Information Science

2 minutes with: Laurie Lawson

Ellie Chase — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 19:49:03 +0000

2 minutes with: Laurie Lawson Ellie Chase Thu, 10/08/2026 - 13:49

Photo by Glenn Asakawa

Hannah Stewart

Translating is Laurie Lawson’s (MInfoSci’24; PhD’26) thing—whether it’s looking at archival posts in Arabic, making her research more accessible or teaching Copilot to make emails sound more professional. We asked the language engineer about the work she does for Microsoft.

Photo by Glenn Asakawa

Responses edited for length and clarity.

First, congrats on graduating! Since it’s so fresh, what will you miss about CMDI?
One thing I’ve loved is people’s excitement about learning new things. For instance, I took a communication class that taught me a lot about different perspectives and passions.

Seems like you’re passionate about language. Why?
I lived in Jordan during a study abroad program and fell in love with Arabic. While I was there, I heard a lot of stories about events like the Arab Spring from a completely different perspective.

Interesting. How does that tie into your professional interests?
There’s been work done on the Arab Spring from fields like linguistic anthropology, communication studies and human-computer interaction. My information science background challenged me to bring in a new perspective of the cross-language Arabic and all those different disciplines.

So, the big news: You landed a job at Microsoft. Congratulations! What do you do?
I’m a language engineer, so I think about how users interact with Copilot. If you ever ask Copilot to draft an email and you don’t like it, send me a message, because that’s what I’m working on.

Last one—thoughts on A.I.?
I don’t think its integration into our workflows is going away, but how we engage with it is incredibly important. CMDI encouraged me to think critically about how technology is situated within not just our society, but the world.

Hannah Stewart graduated in 2019 with a degree in communication. She covers student news at the college.

Hate the emails Copilot generates for you? You'll want to talk to Laurie Lawson.

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Mean machine

Ellie Chase — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 16:59:38 +0000

Mean machine Ellie Chase Wed, 10/07/2026 - 10:59

Joe Arney

Illustrations by Dana Heimes

“What are you doing about A.I.?”

Outside of where to find a good cup of coffee or what the Wi-Fi password is, there’s perhaps no question you’re more likely to hear on a campus than how
generative artificial intelligence is changing the college experience.

Mostly, you’ll hear how professors are teaching students to use it like a tool, not a magic trick, or to think critically about it. But that’s exactly what they said about Wikipedia a generation ago. What’s really happening around A.I.?

We asked people across CMDI to tell us how they’re actually studying and using—or not—A.I., whether in teaching, practice, research or creativity. (And for fun, we asked each person to describe A.I. in one word.) Here are their stories.

‘Apocaloptimist’

“Move fast and break things” is the mantra of the tech industry. In his A.I.-infused art and teaching, Christopher Carruth instead embraces what he calls “a slow, contemplative resistance.”

“My practice is about using technology to interrupt, interrogate and agitate conventional systems,” said Carruth, an assistant teaching professor of information science.

An example from his creative practice is american made machines, in which he took algorithmically curated digital spaces—Facebook feeds, recommender engines, inboxes—and used code to disrupt their underlying visual logic, rendering them as abstract shapes.

“These systems are increasingly shaped by A.I. and predictive algorithms to capture attention,” Carruth said. “This work interrupts that rhythm. Rather than extracting attention, it creates a space where viewers can become conscious of how their attention is being shaped in the first place.”

Notably, his work is not about rejecting A.I.: In his classes, he encourages students to debate ethical issues—self-driving taxis, predictive policing, facial recognition—to get them to slow down, too. He enjoys when students disagree and challenge their own ideas about technology.

“For a student who is focused on how to build a large language model, I hope to shift the thought process to how the data will be collected, and what consideration they have for copyright,” he said. “And having that dialogue without making it about right-vs.-wrong.”

‘Paradoxical’

Pooja Iyer likes experimenting with technology, so it’s no surprise she was among ChatGPT’s early adopters. “I remember immediately thinking this was search on steroids—so, personalized ads on steroids,” she said.

Iyer, an assistant professor of advertising, studies the interplay of data, privacy and personalized marketing. As A.I. platforms embrace ads, it’s clear we’re not going back on the ad-supported model of the internet.

“But how do we build this balance of being ethical and mindful about the data I, as an advertiser, use to sell my product?” Iyer said. “Because we’ve never asked the public what data they’re OK with advertisers using.”

Her research is trying to answer that question.

“Can I use your demographic data to show you a personalized ad—your behavioral data, health data, voting behavior data?” she said. “Research has consistently found that people like personalized ads, but there are ethical questions about how deep in the data we should go.”

Iyer typically opens her classes with a project where she doesn’t offer guidance on whether, or how, A.I. can be used.

“I wind up with 10 projects where I cannot tell one from the other,” she said. “And these students are competing for the same jobs. So, if this is your output, and it all looks the same, why should I hire you? Why not just plug it into A.I. myself?”

‘Overrated’

Ask Greta Kerkhoff (Jour’26) where the CU Independent stands on A.I., and she’ll point you to a very concise, one-word statement forbidding staffers from using it in their work.

“We pretty much have a zero-tolerance policy,” Kerkhoff, who served as editor-in-chief of the CUI last year, said.

“If we don’t set some parameters around it, we’re going to live in this world of increasing digital murkiness.”

Greta Kerkhoff (Jour’26)

Kerkhoff completed internships at KGNU and the Denver Gazette; she also published a report on regulatory shortcomings around A.I. in The Colorado Sun late last year.

She isn’t a Luddite—she recognizes these tools can be helpful for brainstorming, for instance. But she doesn’t buy the hype that it makes journalists more efficient.

“Even if there was a way to ethically use it, it creates more work for reporters because you can’t trust it’s telling you what’s right,” she said. “And the models are trained on existing information. If you rely on an algorithm to suggest sources, it will just regurgitate what’s already been done.”

Before Kerkhoff became its editor, the CUI briefly published a piece that the staff eventually determined to be written by A.I. It included multiple hallucinations and led to the dismissal of a writer and an editor.

“There are such ethical dilemmas around this technology,” she said. “If we don’t set some parameters around it, we’re going to live in this world of increasing digital murkiness.”

‘Unavoidable’

Chris Vargo calls himself a lifelong computer nerd but someone who “barely spoke the language of the country he was in”—until he discovered ChatGPT.

“Now, I can climb Mount Everest, with software,” said Vargo, an associate professor of advertising who specializes in analytics.

Vargo has published plenty of papers that rely on A.I. to uncover insights in datasets from Reddit, YouGov and others. A recent paper co-authored with Toby Hopp, also an associate professor of advertising, and PhD student Shahed Rahman examined the different customer journeys of people who use large language models, or LLMs.

“This dataset is two years old, but even then, one-third of the people were using LLMs,” Vargo said. “Yet advertisers haven’t updated their thinking beyond the traditional customer journey funnel.”

That funnel, which guides consumers from awareness to action, is collapsing—LLM users tend to make faster buying decisions, cutting out the middle—and business hasn’t responded.

“Ten years ago, to generate leads, you put a white paper behind a gate and made people sign up with their email,” Vargo said. “But if the agent can’t access that information, it can’t suggest you to users.”

