged to consider social problems from across sectors, including health science, environmental policy, education, and business. Particular attention will be given to the collection and analysis of data to study social networks, online communities, electronic commerce, and digital marketing.  Students will consider the many research designs used in contemporary social research, including “Big” data, online surveys, and virtual experimental labs, and will think critically about claims of causality, mechanisms, and generalization.

Introduction to the theories and practices used in the organization of information. Overview of national and international standards and practices for access to information in collections.

The field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) encompasses the design, implementation, and evaluation of interactive computing systems. This course will provide a survey of HCI theory and practice. The course will address the presentation of information and the design of interaction from a human-centered perspective, looking at relevant perceptive, cognitive, and social factors influencing in the design process. It will motivate practical design guidelines for information presentation through Gestalt theory and studies of consistency, memory, and interpretation. Technological concerns will be examined that include interaction styles, devices, constraints, affordances, and metaphors. Theories, principles and design guidelines will be surveyed for both classical and emerging interaction paradigms, with case studies from practical application scenarios. As a central theme, the course will promote the processes of usability engineering, introducing the concepts of participatory design, requirements analysis, rapid prototyping, iterative development, and user evaluation. Both quantitative and qualitative evaluation strategies will be discussed.

Digital information technologies shape our lives. The benefits and the possible dangers of digital information technologies will be explored from a multidisciplinary perspective, looking at the insights into our digital age from history, linguistics sociology, political theory, information science, and philosophy. Students will have opportunities for active reflection on the ways in which digital technology shapes learning and social interaction. Graduate-level requirements include different percent breakdown of requirements and more stringent expectations in work produced.

We do all sorts of things with information technology: we play games, we listen to music, we watch movies, and we communicate with other people. But one of the main things that we use information technology for is to learn things. Toward this end, we visit Wikipedia, Ask.com, The New York Times, and other such sites. Or we just Google stuff that we want to know about. This course is about how information technology is affecting the ability of individuals and institutions to acquire and share knowledge.

This course presents an overview and understanding of the intractable and pressing ethical issues as well as their related policies in the information fields. Emerging technological developments in relation to public interests and individual well-being are highlighted throughout the course. Special emphasis is placed on case studies and outcomes as well as frameworks for ethical decision-making.

Machine learning describes the development of algorithms, which can modify their internal parameters (i.e., "learn") to recognize patterns and make decisions based on example data. These examples can be provided by a human, or they can be gathered automatically as part of the learning algorithm itself. This course will introduce the fundamentals of machine learning, will describe how to implement several practical methods for pattern recognition, feature selection, clustering, and decision making for reward maximization, and will provide a foundation for the development of new machine learning algorithms.  

This course will introduce students to the concepts and techniques of data mining for knowledge discovery. It includes methods developed in the fields of statistics, large-scale data analytics, machine learning, pattern recognition, database technology and artificial intelligence for automatic or semi-automatic analysis of large quantities of data to extract previously unknown interesting patterns. Topics include understanding varieties of data, data preprocessing, classification, association and correlation rule analysis, cluster analysis, outlier detection, and data mining trends and research frontiers. We will use software packages for data mining, explaining the underlying algorithms and their use and limitations. The course include laboratory exercises, with data mining case studies using data from many different resources such as social networks, linguistics, geo-spatial applications, marketing and/or psychology.

Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology that has recently been widely used in various areas, such as education, training, well-being, and entertainment. VR offers a highly immersive experience as the head mounted displays surround a 360-degree view of the user. It encompasses many disciplines, such as computer science, human computer interaction, game design and development, information science, and psychology. This course merges a theoretical and practical approach to give students the necessary knowledge that is required to design, develop, and critique virtual reality games and applications.

Algorithms is a crucial component of game development. This course will provide students with an in-depth introduction to algorithm concepts for game development. The course will cover basic algorithm and data structures concepts, basic math concepts related to game algorithms, physics and artificial intelligence based game algorithms that are supplemented with modern examples. Unity Game Engine along with C# programming language will be used throughout the class.

This course provides an overview of the various concepts and skills required for effective data visualization. It presents principles of graphic design, programming skills, and statistical knowledge required to build compelling visualizations that communicate effectively to target audiences. Visualization skills addressed in this course include choosing appropriate colors, shapes, variable mappings, and interactivity based on principles of color perception, pre-attentive processing, and accessibility.

Students will learn from experts from projects that have developed widely adopted foundational Cyber infrastructure resources, followed by hands-on laboratory exercises focused around those resources. Students will use these resources and gain practical experience from laboratory exercises for a final project using a data set and meeting requirements provided by domain scientists. Students will be provided access to computer resources at: UA campus clusters, iPlant Collaborative and at NSF XSEDE. Students will also learn to write a proposal for obtaining future allocation to large-scale national resources through XSEDE.  Graduate-level requirements include reading a paper related to cyberinfrastructure, present it to the class, and lead a discussion on the paper.

Data Warehousing and Analytics In the Cloud will utilize concepts, frameworks, and best practices for designing a cloud-based data warehousing solution and explore how to use analytical tools to perform analysis on your data. In the first half of the course, I will provide an overview of the field of Cloud Computing, its main concepts, and students will get hands-on experience through projects which utilize cloud computing platforms. In the second half of the course, we will examine the construction of a cloud-based data warehouse system and explore how the Cloud opens up data analytics to huge volumes of data.

This course will focus on the online retrieval and evaluation of medical literature and the issues surrounding provision of timely, relevant, peer-reviewed medical information. Emphasis will be on the development of the intellectual acuity required to provide physicians, nurses, pharmacists, allied health professionals, medical researchers and consumers with targeted responses to medical queries. Current search modalities such as Evidence-Based Medicine will be covered both in readings and in class discussions.

