2024 UMSI Student Project Exposition award recipients announced
Tuesday, 04/23/2024
By Abigail McFeeOn April 18, 450 students from the University of Michigan School of Information presented cutting-edge information projects to more than 250 guests at the UMSI Student Project Exposition.
The annual event, which fills the second floor of the Michigan League with tri-fold displays and thoughtful discussion, celebrates work completed by UMSI students through capstone and client-based courses, community-based programs and independent endeavors.
Each year, top projects earn awards. A panel of UMSI alumni and industry experts served as this year’s judges, representing leading organizations including Zillow, Adobe, Trinity Health and the U-M Water Center.
15 projects have been selected as award recipients in course-specific and thematic categories. The winning teams and individuals were honored on April 23 at a private award ceremony.
Final project awards ($5,000 for first prize; $1,500 for second prize)
Bachelor of Science in Information (BSI) Capstone
All BSI students are required to complete a final project with an external client. Projects in this category are in the areas of user experience design and information analysis. Students demonstrate theories and methods taught at UMSI, execute a clear plan, and provide feasible and valuable recommendations to the client organization. This award category includes eligible students from the BSI capstone courses (SI 485 and SI 487).
First prize: Toyota Trailer Hitching Guidance Application
Zoe Zhang, Angel Huang, Jack Mintzer and Caira Blevins
SI 487: User Experience Final Project
Project description: “Our team is revolutionizing the trailer hitching process by creating a trailer hitch guidance system that empowers our client Toyota’s users to effortlessly align their vehicles with trailers for seamless connections. This cutting-edge technology provides step-by-step visual instructions and real-time feedback, ensuring that the trailer is aligned correctly for a secure and hassle-free hitching experience. With the app’s user-friendly interface and advanced guidance features, the trailer hitching process becomes efficient, convenient and stress-free, enhancing the overall towing experience for users.”
Second prize: Clavis Sinica: Chinese Language Learning App
Ally Chang, Yuri Chen, Rebecca Mao, Sage Pei and Jingting Wang
SI 487: User Experience Final Project
Project description: “Our team worked as product designers with Clavis Sinica on the end-to-end development of a Chinese language learning app focused on reading comprehension. The app can be seamlessly integrated into the classroom setting and aid students in their Chinese language and cultural literacy through translation and audio listening tools as well as personalized reading and practice.”
Residential Master’s Programs Final Projects
Projects in this category cover a broad range of focus areas, including digital preservation, user experience research and design, big data analytics, communities and collections, user-centered agile development and more. Students demonstrate theories and methods taught at UMSI, execute a clear plan, and provide feasible and valuable recommendations to the client organization. This award category includes projects from the SI 699 mastery courses and the SI 698 Master’s Thesis Option Program for Master of Science in Information and Master of Health Informatics students.
First prize: Empowering Well Owners: Trusted Resources and Community Support for Safe Michigan Water [Video summary]
Gabriela Holliman-Lopez, Jennifer Li, Samartha Okyne, Angelina Viana and Alexander Yang
SI 699: UX Research and Design Mastery Course
Project description: “Our initiative aims to empower Michigan well owners and ensure safe, healthy drinking water. Our project outlines a centralized location for reliable information on well water quality. In addition, we’ve aimed to foster community support and knowledge sharing, empowering residents to make informed decisions about their well water.”
Second prize: "Where's That Doc?": Streamlining and Sustaining Data Management Systems
Avery Gleason
SI 699: Digital Curation Mastery Course
Project description: “The University of Michigan Kelsey Museum of Archaeology is a leading museum supporting classical, Egyptian and Middle Eastern archaeology research. This project aims to develop a sustainable information governance strategy for museum data storage systems, which will improve the findability of data assets and ensure interoperability for future systems.”
Master of Applied Data Science (MADS) Capstone
All MADS students are required to complete a final project in SIADS 699, the MADS capstone course. Projects in this award category are a result of a project-based course in which students propose and build end-to-end data science projects in their domains of interest. Projects should demonstrate mastery of data science concepts and methods from the MADS curriculum, resulting in creative, original and technically rigorous portfolio pieces.