He recommends companies put relevant information in easy-to-scrape text files—something he’s done with his own work, so A.I. agents will extend its reach.

“If marketers make it hard for agents to get the right data, they make it hard for their own products to be found,” Vargo said.

‘Hopeful’

Don’t think A.I. has its eyes on religion? Tell it to Jesus. Specifically, an A.I.-generated messiah that hears confessions in a Lucerne, Switzerland, church.

“I don’t have all the answers, because it’s moving so fast,” said Nesrine Mansour, assistant professor of architecture. “But A.I. is affecting how people are interpreting religion and thinking about architecture, authority and spirituality.”

Mansour studies spaces in digital religion—like games, televised services and apps—and the interplay of sacred architecture, religion and digital media. She’s developed guidelines for virtual sacred buildings to support architects, artists and game designers.

“I surveyed these virtual churches in game environments, and found most of them were replicas of real ones,” she said. “In a virtual realm, where they aren’t restricted by budget—or gravity—why do people re-create real churches?”

A book she edited, Religion in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, explores how A.I. shapes our day-to-day and spiritual lives, so that we might engage with it more thoughtfully. And A.I. is key to her teaching: Mansour incorporated diffusion models and LLMs into classes when the technology was just months old, and constantly tinkers with how to use A.I. in class.

“In architecture, we care a lot about how the building or rendering looks in the end,” she said. “But in terms of learning, I really think ethical workflow processes and prompt engineering deserve more attention.”

‘Beware’

A.I. is not all bad, Mehak Sawhney tells her students, but nor should we be all in on the technology. Instead, she advises A.I. be small scale and for special purposes.

Sawhney, an assistant professor of media studies, studies the environmental—especially water—costs of A.I., surveillance and other topics.

“A.I. needs to be understood across scales: global, regional, national and hyperlocal,” she said. “It is only through a combination of these scales that a nuanced understanding of A.I.’s role in financial bubbles, its varied adoption and its environmental impact can be understood.”

It’s the sort of humanities-focused approach she’s brought to a new graduate course on A.I. and the environment that she’s teaching.

“From an ethnographic perspective, it is important to see what A.I. means in different contexts,” Sawhney said.

For instance, people in developing nations might approach A.I. as an equalizing tool, especially for non-English speakers, while those living under authoritarian rule might see it as a progressive research field.

“However, this points more toward the colonial hegemony of English, ethnic and religious supremacy, and lack of resources in many parts of the world, rather than A.I.’s ability to solve structural problems,” she said.

‘Transformational’

By day, Priscilla Rain Hopper is a teacher who specializes in A.I. By night, she is … also a teacher who specializes in A.I.

Hopper (InfoSci’22; MS’23) is a lecturer of information science who works for an A.I. company—“which I said I would never do,” she admitted—that provides teachers and K-12 school districts with tools that allow them to more effectively plan lessons and provide support to students.

What drew her to MagicSchool AI, where she is a senior LLM quality analyst, “is that it’s A.I. for good.”

“My students want to fight the bad,” Hopper said, noting their concerns about ethics, environmental impact and employment prospects. “But you can’t do that from the sidelines. So, my message to them is: If you believe the rest of the world has the same ideas, intentions and solutions as you, fine. But I don’t think that’s the reality; otherwise we wouldn’t be here.”

At CMDI, her focus is teaching students to see the ways different A.I. tools can be used together to improve productivity—so, to be conductors of the orchestra, instead of experts in a single instrument. She also created a website for students that prepares them to position themselves in a competitive job market where the A.I. skills core to the information science major can prove a differentiating factor.

‘Repulsive’

It’s not wholesale A.I. that upsets Lori Emerson. Rather, it’s how far we’ve landed from the idealism of the 1940s and ’50s, when A.I. was first theorized.

“This shift we’re living through—where corporate A.I. is embedded into every piece of software and every platform—is not inevitable,” said Emerson, a media historian and professor of media studies. “This is being foisted on us by corporations trying to make as much money as possible.”

“Thinking, writing, producing, researching on their own terms—without it being done for them—is maybe the heart of what it means to be a human.”

Lori Emerson, professor

Last year, Emerson published Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook, which pushes back on the idea of inevitability—“that every change rolled out by technology companies is for the best, and makes things easier and more efficient.” She challenges students to question the narrative that they will be irrelevant if they object to A.I., and encourages them to think about older, analog technologies—like books, pen and paper, and typewriters—that enable creativity and invention, without conceiving of the user as purely a worker striving for efficiency.

“Partway through the semester, students begin to understand that thinking, writing, producing, researching on their own terms—without it being done for them—is maybe the heart of what it means to be a human,” Emerson said. “That’s why they come to college.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

Let’s get past the platitudes on artificial intelligence. We asked students, alumni and faculty how they’re really using A.I. to work, teach, learn and create.

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Sight unseen

Jayden Fortner — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 03:34:03 +0000

Sight unseen Jayden Fortner Sun, 10/04/2026 - 21:34

Jonathan Zong is trying to help designers think about how blind and low-vision people interact with technology—including challenging the idea that access alone is a sufficient goal. Photo by Kimberly Coffin.

Joe Arney

A question guiding technology designers—especially in the age of generative artificial intelligence—is whether their products and services are accessible to all.

Jonathan Zong has a bigger question: Is access enough?

Zong, an assistant professor of information science, has worked with blind and low-vision people to understand how technology can benefit them, as well as the limitations they face in trying to use it. It’s why the work he did as a PhD student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology is such a point of pride for him.

“We did all this work to create better, more accessible interfaces for data—but then we asked people why they felt it was important to have access to this data,” he said. “And we heard a lot about agency—people being participatory, as opposed to depending on others to do the analysis for them.”

That was when Zong began to think about how to shift power in ways that invite more people to participate in knowledge creation.

“That project turned into finding ways to not prioritize the visual output—so rather than first designing visualization, then making it accessible, we treated visualization as just one output,” he said.

He experimented with presenting data through text, nonspeech audio and tactile charts, allowing those who are blind or have low vision to interpret data without an intermediary.

Zong is a computer scientist and a visual artist who brings those different perspectives to bear in reimagining sociotechnical systems, such as large technology platforms, which he fears have created small, massively influential groups of people that decide what technologies should be put into society. It’s work he continues as founder of the Data and Design Group at the college.

“We need to be preparing the next generation of engineers and designers to think in these modes of the social and technical.”

Jonathan Zong, assistant professor, information science

“We shouldn’t just be asking how things work, but thinking about their effects on society,” he said. “Are we creating equitable spaces online where everyone is invited to participate equally? Or are we serving the very few at the expense of public interest?”

His focus on including people with disabilities into conversations around data, access and agency started during the COVID-19 pandemic, when elected leaders and health agencies used visualizations to share information about infections, hospitalizations, mortality and vaccinations.

“These graphics were telling really important stories in the public discourse, like flattening the curve,” Zong said. “And there weren’t always good alternatives. Think about describing a chart to someone: You might not capture the important takeaways of how that person might make better decisions.”