This course focuses on the use of modern data science methods to help learners make socially responsible decisions and mitigate harm that arises from issues like bias, discrimination, and threats to one's personal privacy. More and more individuals are needing to make data-driven decisions in a wide variety of contexts including non-governmental organizations, not-for-profit industries, human services, environmental organizations, refugee camps, and more. Students in this class will thus learn about data science and how it can be utilized in contexts where socially-good decisions are desired and emphasized. This active learning class is designed for students who have an interest in the topic but who may have little to no previous experience with data science or programming.

This course introduces the key concepts underlying statistical natural language processing. Students will learn a variety of techniques for the computational modeling of natural language, including: n-gram models, smoothing, Hidden Markov models, Bayesian Inference, Expectation Maximization, Viterbi, Inside-Outside Algorithm for Probabilistic Context-Free Grammars, and higher-order language models.  Graduate-level requirements include assignments of greater scope than undergraduate assignments. In addition to being more in-depth, graduate assignments are typically longer and additional readings are required.

Provides an introduction to the archival profession with focus on theory and practice in the areas of appraisal and acquisition, arrangement and description, reference, preservation, exhibitions, outreach, and electronic resource development.

This course provides a broad technical introduction to the tools, techniques and concepts of artificial intelligence. The course will focus on methods for automating decision making under a variety of conditions, including full and partial information, and dealing with uncertainty. Students will gain practical experience writing programs that use these techniques to solve a variety of problems.

Topics include problem solving (search spaces, uninformed and informed search, games, and constraint satisfaction), principles of knowledge representation and reasoning (propositional and first-­‐order logic, logical inference, planning), and representing and reasoning with uncertainty (decision theory, reinforcement learning, Bayesian networks, probabilistic inference, basic discrete-­‐time probabilistic models).

This course provides a comprehensive survey of video game production practices. Students work on game development assignments for presentation in a professional portfolio. The course topics include: collaborative technologies, software design patterns for games, spatial transformations, and technical considerations surrounding game art, such as authoring sprites, 3D models, animations, texture mapping, and writing shaders. Students will be given periodic assignments that reinforce lessons from class.

 

Game development is a vast field with many advanced concepts. This course aims to teach students
such concepts, techniques and mechanisms in Unity, covering procedural content generation, design
patterns, artificial intelligence, shaders and postprocessing effects, animation, custom interactions and
gestures, and performance optimization. The students are expected to have fundamental game
development knowledge in Unity and C#. The course is heavily hands-on and project oriented. Students
will implement the covered concepts on small-scaled Unity project templates using C# and also develop
a larger-scaled final term project. At the end of the course, students will have gained advanced game
development skills that can be applied to future jobs or self-development.

Analyze genomic sequences through understanding and using a variety of bioinformatics algorithms and software tools.  Interdisciplinary approach integrating informatics, statistics, and biology.  Graduate-level requirements include leading a discussion on a current paper or give a tutorial on a bioinformatics tool as part of the Major Concept Exercises category.

Most of web data today consists of unstructured text. This course will cover the fundamental knowledge necessary to organize such texts, search them a meaningful way, and extract relevant information from them. This course will teach natural language processing through the design and development of end-to-end natural language understanding applications, including sentiment analysis (e.g., is this review positive or negative?), information extraction (e.g., extracting named entities and their relations from text), and question answering (retrieving exact answers to natural language questions such as "What is the capital of France" from large document collections). We will use several natural language processing toolkits, such as NLTK and Stanford's CoreNLP. The main programming language used in the course will be Python, but code written in Java or Scala will be accepted as well.  Graduate-level requirements include implementing more complex, state-of-the-art algorithms for the three proposed projects. This will require additional reading of conference papers and journal articles.

Most of the web data today consists of unstructured text. Of course, the fact that this data exists is irrelevant, unless it is made available such that users can quickly find information that is relevant for their needs. This course will cover the fundamental knowledge necessary to build such systems, such as web crawling, index construction and compression, boolean, vector-based, and probabilistic retrieval models, text classification and clustering, link analysis algorithms such as PageRank, and computational advertising. The students will also complete one programming project, in which they will construct one complex application that combines multiple algorithms into a system that solves real-world problems.  Graduate level requirements include implementing more complex, state-of-the-art algorithms for the programming project, which might require additional reading of research articles. Written assignments will have additional questions for graduate students.

Neural networks are a branch of machine learning that combines a large number of simple computational units to allow computers to learn from and generalize over complex patterns in data. Students in this course will learn how to train and optimize feed forward, convolutional, and recurrent neural networks for tasks such as text classification, image recognition, and game playing.

This course considers the ethical issues that arise in serving diverse user groups and their members, including but not limited to, children, women, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ community, the poor, ethnic groups, and Indigenous peoples. Differing information needs and ways of knowing are considered. The role of library and information professionals in promoting and supporting the rights of such groups to access and control information is emphasized. The course explores the ways in which groups of persons may be knowers and what information rights this knowledge might give them, within groups defined by their ethnic or cultural origin, e,g., indigenous peoples, ethnic and racial groups. In addition, libraries and other information services can be designed so as to foster the development and preservation of group knowledge and respect for group information rights.

Introduction to organization systems that use controlled vocabularies. Principles, standards, design and maintenance of thesauri using computer software are studied. The use of controlled vocabularies in website design and digital libraries is also explored.

All information organizations (libraries, archives, museums, and public and corporate organizations involved in information management) have leadership expectations of their professional employees whether they are in management positions or not. This course focuses the theories, principles, and practices of leadership in these organizations. The course will cover what is leadership and how it differs from management. It will identify what it means to be a professional-- career versus job orientation; understanding personal strengths and management styles (Myers-Briggs, Emotional Intelligence); and professional values-- customer focus, continual learning, diversity. It will also cover understanding organizations and organizational cultures; working on teams; collaboration and negotiation; project management; data based decisions; program development and budgeting, assessment and evaluation; communication skills and interpersonal skills-- including giving and receiving constructive feedback; managing conflict; relationship building and networking; leading change and managing up; and what to look for in a new position.