First prize: YouTube Redefined: Personalized Viewing with AI Filtering [Video summary]
Quoc-Huy Nguyen, Gabriel Alon and Krishan Chawla
SIADS 699: Master of Applied Data Science Capstone
Project description: “YouTube and Netflix give users the option to ‘dislike’ a video/movie. But a dislike on a video does not tell the algorithm what specifically the user is upset about. Our project overcomes this with a natural language filter bar that uses artificial intelligence (BERT or ChatGPT) behind the scenes to make recommendations more personalized and less manipulative. We’ve developed an end-to-end solution that integrates with the YouTube API and a website for real-time content viewing.”
Second prize: Bridging Medication Interoperability: RxNorm Linkage from Free-Text Descriptions [Video summary]
Karl Renius and Rich Tata
SIADS 699: Master of Applied Data Science Capstone
Project description: “This work addresses interoperability among medication descriptions across separate healthcare systems. We have developed a novel model pipeline that effectively matches free-text medication descriptions to RxNorm Concept Unique Identifiers (RxCUIs), assisting with medication standardization in healthcare practice.”
Thematic awards ($1,500 for first prize; $500 for second prize)
Theme Year: Water Conservation and Access
UMSI’s inaugural theme year centers on water conservation and access. Projects in this category focused on local, national and global water challenges, through the lens of information. Students explored common water opportunities and challenges, including affordability and access, contamination, infrastructure and conservation.
First prize: Where's the Water? Clean Water Access for the Homeless Community [Video summary]
Alexandra Balmaceda and Nina Chen
SI 699: UX Research and Design Mastery Course
Project description: “Access to clean water poses a significant challenge for the homeless population. ‘Where’s the Water?’ is a web-based tool designed to improve water access for the homeless community. The tool’s design was informed through interviews with the homeless community in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It maps nearby clean water sources like drinking fountains, public restrooms and showers. The tool also includes filtering functionality and features crowd-sourcing, allowing users to add new sources on the map. Local community and organizational feedback helped turn our concept into a useful tool design that improves clean water access for all.”
Second prize: Rain Garden VR Simulator [Video summary]
Faith Gowen
SI 659: Developing AR/VR Experiences
Project description: “This project teaches users how to create rain gardens through a VR simulator. Users will get the opportunity to walk through each step of the process, view facts on how rain gardens improve water conservation and environmental efforts, and observe the differences in an Ann Arbor yard that has a rain garden vs. one that does not. This project is developed using a2gov.org’s resources on water conservation in partnership with the Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner’s Office. It will culminate in a call-to-action for users to volunteer to repeat what they’ve learned in real life in their neighborhoods.”
Entrepreneurship/Innovation
This award category is for projects that develop, organize and/or run a new business or creative initiative or approach. Consideration was given to students or teams that embraced the opportunity to create value through innovative solutions, were collaborative, and demonstrated success in uncertainty.
First prize: Enhancing Laparoscopic Surgical Training and Feedback Framework at the U-M Medical School [Video summary]
Siddhi Rajesh More, Yidi Lin, Rachana Gone and Jessica Cai
SI 582: Introduction to Interaction Design
Project description: “Surgical trainees practicing Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery in the Michigan Medicine Simulation Center environment need high-quality feedback to improve performance and efficiency in the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery exam, ultimately passing the training exam.”
Second prize: AI-Enhanced Mental Health Training [Video summary]
Rashida Aluwihare, Cindy Ye and Hamza Naveed
Independent Project
Project description: “PsykAI is an AI-powered training assistant that leverages LLM and deepfake to simulate psychotherapy sessions, enabling mental health professionals to gain competency and expertise through low-stakes interactive practice before working with real clients.”