A.I. as a game changer

While his work has brought attention to the lack of agency many blind or low-vision people feel on a visual internet, generative A.I. has the potential to change how these users experience information online, such as automatically describing an image when a sighted person isn’t available.

“But they’re also aware of the downsides—that people don’t upload image descriptions, that the A.I. will make mistakes, that A.I. descriptions can be really biased,” Zong said. “And again, there’s that loss of agency, because now they’re reliant on a fallible A.I. to be the interpreter.”

That critical perspective on technology’s potential is why he was excited to arrive at CMDI’s information science department, which is positioned at the intersection of computer science, the humanities and social sciences. Increasingly, design is being recognized as an important discipline for thinking through these problems.

That multidisciplinary viewpoint is crucial to reimagining technology as a force that works for people.

“We need to be preparing the next generation of engineers and designers to think in these modes of the social and technical,” Zong said. “Thinking about design as a way to intervene in situations and create better alternatives is really important to me as both a researcher and an educator.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

Internet users with low vision don't want the world described to them—they want to actively participate. One researcher is out to change how we think about accessibility.

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Street smart

Joe Arney — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 21:55:22 +0000

Street smart Joe Arney Mon, 09/28/2026 - 15:55

Joe Arney

Illustrations by Dana Heimes

When your car crawls through a stretch of road where a crash is being investigated, you may think about your own driving behavior in the moments before you were forced to slow down. Were you speeding? Aware of the cars around you? Distracted by a phone?

“It shouldn’t just go back to normal—because normal, for whatever reason, just killed somebody.”

Kevin J. Krizek, professor, environmental design

But chances are, your self-reflection ends when the gridlock does.

Now, the city of Spokane, Washington, is trying to change that, with an assist from faculty and students in CMDI’s environmental design department.

Last spring, students in an interdisciplinary design studio course created plans to roll out a proposed solution, Emergency Streets, on a pilot basis in the city.

Under Emergency Streets, when a crash occurs, workers set up traffic-calming devices like drums, cones and panels that force motorists to drive at or below the speed limit in the miles around the site of a fatal wreck. The installations remain in place for two weeks, drawing attention to a systemic failure in the planning process that led to a death.

“If you reduce the speed at which a crash occurs, the outcome will probably be better,” said Kevin J. Krizek, a professor of environmental design and a former senior advisor to the U.S. Department of State. “And you’re changing expectations about what the road should look like after a crash. It shouldn’t just go back to normal—because normal, for whatever reason, just killed somebody.”

Krizek’s academic and government work led him to conclude that crashes are a failure of infrastructure planning and a public health crisis.

“In my architecture classes, I learned about urban planning principles and how cars have taken over American cities,” he said. “Then, my civil engineering classes would teach you how to move more of those cars across a city at higher speeds. And this dichotomy is baked into our policy, legislation, modeling—everything.”

A matter of physics, not blame

Krizek co-taught the studio course with Tila Duhaime, an instructor, lawyer and former chair of Boulder’s transportation advisory board. What she most emphasizes about Emergency Streets is its focus on the simplest contributing factor.

“This is about reducing the kinetic energy in the system—reducing the potential of harmful energy being released on human bodies, whether on a bike, in a stroller, on a bus, using a walker, or in a car or motorcycle,” Duhaime said.

“If you set aside blame and say, it’s just physics—well, we can do something tomorrow to address the physics involved in a crash and improve outcomes.”

For Spokane, Emergency Streets was intriguing, but the city needed communication plans to notify residents of what they were about to encounter.

Nick Haseman (InfoSci’26), who graduated with a minor in environmental design, worked as a design lead, tightening up presentations to different stakeholder groups—a skill he honed in two internships.

“My information science classes taught me a lot about user experience and user interface design,” he said. “When we started telling personal stories of crashes in our presentations, and connecting them to how Emergency Streets could help address this challenge, it really helped our audiences understand the problem and our proposal.”

Students working on public outreach designed infographics, door hangers, digital materials and more to introduce residents to Emergency Streets. Leighton Warner, a senior majoring in sustainable planning and urban design, said the course challenged students to approach the problem like entrepreneurs.

“This is a hard problem we’re trying to solve, and you could tell from their work that the students really took it to heart.”

Jon Snyder, director of transportation and sustainability, city of Spokane

“In a lot of studio courses, the professor kind of holds your hand, to make sure you’re on the right path,” Warner said. “There was more freedom to take chances in this studio. And the realism of the project—having a partnership with a real city—was incredibly motivating.”

At the conclusion of the course, Jon Snyder, director of transportation and sustainability for Spokane, visited the class to meet with students, who ran a simulated field test and demonstrated communication strategies showing how experts might deploy Emergency Streets.

“I was pleased that it’s not just conceptual. We will adapt some of these creative ideas and use them directly,” said Snyder, who helped secure a grant to develop and implement Emergency Streets. “This is a hard problem we’re trying to solve, and you could tell from their work that the students really took it to heart.”

By the end of the class, the seriousness the students brought to the work was on full display, and not just in their presentations. Duhaime created a sign counting the days since the last “accident” in the course, but it’s not what you think: She set the counter to zero every time someone referred to a car crash as an accident. By the time of Snyder’s visit, it had been two weeks since an accident.

“‘Accident’ is a loaded, weighted term, implying that this event was unavoidable,” she said. “If we are responsible, we talk about crashes, collisions or incidents.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

The city of Spokane is piloting a low-tech roadway safety initiative that was developed by CMDI faculty experts and students.

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‘I love it here’: CMDI’s Class of 2030 eager to turn creative passions into careers

Ellie Chase — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 13:21:55 +0000

‘I love it here’: CMDI’s Class of 2030 eager to turn creative passions into careers Ellie Chase Thu, 09/24/2026 - 07:21

Ellie Chase

When it came time for Nolan Vuldy to choose a university, he thought back to the lights, lasers and sounds that captivated his childhood.

The chance to dive deeper into production effects, and build a network and career path that will allow him to further explore his interests, led him directly to ��ñ��’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information.

“I hope to start a production company someday,” Vuldy said. “CMDI stood out the most to me—I think this is a place that can help me with my career goals.”

Originally from France, Vuldy’s family moved to Colorado when he was a child to pursue opportunity. Now, he joins CMDI’s Class of 2030, one of 516 new first-year students eager to make their mark on ��ñ��.

Though new-student enrollment is slightly down from last year—following years of growth after the pandemic—students in CMDI’s Class of 2030 are among the high-achieving undergraduates in the college’s history. Here are some highlights:

54% of students enrolled were in the top 25% of their high school class.
The average SAT score among enrolled students rose to 1243, from 1230 last year.
CMDI also welcomes 62 new transfer students and 50 new graduate students.

“Each opportunity I’ve had to speak with our new first-year students—whether during their orientation or seeing them around campus over the last few weeks—has left me impressed with both their intellectual curiosity and their passion for creativity,” said Lori Bergen, founding dean of the college. “I’m really excited about the potential this group has to shape CMDI and, with what they’ll learn here, the world.”

Chris Bell (PhDMediaSt'09), speaks with new CMDI students after his speech for CMDI Go. (Kimberly Coffin)

Vuldy, a media production major, is a self proclaimed DJ and producer who hopes his peers can influence his future projects.