This course covers theory, methods, and techniques widely used to design and develop a relational database system and students will develop a broad understanding of modern database management systems. Applications of fundamental database principles in a stand-alone database environment using MS Access and Windows are emphasized. Applications in an Internet environment will be discussed using MySQL in the Linux platform. Graduate-level requirements include a group project consisting of seven sections: Database Design; Implementation (Tables); Forms; Data Retrieval (Queries/Reports); Project Presentation; Project Report; and, Peer Evaluation.

This course is designed to introduce the basic concepts and applications of Internet-related information technology and its impacts on individual users, groups, organizations, and society. The topics in this survey course include computing basics, network applications, human computer interactions, computer-support cooperative work, social aspects of information systems, and some economic and legal issues related to digital services and products.

Study of the user interface in information systems, of human computer interaction, and of website design and evaluation. Graduate-level requirements include group work and longer examinations.

Security is about protecting assets, such as money and physical possessions.
For instance, we use walls, locks, burglar alarms, and even armed guards to keep other people from stealing and/or destroying our stuff. These days, information is typically one of our most important assets. Thus, we have to worry about the possibility of other people stealing and/or destroying it. For instance, criminals threaten our data with scareware or ransomware in order to extort money from us. Also, they use phishing scams and spyware in order to steal our personal information (including passwords), which they can then use to access our computer systems and even steal our identities.The Group Presentation requires those taking the graduate course to participate in creating an online presentation on a topic within the scope of digital security.

In today's digital society, people have access to a wide variety of information sources and scientific data. In this course, students will learn about the role of science and scientific data in society, and they will consider means for making science information findable and understandable for a wide variety of audiences. This course will provide students an interdisciplinary experience for considering science data and how that information gets shared across contexts.

This course provides an overview of modern database systems at the time. Both relational databases (SQL) and a few non-relational databases (NoSQL) are covered, including topics on data warehouses. The focus of the course is on the practical skills of the design and implementation of data storage and access for data and information sciences. Topics covered include ER-diagrams, database normalization, data modeling in NoSQL databases, SQL and other query languages, and data warehousing. The course will selectively cover one or two types of NoSQL databases, for example, document-oriented, key-value pair, column-oriented, or graph databases. Database platforms used in this course could change with time, some examples include MySQL, PostgreSQL, Apache HBASE, Apache Cassandra, MongoDB, and Neo4J.

This course provides an overview of modern database systems at the time. Both relational databases (SQL) and a few non-relational databases (NoSQL) are covered, including topics on data warehouses. The focus of the course is on the practical skills of the design and implementation of data storage and access for data and information sciences. Topics covered include ER-diagrams, database normalization, data modeling in NoSQL databases, SQL and other query languages, and data warehousing. The course will selectively cover one or two types of NoSQL databases, for example, document-oriented, key-value pair, column-oriented, or graph databases. Database platforms used in this course could change with time, some examples include MySQL, PostgreSQL, Apache HBASE, Apache Cassandra, MongoDB, and Neo4J.

Organizing information in electronic formats requires standard machine-readable languages. This course covers recent standards including XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and related technologies (XPath and XSLT) which are used widely in current information organization systems. Building on a sounding understanding of XML technologies, the course also introduces students to newer standards that support the development of the Semantic Web. These standards include RDF (Resource Description Framework), RDFS (RDF Schema), and OWL (Web Ontology Language) and their application under the Linked Data paradigm. While the application of many specific XML schemas used in libraries and other information setting such as science and business will be used to provide the context for various topics, the main focus of the course is on understanding the concepts of XML and Semantic Web technologies and on applying practical skills in various settings, including but not limiting to libraries. The course is heavy with hands-on assignments and requires students complete a final group project.

Introduces the basics of copyright law and fair use, also discusses the theoretical foundations and history of copyright and the public domain. These issues are placed within a broader multicultural and international context. By the end of the course students will: (a) know the basics of copyright law and fair use as they apply to libraries and related information services, and (b) understand the importance of balancing the rights of intellectual property owners with the societal need for a robust public domain. Graduate-level requirements include an individual project on a topic chosen in consultation with the professor.

Information-seeking theories, methods, and user behaviors will be covered in order to gain an understanding of how people seek, gather, retrieve and use information. Information-seeking behavior draws on literature from library and information science, psychology, and communications. Graduate-level requirements include conducting a real-world experience or evaluation of information seeking behaviors in a self-selected social context and information system. The project will include a two-page proposal of the experience due at the midterm and an online presentation to the class of the findings of the study, including; problem/issue studies, research question, data collected and analyzed, significance to the social context, and a statement of personal relationships to the topic and participants.

Structure and workings of scholarly communication and products in the U.S. Examines the content and technology of scholarly communication in various disciplines.

Designed to provide students with a foundational understanding of the evolution of the internet as a digital medium, the course will examine the early- stages of ISPs as information gateways through Portals to Search as a unifying experience layer.  Additionally, the course will examine the current influences of social media, Generative AI as well as analyze the ever-changing business of sports media. Throughout, we will discuss the implications of digital media on marketing and advertising practices, both the benefits and the downsides of the digital world. By examining the inner workings of some of the most interesting and fastest-growing companies in the digital world (e.g. AppleTV, Google, Facebook, Snap, Twitter, and TikTok), students will receive a first-hand account of how digital marketing and media are evolving from execs from these companies and hear where career opportunities may be trending.

Modern science has always been data driven but advances in data gathering tools from ground sensors to aerial-based remote sensing increase the researchers' opportunities and responsibility for the professional management of data to support the reproducibility and validity of science. In this course, biology, engineering, and information science students will learn to design and implement research methodologies for field research that effectively combine 1) the discovery and use of existing data with 2) the collection, organization, analysis, dissemination, and preservation of field generated research data. These research methodologies will be implemented/studied within the motivating context of behavioral wildlife observation research. Working in teams, students will build, program and deploy microcontroller-based field sensors to gather animal behavioral information in challenging field conditions. Students will use tools such as R and Jupyter Notebooks to add metadata, document data for publication and deposit the data in a trusted data repository.

