Three teams of students from the School of Information have been named finalists in the fourth annual Bears Breaking Boundaries contest. Big Ideas @ Berkeley and the Berkeley student government (ASUC) are teaming up with a variety of campus research centers and institutes to organize the series of “idea competitions” to encourage student teams to propose the next generation of research, education, and service activities on the UC Berkeley campus. Each contest awards cash prizes to further the proposed work.
Three I School students, Joshua Gomez, Travis Pinnick, and Ashkan Soltani, were named finalists in the Science, Technology, and Engineering Policy (STEP) category, for their KnowPrivacy project. The goal of KnowPrivacy is to influence policy change regarding data collection and sharing practices employed by popular Internet sites and to make the potential dangers more salient. They are advised by Brian Carver.
Two groups of I School students were named finalists in the Information Technology for Society category, sponsored by CITRIS. I School students Jonathan Hicks and Xiaomeng Zhong were named finalists for their project, Hyoumanity: Social Search and Incentive Alignment in Health Care. Advised by Tapan Parikh, Hyoumanity addresses the challenge of persistent medical nondiagnosis and misdiagnosis by using technology to match patients seeking a diagnosis with doctors with the expertise to recognize their symptoms.
Also finalists in the Information Technology for Society category were I School students, Shawna Hein, Hazel Onsrud, and Aylin Selcukoglu, for their project, Squash & Vine: Connecting the Local Food Community. Squash & Vine is an information infrastructure to foster communication in the local food community and connect local farmers, consumers, restaurants, and retailers. They are advised by Jenna Burrell.
The Bears Breaking Boundaries contest includes seven separate "idea competitions." In addition to Science, Technology and Engineering Policy (STEP) and Information Technology for Society, the categories are Curricular Innovation, Improving Student Life, Neglected Diseases, Partnerships for Social Innovation, and Synthetic Biology. The other five categories have not announced finalists or competing projects.
Award winners in all categories will be announced on Wednesday, April 29.