“I’m a very creative person, so being around other creative people is something that really excites me,” he said.

Dawson Justus, a Texas native who is studying architecture at CMDI, is also pursuing his degree based on an early fascination. In his case, it’s design.

Justus has family in the architecture industry who introduced him to the discipline. His dream is to design an aquarium or a zoo—both of which were among his favorite places as a child.

“I’ve always been drawn here, mostly by the architecture and environmental design department,” Justus said. “I really appreciate how we get to diversify our studies, learning about product design, urban planning and landscape architecture in our first year.”

The family trade is no stranger to Charlotte Callahan, who draws inspiration from her mom, formerly a traveling journalist for Inside Edition. Callahan grew up admiring her career and adventures abroad.

With a passion for speaking with people and sharing their stories, Callahan will be pursuing a journalism degree from CMDI. Her interest in the environment is what drew her to Boulder, and she’s considering environmental science as a second major.

Her dream job? Working for National Geographic.

“Journalism is so important, especially now,” she said. “We really need good journalism and better access to information.”

Callahan’s recognition of Boulder’s remarkable environment is not lost on other new students. The campus’ beauty and vibrant student life brought Elizabeth Lockhart from California to CMDI.

“I toured campus and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love it here.’ When I got accepted, I almost cried,” she said.

Lockhart is majoring in strategic communication, with an emphasis in public relations.

Her goals in public relations offer a perfect intersection of youthful passions with career—she wants to work for Disney. She also has interest in PR for Formula One drivers, seeing an opportunity to bridge the gap in gender representation in motorsports.

“There’s not many women in F1—and it’s detrimental because a lot of their fan base is women, but you don’t see representation,” Lockhart said.

“I just love the campus and the people—everyone is so friendly. It feels good knowing I’ve already found my people.”

Violet Valentin

Violet Valentin shares Lockhart’s enthusiasm for public relations. Valentin is a strategic communication major, as well, and spent part of her summer with the Pathways to Excellence program. The summer bridge program introduces incoming students to CMDI’s majors and builds community before school starts.

“I just love the campus and the people—everyone is so friendly,” Valentin said. “It feels good knowing I’ve already found my people.”

Information science is the smallest major in the incoming class, but its unique blend of computing, social science and the humanities interested Heidi Welsh, who is curious about hospital technology, which involves studying data to create preventative technology.

“I want to be hands on,” she said. “I want to go out in the world and apply what I know to help people. I’m so excited for all of my classes—I think it’s going to be so different from anything I’ve ever done.”

Ellie Chase is studying journalism at CMDI, with a minor in business. She covers students and student news at the college.

CMDI welcomes its Class of 2030, an academically accomplished group with big dreams for the future.

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Heads of the class

Joe Arney — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 18:39:27 +0000

Heads of the class Joe Arney Tue, 08/18/2026 - 12:39

Joe Arney

Meghan Sobel Cohen

One of Meghan Sobel Cohen’s most lasting memories of studying journalism at ��ñ�� was Cokes with Voakes—office hours that then-Dean Paul S. Voakes would host to get to know students outside of class over sodas.

It’s a tradition she carried forward in her time as chair of the communication department at Regis University, in Denver, and is excited to bring back to the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information as an associate professor of journalism.

“Coming back to CU feels like such a full-circle moment for me,” she said. “So, maybe we’ll start coffee with Cohen, or cookies with Cohen, in the fall.”

Cohen (Jour’09), an expert on media systems in authoritarian contexts and journalism’s role in peacekeeping, is among 13 new faculty—three of them alumni—joining CMDI this fall, with another set to begin in the spring.

“I am so excited by the wealth of experience that our new faculty will bring to CMDI,” said Lori Bergen, founding dean of the college. “The perspectives, knowledge and curiosity they will bring to our teaching, research and creative work will continue to enrich our students and community.”

Cohen said she’s especially excited to return to what she called “a truly inspiring campus.”

“I feel really excited and grateful to be back in Boulder,” she said. “I was here when it was a school of journalism—and it’s inspiring to see the evolution of CU alongside the changes in journalism and communication. I’m excited to become a part of that, to encourage that evolution and help change the way our students think about communication, media and journalism more broadly.”

In addition to Cohen, the following faculty will join CMDI this academic year.

Advertising, Public Relations and Design

Hyun Seung Jin, associate professor. Jin joins the college from the business school of Queensland University of Technology, in Australia. His work explores psychology, creativity and technology.

Richard Khleif (PhDMediaSt’07), assistant teaching professor. Khleif brings decades of global technology industry experience to the college. He also is an emeritus founding member of CMDI’s advisory board, and completed the integrated marketing communication program from the former School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1999.

Communication

Lamiyah Bahrainwala, assistant professor. Bahrainwala was previously chair of the communication studies department at Southwestern University. She studies anti-Muslim sentiment through surveillance, race, the environment and more.

Alicen Rushevics, assistant professor. Key themes in Rushevics’ research include discourses of reparation and apology, indigenous human rights and U.S. imperialism in the Pacific. She completed her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2026.

Environmental Design

Sophie Weston Chien, assistant professor. After completing two master’s degrees in landscape architecture and planning from Harvard University, Chien joined CMDI as a chancellor’s postdoctoral fellow. Her research involves organizing in design, participatory textile research and fabrication, and theorizing contemporary design practice.

Pol Fité Matamoros, assistant professor. Fité Matamoros completed his PhD at the University of California–Berkeley, where he has been a designer in residence since 2025. He examines connections between visual culture, the spatial production of social and racial difference, and regime building.

Priyanka Sen, assistant professor. Sen will join CMDI in the spring after completing her PhD from Cornell University. She studies the intertwined histories of the built environment and agricultural practices tied to South Asian migration.

Nettie Skievaski (EnvDes’22), assistant teaching professor. In addition to her career in graphic design, Skievaski has been an instructor at CMDI since 2022.

Information Science

Jason Lucas, assistant professor. Lucas earned his PhD from Pennsylvania State University. He develops multilingual A.I. systems across underserved languages to advance safe, equitable technology.

Aspen K.B. Omapang, assistant professor. Another Cornell scholar, Omapang researches political relations between Indigenous peoples and settlers in managing natural resources.

Katlyn Turner, assistant professor. Turner has been a research affiliate and instructor with CMDI since 2023. Her work focuses on environmental and climate justice, technology, policy, systems, and self-determination.

Media Studies

Susan Abbott, assistant teaching professor. Abbott brings more than two decades of experience in media development, digital democracy and civil society to her teaching. She was previously a lecturer at CMDI.

Journalism

Meagan Doll, assistant professor. Doll has held postdoctoral roles at the universities of Minnesota and Washington. She studies news consumption and production, with particular interest in perceptions of news in nondemocratic contexts.

Jason Lucas

Interdisciplinary importance

New faculty called the interdisciplinary nature of the college and its work a key factor in their decisions to come here. Cohen, whose work experience includes the U.S. State Department—where she observed the disconnect between the needs of human rights organizations and the limitations of journalists who cover them, leading her to her research niche—said the changing nature of the news business is a call for educators to combine related disciplines, to better prepare students for the challenges that await them after graduation.