(1-6 units)

This course will introduce the fundamental concepts of geographic information systems technology (GIST). It will emphasize equally GISystems and GIScience. Geographic information systems are a powerful set of tools for storing and retrieving at will, transforming and displaying spatial data from the real world for a particular set of purposes. In contrast, geographic information science is concerned with both the research on GIS and with GIS. As Longley et.al., notes (2001, vii) ¿GIS is fundamentally an applications-led technology, yet science underpins successful applications.¿ This course will combine an overview of the general principles of GIScience and how this relates to the nature and analytical use of spatial information within GIS software and technology. Students will apply the principles and science of GIST through a series of practical labs using ESRI¿s ArcGIS software.

The planning/evaluation cycle as an approach to assessing various information center services.

This course examines the archivist's `first' responsibility - the appraisal of records for long-term preservation. Appraisal is first in the sequence of archival functions and, therefore, influences all subsequent archival activities. Importantly, appraisal is integral in archiving as, through it, archivists determine what sliver of the total human documentary production will actually become `archives' and thus part of society's historical narrative and collective memory. By performing appraisal and selection, archivists are thereby actively shaping the future's history of our times. Topics covered in this course include Historical Foundations, Key Ideas, and Debates in Appraisal; Appraisal Methods and Strategies; Appraisal for Specific Formats and Genres; and Issues Relating to Appraisal, Democratization, Ethics, and Social Justice. Course readings, assignments, lectures, and discussions will provide students with a thorough knowledge of the basic theories, strategies, professional practices and discourses concerning appraisal with an orientation to doing this job well as working archivists. This is a reading intensive course. Students are expected to attend all classes, do all assigned readings, and participate in in-class and online discussions. Discussions are an integral part of this class as we make sense of our readings and everyday practices together. Participation is absolutely necessary for success. Students are encouraged to integrate relevant prior classroom learning, and personal, professional, and research experiences and reflect upon how these might be utilized or translated in order to work with communities, their archives, and archival materials.

LIS/INFO 671 introduces the basic functions of: *digital curation, a term that refers to the full set of management processes needed to create, select, describe, preserve and facilitate access to all types of digital collections, and *digital preservation, a formal endeavor to ensure that digital information of continuing value remains accessible and usable. We will focus primarily on digital curation and preservation in archives, libraries and museums, but we will also explore and compare digital curation and preservation practices from other disciplines, such as e-commerce, government documents and various business document systems and collections, in order to understand both the differences and similarities in the organization, management and preservation of different digital collections. By concentrating on common principles of information organization and information life cycles, you will be able to translate your learning and skills to many kinds of digital collections across disciplines and institutional cultures. This course will also introduce the basic problems associated with digital preservation. It will give students a thorough orientation to the technological and organizational approaches, which have been developed to address long-term preservation concerns. Finally, the course will examine the current state of the art in digital preservation and assess what challenges remain in research and implementation efforts. This course is designed to help new information professionals identify roles to play in managing and preserving digital objects and collections, and at the same time to enhance their effectiveness in working across organizational and technical boundaries.

This course provides a basic understanding of technology in the digital information environment along with an introduction to practical hands-on skills needed to manage digital information. The course combines reading, discussion, collaboration, project work, independent study, and guided hands-on practice. The course covers the basic installation, setup and maintenance of key systems found in the digital information environment today. Linux is used as a foundation for learning while drawing parallels to the Windows server operating system, Unix operating systems, and other operating systems.

This course provides you with a basic understanding of the theory and practical approaches to the management of information and technology in the digital information environment. Management topics considered in this course range from the strategic (planning, leadership, and policy development) to the tactical (project management, the acquisition and deployment of technology) and ethical challenges and decision making for administrators, group leaders and project managers. The course combines reading, discussion, collaboration, project work, independent study, and guided hands-on practice in order to reinforce the concepts described in the project objectives.

This three-credit course is one of six required for completion of the Certificate in Digital Information Management (DigIn). This course will provide an in-depth look at the processes involved in building and managing digital collections and institutional repositories. The course will have a strong hands-on component in which students will apply advanced resource description methods to a collection, and then build a prototype repository along with a basic access system. Students will also analyze and discuss case examples of digital collections, focusing on technology management issues and organizational strategies for building different types of collections.

Directed Research courses are intended to cover advanced material outside of or beyond the scope of current course offerings. In such courses, the student will work on a research project under the direct supervision of a School of Information faculty member. The research topic should be relevant to MS degree competencies and contribute to the development of the student’s knowledge and skill sets in the field of Information Science. The student should propose a research plan including the expected outcome and the faculty advisor should approve it before registration. The research plan should include a problem statement, proposed research methods, expected outcome, a schedule of research activities and meeting schedule between the student and the faculty advisor, and the assessment of the student performance. The amount of the work should be appropriate for the requested credits. The primary faculty advisor must be an SI faculty, but faculty members from other units may participate in advising the student.

Internship is intended to provide an opportunity for students to build on what they have mastered in the program and practice the knowledge and skills in the real world. The Internship should be relevant to student's degree competencies and contribute to the development and enforcement of the student's knowledge and skill sets in the field of Information Science. The student should propose an internship plan and then identify an internship site supervisor, who typically is external. The site supervisor and the graduate advisor of the school need to approve the plan prior to course registration. The plan should include goals for the internship, degree competencies addressed by the internship, expected tasks to be completed, work schedule, and the assessment plan. The amount of the work should be appropriate for the units registered (3 units = 135 hours). The internship may be paid or unpaid. Student may take an internship in the same organization where student is employed, but work planed for the internship need to have a clear separation from the work expected by the employment. At the conclusion of the internship, the site supervisor is expected to submit a written assessment of student's work.