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
This award recognizes students or teams that focus on fair treatment and full participation of all people, including populations who have been historically underrepresented or subjected to discrimination. This supports UMSI’s goal to “make our commitment to diversity part of the fabric of everything we do, visible in our community life, instruction, research and administration of programs and services.” Projects in this category can focus on UMSI, the University of Michigan, other communities or society at large.
First prize: Dress for Success Washington, D.C. – Career Development Website Redesign [Video summary]
Zeinab Ghandour, Jack Sambursky, Joan Suh and Rishma Balakrishnan
SI 487: User Experience Final Project
Project description: “Dress for Success Washington, D.C., has historically offered most of their career development resources in person. After the pandemic, they have been looking to expand their online presence and offer resources virtually to foster connection among their clients. This project is focused on a redesign of various pages within the website, as well as a design of new dashboard features to make their resources more accessible to underserved women in the Washington, D.C., area. These include access to career coaching, professional development courses and other services for professional development.”
Second prize: Do Black-Owned Restaurants Matter?: Platform Visibility Amid a Racial Reckoning [Video summary]
Cameron Moy
SI 491 Undergraduate Independent Study
Project description: “Yelp, a popular review platform, added a searchable Black-owned attribute in 2020 to signal solidarity with Black communities after the murder of George Floyd and subsequent calls for racial justice. Scraping and analyzing a repository of 300,000 Yelp reviews from Los Angeles and Detroit Black-owned and non-Black-owned restaurants, I ask: How did the addition of the Black-owned tag impact the online reputation of Los Angeles and Detroit Black-owned restaurants on Yelp? Using review counts and star ratings as proxies for online reputation, I find no lasting positive impact to Black-owned restaurants’ online reputation, revealing disparate impacts of platform design features.”
Community/Civic Engagement
This award is for projects that focus on the participation, rights and obligations of people in society, including local initiatives. Projects should demonstrate engagement with government, community and/or local nonprofits and serve the public good and/or be citizen centered.
First prize: Strengthening Social Cohesion at the Neighborhood Level [Video summary]
Roger Barber, Helena Grobel, Imani Ahmad and Remi Goldfarb
SI 487: User Experience Final Project
Project description: “Have you ever met your neighbors? We worked with a nonprofit organization that is rethinking the way that we connect with others in our neighborhoods. With a goal of fostering belonging, creating connections, and organizing others to meet up offline, our work helps Common Agency achieve these goals and more.”
Tie for second prize: Move United: Transforming Wheelchair Football Through Scoresheet Digitization [Video summary]
Grace Garmo, Mia Inakage, Kushal Sanjeev and Jacob Weiskopf
SI 487: User Experience Final Project
Project description: “Move United supports hundreds of athletes with disabilities annually. To de-alienate players, coaches, and volunteers from the Move United experience, our goal is rooted in creating more awareness of wheelchair football athletes’ accomplishments. With the need to easily share large amounts of player and game data, our team created a tablet app to digitize pen and paper score sheets and record game results. The app aims to streamline data entry for volunteers, ensuring accurate and accessible information for players and teams nationwide.”
Tie for second prize: Bridging Families & Toys Through Digital Lending [Video summary]
Priya Varshika Ganji, Woojin Kang, Alan Yang and Stella Young
SI 487: User Experience Final Project
Project description: “The Arc of Northwest Wayne County, part of The Arc national organization network, runs a Lekotek program providing play opportunities and toy loans to children with developmental disabilities. However, the manual toy lending process is inefficient and disorganized for both administrators and families. The project aims to develop a centralized digital library to streamline toy lending, improving inventory tracking and operational efficiency. This aligns with The Arc’s mission and benefits children and families by making toy lending more accessible and efficient.”
The estate of Gerald P. Miller (AMLS ’86, PhD ’95) and the UMSI Miller Scholars Fund provided funding for this year’s awards.
Lead image: Alexandra Balmaceda chats with a guest at the UMSI Student Project Exposition about her project with Nina Chen, "Where's the Water? Clean Water Access for the Homeless Community."
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