Jason Lucas, of information science, said the department’s values and culture of collaboration were major draws to him—though also important is that his wife, Umniya Najaer, has been a postdoctoral fellow at ��ñ�� since July 2025. His work studies artificial intelligence from the lens of language.

“There are 7,000 languages spoken in the world. And only about 20 of them have sufficient digital footprints to train robust models that can be useful for end users,” Lucas said.

It’s a safety concern, not just a usability issue, he said, as models can be attacked based on the data used to train them, leaving certain communities more vulnerable to the spread of disinformation or cybercrime. “And even with reinforcement learning, we cannot solve that basic security issue,” he said. “So we have to concern ourselves with both equity and safety.”

Lucas hopes to engage with these problems through SEAL, the Secure and Ethical A.I. Research Lab, which he’ll direct at CMDI.

Pol Fité Matamoros

Pol Fité Matamoros’ education spanned design disciplines like architecture, urban design and landscape architecture, which drew him to an environmental design department that brings all these areas under one roof. His research interest—which considers the advancement of fascist movements as expressed through visual and spatial culture—draws on these disciplines, plus humanities and social sciences.

“It’s easy to fall into this trap of saying the global rise of nationalist movements we see today is the same as it was in the 1920s. And it’s not,” Fité Matamoros said. “But there are similarities, and I think understanding how fascist movements in the ’20s and ’30s operated gives us a clue as to how they operate today.”

He studies the phenomenon through the lens of his native Spain, which watched its American colonial empire fall apart following war with the United States. The country’s attention turned to Africa, seen as a bountiful land of riches that could offset Spain’s decline—a concept Franco exploited in his rise to power.

He sees some of that today in the United States, where the Trump administration has pushed to rename the Gulf of Mexico and speak of colonizing Greenland and Canada.

Renaming, he said, is not just changing a label, “it repositions a space within a broader narrative of national rebirth. These spatial moves are not only moments of rhetorical excess, they create an appealing spatial argument for a violent nationalist narrative.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

CMDI is welcoming 14 new faculty with expertise in journalism, business, surveillance, technology and more.

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Announcing the spring 2026 dean's list

Ellie Chase — Wed, 20 May 2026 16:52:41 +0000

Announcing the spring 2026 dean's list Ellie Chase Wed, 05/20/2026 - 10:52

More than 700 CMDI students were named to the dean's list for the spring semester. To qualify, students must complete at least 12 credit hours of ��ñ�� coursework for a letter grade and achieve a term grade point average of 3.75 or better. Each person receives a notation on their transcripts and a letter from the dean. Congratulations to all honorees!

Zack Aarons
Matt Abatangle
Marlo Abrahamson
Logan Abrams
Kit Achar
Shea Ackman
Pilar Agostine
Quinn Ahrens
Maria Alali
Charlotte Alberti
Caitlin Alexander
Audrey Altounian
Olivia Alvarez
Ava Ambs
Alexandra Anaya
Marlowe Anderman
Ella Anderson
Julia Anderson
Jacqueline Anderson
Sierra Anguiano
Marina Araujo
Logan Arel
Liliana Arguello
Jazmin Armijo
John Armstrong
Madison Armstrong
Frances Arrighi
Preston Ashley
Ben Asphaug
SJ Bacallao
Claire Bachtel
Sarah Baggot
Alexia Bailey
Hannah Baity
Cadyn Banerian
Katie Barcroft
Caleigh Barletta
Emily Barnes
Blake Barnes
Thomas Barrett
Maddy Barth
Makdes Bass
Ellena Bassoukos
Klaire Bautz
Katie Baxter
Michael Benner
Tess Betman
Eliot Bevier Dill
Charlie Bickham
Teagan Bischoff
Katie Bixler
Miley Black
Grace Blitz
Julian Blumberg
Sophia Bobier
Ella Bode
Dylan Bole
Ella Boles
Sophia Bolich
Anvitha Bompalli
Lucia Bona
Elliot Bowen
Mckenzie Bowman
Dean Bowyer
Arielle Boxt
Grace Boyea
Reed Bracero
Anna Bradburn
Ema Bradley
Harper Bradshaw
Antonio Bravo
Olivia Brehm
Quinn Brewer
Adeline Briggs
Lily Broadhead
Finn Broderick
Jack Bronchetti
Katie Brooks
Zach Brooks
Addison Brower
Chase Browne
Lili Brownell
Emma Browning
Houston Brummet
Tessa Buchanan
Juliana Buck
Ashley Budy
Fatima Bugaighis
Isabella Burkett
Alena Burris
Brooke Bursteen
Parker Burt
Noelia Caballero
Grace Cadman
Claire Cameron
Cuauhtemoc Campos
Bianca Cano
Evan Caplan
Rhiannon Cargo
Ely Cariveau
Kaitlyn Carpenter
Harrison Carswell
Audrey Carter
Meredith Case
Madison Chasin
Mia Castro
James Cecchi
Charles Chambers
Izzie Chan
Jack Chandler
Connor Chase
Ellie Chase
Jesus Chavez
Hayden Chedid
Cameron Cheney
Avery Childs
Luke Chisholm
Michael Chow
Rachel Clapham
Emily Cleary
Avery Clifton
Emme Clymer
Morgan Coffin
Finn Cohen
Kelly Colanto
MacKenzie Cole
Sophie Coleman
Drew Collins
Breah Conradson
Andrew Conroy
Ainsley Coogan
Connor Cook
Sophie Coombs
Ripley Coope
Zenden Copeland
Braedan Corliss
Susie Cormack
Kira Covington
Marissa Crenshaw
Elizabeth Cropper
Maddie Crosier
Micah Crowe
Charlotte Croy
Aidan Crump
Eryn Cryer
Marleigh Cummins
Kaylie Cunningham
Cody Cutone
Avery Czachor
Abikael Daniel
Lacey Daniell
Olivia Darby
Hannah David
John Davis
Turner Davis
Mason Davis
Patrick Dawson
Ramon De Arcos Tapia
Brandon De Pena
Weston Deaton
Lily Defnet
Lily Delgado
Maya Demaree
Clara Denham
Maggie Derr
Eli Deutsch
Charles Deutser
Zach Dial
Leo Dienstfrey
Henry Dietz
Ava Dillon
William Dinh
Merrick Dobin
Sydney Dobriner
Campbell Dokken
Connie Dolati
Lexi Dolsak
Hunter Donovan
Emily Doskow
Sydney Dossa
Daniel Doupe
Averie Dow
Veronika Drab
Simon Drews
Veronica Dryer
Ava Dubroca
Wyatt Duesenberg
Rowan Dulfer
Carolyn Dunlap
Nicollette Dunn
Etienne Dunoyer
Emily Duvall
Olivia Dye
Ryann Dyk
Mattia Echchaibi