Capstone Project is intended to provide an opportunity for students to show off what they have mastered in the program. The project should be relevant to MS degree competencies and contribute to the development and enforcement of the student's knowledge and skill sets in the field of Information Science. The student should propose a project plan and the faculty advisor should approve it before registration. The project plan should include goals for the project, MS competencies addressed by the project, system design, an implementation schedule, and the assessment plan. The project plan should also include reasonable milestones and check points. The amount of the work should be appropriate for a 3-unit course. The primary faculty advisor must be an SI faculty, but faculty members from other units may participate in advising the student.

Independent studies are intended to cover advanced material outside of or beyond the scope of current course offerings. The topic should be relevant to MS degree competencies and contribute to the development of the student's knowledge and skill sets in the field of Information Science. The student should propose a study plan and the faculty advisor should approve it before registration. The study plan should include learning objectives, readings and/or activities, a schedule of the meetings between the student and the faculty advisor, and the learning outcome and its assessment. The amount of the work should be appropriate for the requested credits. The primary faculty advisor must be an SI faculty, but faculty members from other units may participate in advising the student.

Individual research, not related to thesis or dissertation preparation, by graduate students.

Research for the doctoral dissertation (whether library research, laboratory or field observation or research, artistic creation, or dissertation writing).

Bibliographical materials; research resources, techniques, and problems directed toward graduate study in music.

Topics include speech synthesis, speech recognition, and other speech technologies.  This course gives students background for a career in the speech technology industry.  Graduate students will do extra readings, extra assignments, and have an extra presentation. Their final project must constitute original work in a speech technology.

This course provides a hands-on project-based approach to particular problems and issues in computational linguistics.

This course focuses on statistical approaches to pattern classification and applications of natural language processing to real-world problems

As the first course a SLIS master’s student takes, LIS 504 provides an introduction to the library and information professions, to the SLIS graduate program and to roles and current issues in library and information services for the 21st Century.

Research methodology, research design, and elementary statistics. 

Introduction to the theories and practices used in the organization of information. Overview of national and international standards and practices for access to information in collections.

Digital information technologies shape our lives. The benefits and the possible dangers of digital information technologies will be explored from a multidisciplinary perspective, looking at the insights into our digital age from history, linguistics sociology, political theory, information science, and philosophy. Students will have opportunities for active reflection on the ways in which digital technology shapes learning and social interaction. Graduate-level requirements include different percent breakdown of requirements and more stringent expectations in work produced.

This course will focus on how to insure that we can reliably get quality information and will also consider information quality from the perspective of the suppliers of information.  Principles of evaluating information exchanges and sources will be discussed and topics will include the verification of the accuracy of information and the evaluation of resources in specialized subject domains.  Graduate-level requirements include a stronger emphasis on the group presentation. Participation, midterm exam, individual project, and short assignments will not contribute as heavily to the final grade.

This course presents an overview and understanding of the intractable and pressing ethical issues as well as their related policies in the information fields. Emerging technological developments in relation to public interests and individual well-being are highlighted throughout the course. Special emphasis is placed on case studies and outcomes as well as frameworks for ethical decision-making.

Survey of a wide variety of children's and young adult literature with emphasis on bilingual/multilingual, multicultural, and multiethnic literature. Using children's and young adult literature to develop literacy, particularly for English language learners will also be studied.

Examines the full range of abilities needed for working with preschoolers and their families and caregivers in today's public libraries. Provides theory, practice, and a framework for thinking about early childhood development and literacy.

Study of the principles and practices of descriptive cataloging for bibliographic and authority control, and resource discovery. AACR2R, RDA, MARC, Dublin Core, OAI-PMH, and selected specialized metadata schemes for all forms and formats of materials are covered.

Designed for information professionals who intermediate between information seekers at all levels and information resources in all forms including texts, images, audio, and data. Course material and assignments focus on intermediating services such as interviewing; online searching of catalogs, indexes, and open-access repositories; instruction; and reference collection curation.
 

This course surveys and evaluates the major print and electronic bibliographic and information sources in business librarianship.  Emphasis is placed upon the user needs as they are translated into information-seeking practices.

Provides an introduction to the archival profession with focus on theory and practice in the areas of appraisal and acquisition, arrangement and description, reference, preservation, exhibitions, outreach, and electronic resource development.

Provides an introduction to the preservation of library materials, including an overview of physical and chemical deterioration in various forms of media, and exploration of the body of knowledge related to ameliorating these problems.

This course combines theory and application in the study of the moving image as scholarly evidence. Following an overview of film history and theory, students will learn basic film and video identification, handling and preservation methods. Each student will be assigned a film or films to research and analyze as primary evidence. Evidence reels will include nonfiction film and video material in local repositories, including UA Special Collections and Arizona Historical Society.

This course surveys the history of books and publishing from the eve of Gutenberg's invention to cyberspace. We will watch as the book printing and publishing industry interacts with major movements in society and trace the development of what we know as publishing today. The later part of the course will consider the effect of digital technologies on the book, as well as the challenges that self-publishing brings to the publishing industry.  Graduate-level requirements include participation in online discussion and a more robust research paper

In this course, learners will acquire skills in visual design, mathematical reasoning and computational thinking to gain an understanding of data literacy. Learners are introduced to theories of cognition and visual perception as they relate to data visualization. Together, the class will create data visualizations and engage in meaning making around representations of data to explore profiling, prediction, judgement, and decision making. Learners will explore the concepts of proprietary data versus open data resources, critically examining their uses to recognize the role data play in their lives and societal outcomes.Learning outcomes:- Demonstrate ability to use presentation software to produce a multi-modal communication that incorporates data in order to inform. (Final Part 1)- Demonstrate use of reasoning to draw conclusions. (Final Part 1, 2, 3)- Construct an alternative infographic given the same data set highlighting different interpretations. (Part 1, 2, 3) - Demonstrate critical thinking to critique how data are used to make and support arguments. (Part 2, 3)

Explores the interconnectedness of information forms and environments (libraries, museums, archives, electronic, mass media, etc.) from different theoretical and cultural perspectives. Contrasts each with Native American and Hispanic experiences in information and library settings.

