Four University of Washington Information School Capstone 2021 projects sponsored by the Center for an Informed Public will be presented during a virtual event on Thursday, May 27. This year’s Capstone gala event, which is open to the public, features nearly 100 projects from iSchool students in the Bachelor of Science in Informatics, Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS), and Master of Science in Information Management (MSIM) programs. Through Capstone, students distill the knowledge and skills acquired in academic courses and apply them to a real-world project.
Attendees will be able to learn about the iSchool Capstone projects that interest them and take part in live Q&A sessions with students in breakout rooms. The evening will begin with brief remarks from iSchool Dean Anind K. Dey and iAffiliates Director Sean McGann and culminate with an award ceremony to recognize projects for social impact, commercial potential, research, service, innovation/design, and diversity.
The iSchool Capstone 2021 event, which starts at 6 p.m. PDT is open to the public but registration is required. Three of the CIP-sponsored projects, “Tracking Users Across Parler and Twitter,” “Designing Trust for Social Media,” and “Combatting Misinformation Through Facebook Messenger Chatbot (iSIFT)” will be presented during Session A, which is scheduled to start at 6:10 p.m. PDT. The fourth, “The Euphorigen Invstigation,” will be presented as part of Panel B7 at 6:50 p.m. PDT.
Learn more about the four CIP-sponsored projects to be presented:
Tracking Users Across Parler and Twitter
From MSIM student Stephen Prochaska:
The riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021, exemplify in dramatic fashion the potential for problematic online narratives to have offline consequences. More work is needed to better understand the impacts of mis/disinformation and its role in such events. Using case studies of users across Parler and Twitter, I found that definitions of acceptable conservativism are becoming more narrowly defined and that there is increasing narrative-based collaboration between international conservative groups. These are important discoveries that will increase researchers’ understandings of mis/disinformation and help align solutions designed to mitigate these problems.
Designing Trust for Social Media
From Informatics students Aaron Zhao, Harkiran Saluja, Victoria Huynh and Jill Nguyen:
Social media has changed today’s information and communication world. Rampant mis/disinformation has eroded users’ trust in social media platforms. Through research, we look at how design considerations can influence what makes an information system “trustworthy.” For this project, we are sponsored by the Center for an Informed Public (CIP) and conducted an extensive literature review of 23 papers. We used our research insights to make a design toolkit to help designers building platforms build trust through the design process.
Combating Misinformation through Facebook Messenger Chatbot (iSIFT)
From Informatics students Judith Wong, Jazmynn Combes-Troyer, Saasha Mor and Joseph Altamira:
Digital misinformation is a growing problem which threatens to undermine U.S. democracy. Working with the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public (CIP), this project applies the SIFT fact-checking strategy to a Facebook-based intervention to mitigate the spread of misinformation online. A Facebook Messenger chatbot prompts users to fact-check articles and provides an information extraction tool to expedite the fact-checking process. The project, iSIFT, reduces the amount of time needed to fact-check and trains users in information verification best practices to create a community of information skeptics and critical thinkers.
The Euphorigen Investigation
From Informatics students Darren Ma, John Rosen, Andy Cahill and Jeffrey Wang:
Misinformation is a pressing global issue; it is increasingly easy to post false or misleading information on the internet and reach massive audiences. Alongside the Center for an Informed Public, Puzzle Break, and The Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA), we created an online escape room to mimic the psychological and emotional responses elicited by real-life interactions with digital misinformation. The escape room aims to equip players with the necessary skills to identify misinformation online and become savvy, skeptical digital citizens.