Ansley Edelbrock
Avery Ehrig
Collin Eisenach
Kristin Eisenrich
Maeve Eklund
Kaoutar El Ouadi
Molly Elert
Reese Elliot
Libby Emery
Isaac Emmons
Brendan Engel
Lucy Esquival
Desmond Evans
Sienna Fahey
Sofia Faraci
Liam Fehlau-Barton
Sara Fernandes
Oren Figenblat
Emerson Fine
Josie Fineberg
Anjali Flagg
Maddie Flanagan
Aidan Fliszar
William Flockton
Cecilia Florian
Soleil Floyd
Lilli Flyer
Joshua Fong
Callie Forrest
Tatum France-Kelly
Ava Frankel
Natalie Free
Ellis French
Jayne Frey
Devin Friedman
Isabelle Friedrich
Hayes Frith
Sophia Fry
Adelene Frymoyer
Lulu Fuster
Colette Gagliano
Kaija Galins
Teagan Gallagher
Rikki Gallegos
Jacalyn Gamble
Lydia Gammon
Britney Garcia
Greta Gardetto
Violet Garrard
Caitlyn Garza
Abigail Garza
Ella Gates
Samson Gear
Parker Gehde
Carly Gelfand
Callie Gendolfe
Camryn Gerchow
Olivia Gewanter
Ellie Gianola
Caroline Gilchrist
Lauren Gillespie
Danny Gillis
Tal Gispan
Giorgia Glassford
Charlie Goffinet
Susannah Goldsmith
Karlyn Gonsalves
William Gooch
Bella Goodson
Drew Gorman
Pheobe Gorman
Abby Graham
Chloe Graham
Kylie Graham
Logyn Greer
Erica Griffiths
Charlee Grinstead
Lily Groten
Vicky Gutierrez
Owen Guzik
Eva Gyawali
Marin Hackney
Ava Hagan
Evi Hager
Paxton Haines
Sabina Hall
Mack Hammond
Norah Hampford
Mackenzie Hanlon
Ashley Elizabeth Hansen
Sabrina Harris
Brooke Harris
Shaela Hart
Lanier Harvey
Bennett Harvey
Nick Haseman
Josie Hayes
Skyler Haynie
Brooke Haynie
Madison Hays
Caroline Hecht
Ethan Heffern
Makayla Heinke
Alexis Henning
Will Henrickson
Dani Hermosillo
Vanessa Hernandez
Isabella Hernandez Jeppesen
Emily Herrmann
Jane Hershberger
Brandon Heydenreich
Megan Hill
Grace Hilliard
Malley Hirschle
Charlotte Hobosn
Hannah Hoffman
Jason Hoffman
Ellie Hoffman
Jackson Hoffman
Serena Holcomb
Jimmy Holda
Ella Holden
Audrey Ann Holsomback
Caden Homlish
Dylan Hommes
Grier Hopkins
Caleb Horwitz
Taylar Houck
Mira Hougen
Jordan Houten
Emily Howard
Brooklyn Howard
Taylor Hoyt
Maddie Hughes
Livia Hughes
Ronan Huizar
Ellie Hultgren
Wyatt Humble
Daniela Hunt
Camille Hunt
Elliette Igel-Manvitz
Maddie Inglis
Maxine Rosa Inman
Lauren Insul
Sasha Isaacman
Jules Isenberg
Isabella Jackson
Reed Jacobs
Paige Jaegar
Savannah Allyssa Jameson
Emilie Janzen
Grace Jenks
Alana Jenks
Annika Jobanputra
Mia Jochamowitz-Endersby Chikhani
Micah Johnson
Addison Johnson
Liv Johnstad
Teegan Johnstone
Lucien Juilland-King
Max Julian
Charlie Kahane
Doris Kahler
Nina Kanavati
Helen Karnstedt
Bailey Karraker
Skye Karsh
Dylan Kay
Catherine Kaynor
Henry Kelty
Rachel Kennedy
Caleb Kennedy
John Kerklo
Riley Kerstiens
Ella Kest
Amy Kibort
Meika Kinsey
Avery Kissinger
Ava Klein
Alexa Kofman
Jon Kolvereid
Colton Kominski
Ella Komo
Cecilia Konrad
Rian Korb
Jess Kotmel
Ava Kozlak
Sydney Kraabel
Ella Krelovich
Juliana Kirgsman
Katie Krochalis
Simone Kruger
Remi Krupinski
Maria Kuhn
Viktoriya Kukarekina
Avery Kunkel

Brayden Kurzawa
Genevieve Kuykendall
Emily Kwon
Amy Labontu
Genevieve Lacey
Devin Lafave
Ella LaMura
Gabi Larocque
Blake Larson
Maddie Lasker
Simon Lauritzen
Emerson Layne
Nicolai Lazarev
Alex Lazarou
Camille Leach
Lou Leclercq
Alice Lee
Chloe Legere
Peighton Lemp
Aubrey Leneweaver
Miles Lerner
Matt Lerner
Brian Leuthold
Sierra Leverich
Zoë Levitt
Inga Lexa
Kara Liguori
Jasmin Lin
Ahnnali Lindgren
Isabelle Lingo
Mia Lioudis
Margaret Lipscomb
Luke Lloyd
Leif Lomo
Lauren Lopez
Deborah Loseke
Hayes Louden
Linus Loughry
Lucy Lu
Julia Luther
Julia Maclean
Scarlett Maguire
Maxwell Majors
Devon Malling
Jon Mani
Lily Maniotes
Andrew Manson
Alexis Manzo
Nicholas Marcin
Annaliese Markel
Moses Markels
Tyler Markus
Jackson Martin
J Martinez
Eloise Masciola
Andrew Mason
Carolyn Mason
Luca Mastroeni
Nikki Mastroianni
Sarah Matarelli
Cashel Matus
Kylah McAuliffe
Finn Mccarthy
Adri McCarville
Audrey McClure
Evan Mccormick
John Mcdermott
Lucia Mcgetrick-Dima
Matthew McGovern
Madison Mcguire
Annalise McIntosh
Grace Mckee
Delaney Mckernan
Megan Mckew
Sydney Mclaughlin
Abbey McMahon
Jordan Mcphee
Margaret McQueen
Alan Medved
Yordanos Mehari
Ava Melen
Ryan Melson
Alex Melvin
Claire Mercer
Ava Marias
Tatum Merrill
Chase Messner
Olivia Meyers
Hailey Miller
Allison Miller
Channing Miller
Maggie Miller
Brooklyn Miller
Ellen Miller
Madeline Mims
Maya Miniati
Amanda Mitry
Ella Mobeck
Hudson Mobley
Wyatt Moeller
Ashley Mohrbach
Jayde Moniz
Gigi Montgomery
Justice Montoya
Emily Moore
Felipe Moore
Brianna Morgan
Ben Morlan
Adrien Morlet
Jenna Morley
Maya Morse
Mia Mosebrook
Gabriel Mrochek-Moore
Ally Murphy
Rue Murray
Mason Mutz
Addie Myers
Natalie Myslinski
Hailey Nagel
Nicholas Nedostup
Caitlin Neil
Remi Netupsky
Corey Neumeier
Natalie Newmann
Taylor Nichols
Taylor Nickerson
Rebecca Niewood
Rebecca Nishizawa
Grayce Norden
Madeline Northman
Dulce Nunez
Lila Nuttle
Nora O-connor
Quinn O'donnell
Rosie O'Farrell
Aidan O'flynn
Olivia O'Haver
Taylor Oldenburg
Justin Olschewsky
Annabelle Olson
Sofia Olsson
Brinley O'neill
Alexandra Organa
Finn O'Riley
Annika Ort
Maddie Osterkamp
Jonathan Ostrom
Alina Ouligian
Emmett Owenby
Izzy Paradiso
Aly Pardo
Katy Parks
Harley Parsons
Haley Patterson
Kaya Patterson
Madelyn Payne
Trevor Peck
Ingrid Pehrson
Izzy Pell
Lily Pemberton
Salem Peralta
Jaclyn Pereira
Kennedy Perez
Emma Perlmutter
Eliza Perry
Anthony Petro
Ellie Phillips
Bell Piccirillo
Sophia Pike
Mackenzie Pinksa
Elizabeth Piper
Alison Plagge
Skye Platto
Lily Podowski
Sydney Polacek
Lilly Polak
Ashley Pomeroy
Norah Pope
Phoebe Potischman
Elle Pottinger
Dax Prata
Bradley Pratt
Jamie Pressdee
Ingrid Preusser
Addisson Pribble
Trevor Price
Elle Price
Christina Proctor
Mackenna Proffitt
Sutton Raeburn
Samantha Ramirez
Lia Rapka
Stella Ratto
Maya Raulf
Nick Rauscher
Madelyn Ray