This course provides the student with an overview of social, historical, and cultural influences on the health status of multi-ethnic cultural communities with an emphasis on Native American and Hispanic environments. Students will integrate health disparities knowledge as they learn about consumer health information resources which address these concerns. Resources for Hispanic and Native American populations will be highlighted as well as topics such as health calculators, evaluating health web sites, health literacy, searching tips on minority health, and conducting the health reference interview.

Addresses themes associated with the production of information artifacts and issues in documenting cultural diversity across the American culture landscape. The practices of collection and documenting cultures and communities will be explored in relation to the mission of libraries, archives, historical societies and other cultural heritage institutions concerned with the acquisition of information in books, journals and other textual materials, and in sound and visual documents.

This course explores the ways in which groups of persons may be knowers and what information rights this knowledge might give them, within groups defined by their ethnic or cultural origin, e.g., indigenous peoples, ethnic and racial groups. In addition, libraries and other information services can be designed so as to foster the development and preservation of group knowledge and respect for group information rights.

Since the 1990s, the concept of marketing as applied to library environments has been misunderstood. Instead of just public relations or advertising, marketing is the process of communicating with customers and potential customers to determine needs, to design services to meet them, to inform the community about services, and to evaluate them so that they can be improved. This course will look at the marketing cycle as it may be applied to a variety of library environments. It will look at the relationship of marketing to program planning, branding, focusing on customers and customer relations, promoting services, and evaluating them. It will look at both physical space and virtual space as they promote the image of libraries and provide places for service delivery.

Information Resource Development. Principles of identifying, selecting, acquiring, managing, and evaluating information resources for libraries, information centers, and other information-based settings.

Introduction to readers' advisory services in a public library setting. Emphasis on genre fiction, although non-fiction readers' advisory will also be addressed. Additional topics include the readers' advisory interview, tools and resources, and marketing fiction in your library. Graduate-level requirements include more extensive research and a higher level of performance.

All information organizations (libraries, archives, museums, and public and corporate organizations involved in information management) have leadership expectations of their professional employees whether they are in management positions or not.  This course focuses the theories, principles, and practices of leadership in these organizations.  The course will cover what is leadership and how it differs from management.  It will identify what it means to be a professional-- career versus job orientation; understanding personal strengths and management styles (Myers-Briggs, Emotional Intelligence); and professional values-- customer focus, continual learning, diversity.  It will also cover understanding organizations and organizational cultures; working on teams; collaboration and negotiation; project management; data based decisions;  program development and budgeting, assessment and evaluation; communication skills and interpersonal skills-- including giving and receiving constructive feedback; managing conflict; relationship building and networking; leading change and managing up; and what to look for in a new position.

This course covers theory, methods, and techniques widely used to design and develop a relational database system and students will develop a broad understanding of modern database management systems. Applications of fundamental database principles in a stand-alone database environment using MS Access and Windows are emphasized. Applications in an Internet environment will be discussed using MySQL in the Linux platform. Graduate-level requirements include a group project consisting of seven sections: Database Design; Implementation (Tables); Forms; Data Retrieval (Queries/Reports); Project Presentation; Project Report; and, Peer Evaluation.

This course is designed to introduce the basic concepts and applications of Internet-related information technology and its impacts on individual users, groups, organizations, and society. The topics in this survey course include computing basics, network applications, human computer interactions, computer-support cooperative work, social aspects of information systems, and some economic and legal issues related to digital services and products.

The U.S. government collects, generates, publishes and distributes a vast amount and variety of information. All information professionals-even those who do not intend to specialize as government document librarians-should understand the organization of and promote access to this body of work. In this course, lectures, discussions, and readings will acquaint students with theoretical and practical knowledge. The assignments will provide opportunities for deeper exploration of government information policies and resources. Graduate-level requirements include a policy paper worth 35% of their final grade.

Study of the user interface in information systems, of human computer interaction and of website design and evaluation. Graduate-level requirements include group work and longer examinations.

In today's digital society, people have access to a wide variety of information sources and scientific data. In this course, students will learn about the role of science and scientific data in society, and they will consider means for making science information findable and understandable for a wide variety of audiences. This course will provide students an interdisciplinary experience for considering science data and how that information gets shared across contexts.

Examines children's literature and its role in the literacy development of young children (preschool - 3rd grade). Explores both the types of literature and ways to bring children and books together.

Organizing information in electronic formats requires standard machine readable languages. This course covers recent standards including XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and related technologies (XPath and XSLT) which are used widely in current information organization systems. Building on a sounding understanding of XML technologies, the course also introduces students to newer standards that support the development of the Semantic Web. These standards include RDF (Resource Description Framework), RDFS (RDF Schema), and OWL (Web Ontology Language) and their application under the Linked Data paradigm. While the application of many specific XML schemas used in libraries and other information setting such as science and business will be used to provide the context for various topics, the main focus of the course is on understanding the concepts of XML and Semantic Web technologies and on applying practical skills in various settings, including but not limiting to libraries. The course is heavy with hands-on assignments and requires students complete a final group project.

Librarians and information professionals require expertise in teaching as our constituents learn to navigate the ever-expanding information landscape to use, create, and critique knowledge. This seminar-style course provides students with a foundation for pedagogy of information literacy instruction in libraries and similar settings. Understanding the identity and evolution of teaching librarians, associated learning theories, instructional praxis, and the current state of professional conversations about teaching and learning, students in this course will begin to situate themselves as library educators.

