School of Information May 2023 Commencement
The commencement ceremony honors the class of 2023 with keynote speaker Ken-ichi Ueda (MIMS ’08) and student speakers.
The May ceremony honors graduates from all five School of Information degree programs: Ph.D. in information science, Master of Information Management and Systems (MIMS), Master of Information and Data Science (MIDS), 5th Year Master of Information and Data Science (5th Year MIDS), and Master of Information and Cybersecurity (MICS), from Summer 2022, Fall 2022, and Spring 2023.
Outstanding master’s capstone projects will be honored with the Hal R. Varian MIDS Capstone Award, the 5th Year MIDS Capstone Award, the Lily L. Chang MICS Capstone Award, the James R. Chen Award for outstanding MIMS final projects, and the Sarukkai Social Impact Award.
Following the ceremony, graduates and their guests are invited to a celebratory reception.
Tickets
Guest tickets are required. Ticket sales begin April 17 at noon PDT.
Adults: $10
Children 12 and under: free
Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (510) 642-9988 or in person at Zellerbach Hall. Tickets will be delivered by email only. For more information, contact tickets@calperformances.org.
Keynote Speaker
Ken-ichi Ueda, MIMS ’08
Co-founder and co-director, iNaturalist
Ken-ichi Ueda is co-founder and co-director of iNaturalist, an online social network and data recording platform for biodiversity-focused naturalists. He’s been working on and using iNaturalist since 2008, when it began as a master’s final project at the UC Berkeley School of Information.
Ueda has been fascinated by nature for as long as he can recall. He used to horrify his mother by waltzing into the house holding snakes and salamanders to show her. Eventually, he translated that love into a degree in biology and a master’s degree in information management and systems.
iNaturalist grew out of Ueda’s belief that he might not be alone in his desire to combine nature and the web. It began as a MIMS final project, created by 2008 graduates Nathan Agrin, Jessica Kline, and Ken-ichi Ueda, and is currently a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society.
Fifteen years later, iNaturalist is still growing, with a community of nearly 6 million registered users and more that 125 million nature observations of 411,753 different species on all seven continents.