Quentin Rebholtz
Molly Reed
Jenna Reed
Hailey Reed
Anna Rehak
Sebastian Reid
Jack Remington
Ella Revivo
Grace Rhile
Brody Rhodes
Peyton Rhodes
Conner Richardson
Mesa Ridgik
Katie Ridgway
Peri Riegner
Maire Riley
Tessa Ring
Jack Rittinger
Jackie Rivera
Eliza Roberts
Michael Robinson
Sarah Robinson
Kate Rogers
Laura Rogers
Aly Rosado
Jenna Rose
Sierra Rosen
Alison Rosenbaum
Eli Rosenthal
Sierra Rossman
Jane Roth
Taylor Roth
Giova Rubenstein
Sophie Rubinstein
Reagan Russell
Sam Russo
Niamh Ryan
Danni Sackstein
Brooklyn Sadler
Sosan Safi
Ana Salazar-Terrazas
Joaquin Salinas
Eloisa Samper
Kevin Sanchez
Yahir de Jesus Sanchez Diaz
Carson Sanders
Lydia Sarbacker
Melanie Scanlon
Kate Schaefer
Stephanie Schmitt
Addie Schneider
Jaimie Schoenke
Holly Schofield
Sydney Schrader
Teagan Schreiber
Ben Schweiger
Paige Searl
Ella Seevers
Iris Serrano
Olivia Shachtman
Krish Shah
Ava Shanrock
Red Shaw
Natalie Sheehan
Charlee Sheinbaum
Jenna Shenbaum
Daniel Sher
Ryan Shigley
Lauren Shindler
Zoe Showalter-Flowers
Anika Siethoff
Matthew Silver
Diego Simental
Finley Simon
Gannett Simonton
Nathaniel Sindt
Zachary Sirkus
Mac Skudlarczyk
Marie Slotnick
Ryan Smith
Shaun Smith
Lucy Snow
Sevi Solari
Jade Solomine
Noel Sookswat
Simon Spillane
Samantha Spiwak
Maria Splawska
Sydney Spoor
Jaden Spriggins
Lindsey Stafford
Bella Stamper
Kaeden Stander
Caidin Steele
Cece Steer
Evan Stellino
Cole Stephan
Ariele Stern
Brendan Stewart
Zoe Stillman
Braden Stirrett
Anna Stout
Mary Strasser
Ava Strauss
Xander Sucich
Elizabeth Suffian
Lucy Suja
Clara Sullivan
Olivia Sullivan
Aoife Sullivan
Dennis Swanson
Livi Sweeterman
Maddy Sweig
Sadie Symonds
Ava Tabor
Willow Tachna
Ben Tal
Rueben Tasler
Tyler Tatman
Owen Taylor
Sarah Taylor
Cecelia Tecu
Angela Testani
Kaira Theisen
Tyler Thime
Channing Thomson
Ella Threlkeld
Tyler Tigerino
Kalyn Tippett
Grace Toomey
Zohair Toor
Clio Torrance
Alexa Tovar
Hendley Tracy
Eduardo Trejo Trinidad
Ricky Tuka
Jack Turpin
Caroline Valdes
Kade Van Steenvort
Maya Vanvleet
Kennedie Vargas
Gia Vasilopoulos
Maddie Veasey
Sophie Vertrees
Bianca Villordo Rosado
Saanvi Vookanti
Laurel Vose
Maya Vu
Fiona Wachter
Nick Walker
Chloe Walsh
Dylan Walsh
Halle Walters
Evie Warner
Leighton Warner
Kadyn Warner
Ryder Watkins
Greta Wattson
Ellery Weil
Hannah Weimer
Nicole Weis
Grace Westling
Ryder Weston
Kobie Weterrings
Annabelle Whitaker
Ella Whittall
Ella Wilkins
Samantha Wilkins
Triny Willerton
Charlotte Willey
Jackson Williams
Abigail Williams
Molly Williamson
Ranney Willis
Piper Wills
Holly Wininger
Emma Winkelbauer
Kaitlyn Winkelmann
Mia Winstead
Chloe Wolfram
Eva Woodruff-Stern
Grace Wymore
Jackie Wynne
Maggie Yalmokas
Indira Yantorno
Genevieve York
Ryleigh Young
Hannah Young
Lily Young-Stallings
Laurel Yule
Madison Zelibor
Elsie Zerega
Zengyi Zhai
Emily Zhou
Devon Zisser
Tatum Zrubek

More than 700 CMDI students were named to the dean's list for the spring semester.

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Celebrating students at our spring 2026 showcase

Allyson Maturey — Fri, 01 May 2026 18:17:17 +0000

Celebrating students at our spring 2026 showcase Allyson Maturey Fri, 05/01/2026 - 12:17

Photo by Dan Miller

INFO's Spring Showcase occurred on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the UMC. The event was a great opportunity to learn more about INFO Science — INFO courses and students' work — applications, research, and Capstone projects. As a community, we celebrated the Class of 2026 with awards and drawings!

Undergraduate Capstone Groups

Photo by Juana Sanchez

ArchAngel - an end-to-end system that captures live foot pressure data and provides user personalized footwear recommendations based on pressure distribution.

Berto Manzum
Ricky Tuka
Eduardo Trejo Trinidad
Kevin Sanchez

Photo by Dan Miller

Balance Basket - an AI-powered grocery planning platform that helps users create optimized shopping lists based on budget, dietary needs, and pantry inventory, while also incorporating smart substitutions and community-driven meals. Check out the live app.

Vicky Gutierrez
Ethan Ngai
Angelin Moyer

Photo by Krish Shah

HouseRules - a web-based, customizable digital game to tailor game night to you and your friend group. Users can upload their own images and prompts to play with - check out the live site.

Katie Fischer
Averie Dow
Bailey Sheldon
Lucy Wade
Adri McCarville

FitFlow group with their instructor, Priscilla Hopper, MS. Photo courtesy Adam Birhane.