This course will enable students to examine the full range of skills needed for working with young adults in today's public library. It will provide theory and practice and give students a framework for thinking about services to young adults. Assignments are designed to have students work in teams and often require connections with young adults, fellow professionals and community representatives. Students will be challenged to envision the best in library service to young adults and to envision themselves as key players in their libraries and communities in the next critical decades.

This course gives students the practical skills needed to develop high-quality online multimedia learning objects. Starting from a cognitive processing framework, students will examine evidence-based learning principles and how they are applied to online multimedia materials. Students will explore the latest multimedia technologies including content authoring tools, rapid e-learning tools, and video, audio and graphic tools. Course topics include learning theories, graphic design principles, interactivity, gaming, and engagement. Additionally, usability, accessibility, and universal design will be studied and students will understand how different assessments can be applied in different library contexts. Learning theories and background information will guide students in this course through the process of developing practical assessment models to evaluate online multimedia learning objects that can be used in a variety of libraries. This course can be taken concurrently with LIS 586: Learning Design for Library Instruction - LIS 583 will focus on instructional design to support asynchronous and online learning.

The owners of intellectual property have moral and legal rights that constrain how information can be disseminated. Those working in libraries, archives, or other information services should understand when and why these constraints apply to advocate for a robust and equitable cultural and intellectual commons. Digital content creators should also be aware of the licenses, networks, and creative practices at play in the circulation and reuse of audio, video, photographic and multimodal works. In this course, we will discuss the various legal aspects of copyright  (e.g., fair use, the first-sale doctrine) in the context of information services and content creation as well as the ways intellectual property rights affect information services and shape media reuse in the 21st century.

This course will introduce the concept of learning design, engaging students in examining models, principles, and practice for library instruction. The context of instructional design models and how they fit in with the larger pedagogy of information literacy and library instruction will be a central topic of this course. Students will explore the most popular learning design theories being used today (including ADDIE, Dick and Carey, ASSURE and Design Thinking), gain experience in critique of instructional design, and learn how to ascertain what models might be more appropriate for different purposes. Hands-on experience will help students implement these models in their own library instruction. 

Additionally, this course will also introduce students to assessment and evaluation of learning objects, particularly as they relate to information literacy programs, library instruction, and library staff training in libraries.  The nationally-recognized Quality Matters rubric will be addressed as an evaluation tool, along with other industry-standard practices for iterative assessment and continuous improvement of course design.  Students will gain an understanding of the theories that inform different assessment approaches and will use these theories to understand how users learn and how libraries support and measure the effectiveness of teaching and learning.

This course will take a project-based learning focus, with students designing and developing a cohesive unit of instruction throughout the semester.

This course can be taken concurrently with LIS 583: eLearning for Librarians and other Information Professionals, as this course, LIS 586 will focus on instructional design to support synchronous learning in face-to-face and blended learning environments.

Information seeking is the process or activity of attempting to obtain and use information from both human and virtual sources. It is a basic skill that people in the 21st Century need for their academic and career work. LIS 587 addresses how to assist users of information services and libraries to accomplish this important task. The course addresses information seeking theories, methods and user behaviors with a goal of students gaining an understanding of how people seek, gather, retrieve and use information. The course draws on literature from library and information science, psychology and communications. Understanding information seeking is applicable broadly for information professionals.

Explore how information technologies from the emergence of the use of symbols, through the development of the book, to today's Web 2.0 shape our lives and our culture. We will explore the benefits and the possible dangers of new and emerging information technologies. We will approach these and other issues from a multidisciplinary perspective, looking at the insights into our information age that can be provided by such areas of inquiry as history, linguistics sociology, political theory, information science, and philosophy. The course will not only critically analyze new information technologies, it will use such technologies to deliver the course--providing opportunities for active reflection on the ways in which technology shape learning and social interaction. The goal of the course is to equip students with the conceptual tools to understand, engage, and critique the evolving infosphere in which we live. Graduate-level requirements include weekly reflections and discussions.

Structure and workings of scholarly communication and products in the U.S. Examines the content and technology of scholarly communication in various disciplines.

The planning/evaluation cycle as an approach to assessing various information center services.

[Taught yearly] This course is designed to give students knowledge of health informatics within the context of all types of information centers. The course includes:  an overview of health information resources -- both public and medical, evaluating and creating health information resources, promoting health and medical information from the library, and use of data bases to identify and trying to solve community issues around prevalent health & medical issues with in a community. Program planning and evaluation will be introduced. 

{Taught off numbered years} Focuses on development and maintenance of healthcare databases for application in solving healthcare problems. Design methods, database structures, indexing, data dictionaries, retrieval languages and data security are presented.

Organizing information in electronic formats requires standard machine readable languages. This course covers recent standards including XML(eXtensible Markup Language) and related technologies (XPath and XSLT) which are used widely in current information organization systems. Building on a sounding understanding of XML technologies, the course also introduces students to newer standards that support the development of the Semantic Web. These standards include RDF (Resource Description Framework), RDFS (RDF Schema), and OWL (Web Ontology Language) and their application under the Linked Data paradigm. While the application of many specific XML schemas used in libraries and other information setting such as science and business will be used to provide the context for various topics, the main focus of the course is on understanding the concepts of XML and Semantic Web technologies and on applying practical skills in various settings, including but not limiting to libraries. The course is heavy with hands-on assignments and requires students complete a final group project.

This course examines the archivist’s ‘first’ responsibility – the appraisal of records for long-term preservation. Appraisal is first in the sequence of archival functions and, therefore, influences all subsequent archival activities. Importantly, appraisal is integral in archiving as, through  it, archivists determine what silver of the total human documentary production will actually become ‘archives’ and thus part of society’s historical narrative and collective memory. By performing appraisal and selection, archivists are thereby actively shaping the future’s history of our times.

