Majors Week - Informatics
The informatics program is featuring four Informatics courses as a way for prospective students to learn more about what studying Informatics is all about. Come meet our fantastic faculty and instructors and discover the exciting learning possibilities available to Informatics majors.
Prospective students can learn more about applying to the informatics major by visiting our On-Campus Application to the Informatics Major page. The application deadline for spring admission to the major is December 15.
Have questions? See a peer advisor in the CICS Advising Office (LGRC A114)! View the peer advising schedule.
First-Year Course
CICS 110 - Introduction to Programming
Informatics majors learn to program using Python in our newly developed introductory programming course—here is Instructor Cole Reilly, one of the CICS 110 instructors to tell you more.
Read more about the site of some cool archeological data set projects they have been working on at this link.
Sophomore Course
INFO 248 - Introduction to Data Science
Informatics majors learn how to make sense of different kinds of data sets in the Introduction to Data Science course, INFO 248. Prof. Gordon Anderson will tell you more about some of the exciting skills and projects happening in INFO 248.
What is Data Science?
Data Science is the study of how we can transform raw observations (data) into meaningful information. The products of Data Science, such as models, reports, graphs and charts convey information in a concise way so that informed decisions can be made and new hypotheses can be formulated at an increasing rate. Data Science involves three main areas of focus: computer science, statistics, and knowledge of the domain under study.
Junior Course
CS 325 - Human Computer Interaction
Throughout the course, we will explore and apply different methods that are appropriate for designing and evaluating an interactive computational technology that closely meets human needs. Examples of potential technologies are mobile applications, online platform, interactive 2D interfaces, interactive 3D devices, and so on. Your team will choose a topic from the list provided below which will seed your project. You will identify a clear problem to be addressed (or potential design opportunity), and will then create a working prototype that meets their needs, which you will evaluate. Following the design thinking process, there are approximately 6 project milestones, as well as a final demo session to showcase your working prototypes.
Senior Course
INFO 490PI - Personal Health Informatics
Informatics students looking for more in-depth design and development experience in the personal health domain will appreciate this new course designed and taught by Dr. Ravi Karkar. INFO 490PI also fulfills the IE for the Informatics major and can be taken as a substitute course for CS 326.
This new course will cover the design of personal health and wellness technologies. Using the personal health informatics model, we will learn various challenges in designing technologies for personal health data collection (e.g., step count, heart rate, or food intake etc.), integration, self-reflection, and behavior change. Going further, students will understand design issues in sharing personal health data and discuss design guidelines for collaborative data collection, reflection, and care.