Three I School students have won second place in the campus’s "Bears Breaking Boundaries" competition, in the “Improving Student Life” category. The proposal by master’s students Eun Kyoung Choe, Michael Lee, and Seung-Hyun Rhee would simplify communication and coordination between the university’s many record-keeping systems by creating a standard XML framework to facilitate interoperability.
Currently, students, faculty, and staff use a wide range of independent systems for course scheduling, checking grades, requesting transcripts, and maintaining academic records. These systems include BearFacts, Tele-Bears, InfoBears, and CARS. Students often have to use several different, disconnected sites to perform seemingly related tasks.
Rather than overhauling and unifying the existing systems, Lee, Rhee, and Choe propose their XML system as an alternate approach. The standardized, extensible XML model could be used to support new services which build on the functionality of the existing systems.
Students Michael Lee and Seung-Hyun Rhee plan to use the award to further develop the proposal as their final Master’s Project in 2009. Their co-winner Eun Kyoung Choe completed her master’s degree in 2008.
About the Contest:
The Bears Breaking Boundaries awards are sponsored by Big Ideas @ Berkeley and the ASUC, and are designed to provide concrete support for innovative student proposals that can shape the next generation of research, education, and service activities on the campus. In 2008, the competition awarded $170,000 to forty-nine different student projects.
More Information:
- Read the proposal (PDF)
- Bears Breaking Boundaries contest web site