This course will bring together lectures, discussions, guest presentations, and community-focused assignments to develop student understanding of and experience working with communities on the formation of practical strategies for working within community-focused archives and museum contexts to: identify records, artifacts, and their creation; document their activities; collect, manage, display, make accessible, and preserve records and other historical and cultural material; and undertake community-focused collaborative research. Students will be required to select a community of interest and work independently with that community throughout the semester. The instructor can help suggest communities in search of archives- and museum-focused activities, but students are responsible for selecting their own community site.

Focuses on the theoretical basis of healthcare informatics with an emphasis on management and processing of healthcare data, information, and knowledge. Healthcare vocabulary and language systems, and basic database design concepts are addressed.

This course will address the impact of technology on the fundamentals of libraries, archives and records management. Many librarians, archivists and records managers who have been working for even a few years find that they need to know more about working with digital information, the shift from paper to electrons caused a shift in the fundamental nature of the professions. To thrive in the digital era, they need new skills to accomplish many of the same tasks. Collections will no longer be physical, bur virtual. Patrons will often be thousands of miles away, not just the other side of the reference desk. This course is intended to help you understand this new environment.

This course provides a basic understanding of technology in the digital information environment along with an introduction to practical hands-on skills needed to manage digital information. The course combines reading, discussion, collaboration, project work, independent study, and guided hands-on practice. The course covers the basic installation, setup and maintenance of key systems found in the digital information environment today. Linux is used as a foundation for learning while drawing parallels to the Windows server operating system, Unix operating systems, and other operating systems.

This course provides you with a basic understanding of the theory and practical approaches to the management of information and technology in the digital information environment. Management topics considered in this course range from the strategic (planning, leadership, and policy development) to the tactical (project management, the acquisition and deployment of technology). The course combines reading, discussion, collaboration, project work, independent study, and guided hands-on practice in order to reinforce the concepts described in the project objectives.

This three-credit course is one of six required for completion of the Certificate in Digital Information Management (DigIn). This course will introduce the basic problems associated with digital preservation. It will give students a thorough orientation to the technological and organizational approaches, which have been developed to address long-term preservation concerns. Finally, the course will examine the current state of the art in digital preservation and assess what challenges remain in research and implementation efforts.

This 3-credit course is 1 of 5 required for completion of the Certificate in Digital Information Management (DigIn). This course will provide an in-depth look at the processes involved in building and managing digital collections and institutional repositories. The course will have a strong hands-on component in which students will apply advanced resource description methods to a collection, and then build a prototype repository along with a basic access system. Students will also analyze and discuss case examples of digital collections, focusing on technology management issues and organizational strategies for building different types of collections.

LIS 672 is a prerequisite for LIS 675

This 3-credit course is the last of 5 required for completion of the Certificate in Digital Information Management. LIS 676 is designed to give students experience working on a major project that will utilize the hands-on as well as theoretical learning acquired through the DigIn courses. Capstone projects should make a significant contribution to an organization that hosts digital collections, such as a library, archives, or museum, or it should make a significant research contribution involving some aspect of digital curation or digital libraries, and should be clearly designed to highlight your abilities and career goals.

This course will focus on a wide range of issues dealing with law library practice and administration, including but not limited to digital law libraries, collection development, law library administration, teaching legal research, database management, professional ethics and intellectual property issues. Several classes will be taught by guest lecturers, primarily librarians from the law library.

This course is for students who seek to be law librarians. The course will meet once a week for two hours where the students will develop lesson plans and practice teaching legal research in specific areas such as the case, the statute and legislative history, secondary sources, non-legal research, CALR, administrative law and the internet. We will videotape their practice classes to critique and to allow students to monitor their own teaching styles. They will also develop web pages for the course. The course will culminate with the students actually teaching the Intermediate Legal Research (boot camp) class which takes place the week after the Spring semester ends.

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of training and practice in actual service in a technical, business, or governmental establishment. Students concurrently enrolled in the M.A. LIS in the School of Information should enroll in a LIS 698 Capstone Internship for a 3 credit internship to satisfy the MA Capstone Internship requirement. See the MA Internship page for additional information.

The purpose of the capstone project is for the student to gain professional community-focused experience while placing the learning, skills and knowledge expected of a librarian or other information professional into a real world professional context.

Qualified students working on an individual basis with professors who have agreed to supervise such work. Graduate students doing independent work which cannot be classified as actual research will register for credit under course number 599, 699, or 799.

Individual research, not related to thesis or dissertation preparation, by graduate students.

This one-credit required course is normally taken in the student’s final semester before graduating with a master ’s degree in library and information science.

Research for the master's thesis (whether library research, laboratory or field observation or research, artistic creation, or these writing). Maximum total credit permitted varies with the major department.

The number of units this course satisfies is 1-6 units.

Statistical methodology of estimation, testing hypotheses, goodness-of-fit, nonparametric methods and decision theory as it relates to engineering practice. Significant emphasis on the underlying statistical modeling and assumptions.  Graduate-level requirements include additionally more difficult homework assignments.

This course will provide senior undergraduate and graduate students from a diverse engineering disciplines with fundamental concepts, principles and tools to extract and generalize knowledge from data. Students will acquire an integrated set of skills spanning data processing, statistics and machine learning, along with a good understanding of the synthesis of these skills and their applications to solving problem. The course is composed of a systematic introduction of the fundamental topics of data science study, including: (1) principles of data processing and representation, (2) theoretical basis and advances in data science, (3) modeling and algorithms, and (4) evaluation mechanisms. The emphasis in the treatment of these topics will be given to the breadth, rather than the depth. Real-world engineering problems and data will be used as examples to illustrate and demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of different algorithms and compare their effectiveness as well as efficiency, and help students to understand and identify the circumstances under which the algorithms are most appropriate.

Decomposition-coordination algorithms for large-scale mathematical programming. Methods include generalized Benders decomposition, resource and price directive methods, subgradient optimization, and descent methods of nondifferentiable optimization. Application of these methods to stochastic programming will be emphasized.

This course is devoted to structure and properties of practical algorithms for unconstrained and constrained nonlinear optimization.