Informatics Course Includes Webinar on Integrating Accessibility Into a Computing Career

February 15, 2023

The webinar started with a list of pet peeves: classifying accessibility as “nice to have” instead of as a prerequisite, forgetting alt text on images, omitting labels on buttons, and seeing an IT professional who isn’t committed to accessibility. Participants attending the Integrating Accessibility Into a Computing Career webinar quickly learned how those four items irk the following four panelists, respectively:

  • Erin Buehler, UX research manager at Google; 
  • Kirk Crawford, product manager at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS);
  • JooYoung Seo, assistant professor of information sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; and
  • Emily Young, support specialist at UC Irvine.
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UC Irvine alumni Paul and Jo Butterworth pledge $35.5 million to Donald Bren School

February 13, 2023

Record gift will support programs fostering ICS student success and achievement

“I was considering not going to the university unless I received financial aid, because I didn’t have any money. But when UCI came through with a package to help out, that made all the difference in the world,” says alumnus Paul Butterworth, shown here with his wife, Jo Butterworth, also a UCI graduate. “This is what inspired us to pledge support for students – so they can follow their dreams despite their financial situations.” Roland Lane
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Tribute to Geoffrey Bowker Brings Together Scholarly Community

February 8, 2023

On Jan. 13–14, 2023, an eclectic group of scholars gathered at UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) for a two-day celebration of Emeritus Donald Bren Chair Geoffrey Bowker. The affectionately nicknamed “Bowkerfest,” hosted by the UCI Department of Informatics and Evoke Lab, included a talk by the guest of honor as part of the distinguished lecture series for UCI’s Steckler Center for Responsible, Ethical, and Accessible Technology (CREATE).

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University of Colorado Boulder News: “ICS Alumna Leysia Palen recognized as rare ‘distinguished professor’ by CU system”

January 23, 2023

Leysia Palen, professor in the Department of Computer Science and the founding chair of the Department of Information Science (2015-19), has been recognized as a distinguished professor, the highest recognition given by the University of Colorado system.

Since the award was established 45 years ago, only 136 professors have been recognized in this way across all four campuses.This rare distinction recognizes the three pillars of professorship: research, teaching and service. Palen said it was deeply meaningful to be awarded for all these dimensions she cares about.  

Read the full story on the University of Colorado Boulder website.

Can Gaming Cool Global Warming? An Experimental Climate XR Class Aims to Inspire Change

January 13, 2023

An adorable creature with a fire-like glowing tail looks at you, pleading with its longing eyes as it is hunted to brighten a dark forest. Can you help save it by finding alternative sources of light? This is your mission in a virtual reality game called “The Darkened Pathway.” The VR world is one of five new extended reality (XR) experiences developed for Informatics 295/190: Climate XR, an experimental course offered in fall 2022 through UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS).

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The New York Times: “How to Focus Like It’s 1990” (Gloria Mark mentioned)

January 10, 2023

In 2004, Gloria Mark, a [Chancellor’s] Professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, watched knowledge workers go about a typical day at the office. Using a stopwatch, she noted every time they switched tasks on their computer, moving from a spreadsheet to an email to a web page to a different web page and back to the spreadsheet. She found that people averaged just two and a half minutes on a given task before switching. When Dr. Mark repeated the experiment in 2012, the average time office workers spent on a task had dropped to 75 seconds. And it has continued to drop from there. 

Read the full story at The New York Times (subscription required, UCI campuswide access if provided by UCI Libraries).