FitFlow - is a fitness and wellness app built for college students, focused on making health realistic. Think quick workouts, budget-friendly meals, and options that actually fit into busy schedules. Every feature came from analyzing what students consistently said they needed most, which made this project a great example of data-driven problem solving in action.

Feben Telku
Abikael Daniel
Adam Birhane
Aubrey Hatch

Photo by Avery Kissinger

SWAPPOP - a Depop-style app designed specifically for college students to sustainably swap clothing within their campus community. We focused on creating a system that builds trust through student verification and prioritizes safety by facilitating on-campus exchanges. This project challenged us to think deeply about user behavior, sustainability, and how to design digital systems that feel both secure and community-driven.

Anika Chowerdy
Bianca Cano
Abby Henderson
Avery Kissinger
Seoyoung Lee

MOGL Forecasting & Planning

Maddux Hrepitch
Owen Lowery
Cole Maher
Evan McCarthy

Photo by INFO instructor Priscilla Rain Hopper

MOGL Measurement & Attribution - The group built the Sigma Computing dashboard and visualized the attribution findings, translating Snowflake model outputs into charts that made the story clear. By comparing first-touch, last-touch, and time-decay models, we showed how relying on a single model misrepresents channel performance and leads to misallocated budget.

Nicolai Lazarev
Nicholas Pettit
Nick Walker

Photo courtesy Leland Smith.

BillaHealth - Patients are often expected to navigate complex healthcare systems, understand dense medical information, and advocate for themselves with limited support. BillaHealth addresses this by using research on healthcare inequities, communication barriers, and patient self-advocacy to simplify medical information, guide users through healthcare interactions, and provide tools such as question prompts and clear explanations of key health concepts.

Marcus Huston
Leland Smith
Noah Parker
Samson Kidane

Skin It to Win It - a skincare recommendation app with the goal to help users better understand ingredients, track their skin over time, and make more informed purchasing decisions using personalized insights.

Nicole (Nikko) Keffer
Lucy Lu
Clio Torrance

The Immigration Database Group shared about their work. Photo by Dan Miller.

The Immigration Database - This project will develop an interactive, data-driven map that presents clear and accessible information about immigration in the United States. The goal is to organize complex statistics into a single, easy-to-navigate, aesthetic platform that helps users better understand who immigrates to the U.S., how they arrive, and what they do after settling.

Marisole Yake
Will Henrickson
Jasmin Lin
Addie Schneider

Special thanks to all who had a table Showcase: Campus Libraries, Digital Humanities Community at CU, CMDI Advising, and INFO Buffs!

Courses Represented at Showcase
INFO 1121: Designing Interactions ~ Prof. Steve Voida
INFO 1201: Computational Reasoning ~ Prof. Chris Carruth
INFO 3901/5901: Digital legacy Clinic ~ Prof. Jed Brubaker
INFO 4601: Information Ethics & Policy ~ Prof. Yiran Duan
INFO 4607/5607: Software Engineering for Data-Centered Systems ~ Prof. Julia Proft
INFO 4871: Design for accessibility ~ Prof. Jonathan Zong
INFO 4871/5871: Communicative Info ViSualization ~ Prof. Evan Peck
INFO 4871/5871: Environmental Justice IN INFO ~ Prof. Kate Turner
INFO 4700: Senior CapSTone ~ Prof. Jason Zietz + Priscilla Hopper

Celebrating INFO Graduating Students (Fall 2025, Spring 2026, Summer 2026)

Graduating INFO students (Fall 2025, Spring 2026, Summer 2026). Photo by Chris Carruth.

INFO Undergraduate Students:
Gilberto Corral, Kate Davis, Rhen Fowler, Cayden Friedman, Luke Lommatzsch, Cole Slattery, Rida Rizvi, Christian Valentino, Lucas Drager, Nathan Yearous, Sr., Felix Estes, Jessaca Benson, Emelia Mantz, Averie Dow, William Henrickson, Parker Burt, Jasmin Lin, Nick Haseman, Ricky Tuka, Clio Torrance, Avery Kissinger, Fnan Yonas, Abikael Daniel, Kevin Sanchez, Katie Fischer, Vicky Gutierrez, Matthew Cicero, Anthony Giraldi, Owen Ballantyne, Lucy Lu, Marcus Huston, Bianca Villordo Rosado, Ely Cariveau, Seoyoung Lee, Amelia Fichera, Finn Sargent, Nicole Keffer, Evan McCarthy, Nick Walker, Brandon Lui, Mason Mutz, Lauren Ward, Alex Williams, Angelin Armijo Moyer, Patrick Mancuso, Bailey Sheldon, Anika Chowdhury, Eduardo Trejo Trinidad, Nicholas Pettit, Leland Smith, Feben Teklu, Noah Parker, Maddux Hrepich, Sr., Owen Lowery, Nicolai Lazarev, Adri McCarville, Harrison Levine, Ruttanavadee “ Nin” Kongla, Natan Habteyonas, Cephas Kim, Lucy Wade, Thomas Maher, Edgar Soberon Munoz, Aubrey Hatch, Jackson Giemza, Adam Birhane, Berto Mazum Archuleta Jr., Nathanael Elias, Muhammed Jatta, Ferdi Fankam

Undergraduate Student Awards

INFO Leadership Award ~ Ella Krelovich & Katie Fischer
INFO Inclusivity Award ~ Mica Lonnon
INFO Creativity Award ~ Eduardo Trejo Trinidad
INFO Academic Engagement Award ~ Eli Rosenthal, Wes Barrnett & Leland Smith
INFO Research Excellence Award ~ Marisol Yake
INFO Learning Assistant Excellence Award ~ Lilliana Lear
INFO Community Impact Award ~ Lauren Ward
INFO Department Service Award ~ Aiden Dowling
INFO Impact and Excellence Award ~ Emelia Mantz

William W. White Award

Photo courtesy Kate Davis.

Katherine “Kate” Davis won the William W. White Award from the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information (CMDI). Read more.

INFO Graduate Students:
Erin Robinson, PhD, Laurie Lawson, PhD, Tajanae Harris, PhD, Daniel Sullivan, MS, Rory O’Flynn, MS, Josephine Mahoney, MS, Jack Manning, MS, Tenay Benes, MS, Abbie Seale, MS

Graduate Student Awards

INFO Graduate students celebrating Amanda Aird on receiving the Research Award. Photo by Alice Goldfarb.

Graduate Research Award: Amanda Aird
Graduate Teaching Award: Divyanshu Kumar Singh
Graduate Service and Community Leadership Award: Megan Englert
Graduate Outreach and Engagement Award: Elizabeth McKinnie
Outstanding MS Graduate Award: Jack Manning
Outstanding PhD Graduate Award: Dr. Erin Robinson

Click on the photos to learn more.

The INFO Showcase is an opportunity for students taking information science courses to share their class projects and research with the ��ñ�� community.

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Spotlight: INFO 4871 special topics course, AI and Society

Allyson Maturey — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 21:09:25 +0000

Spotlight: INFO 4871 special topics course, AI and Society Allyson Maturey Thu, 04/30/2026 - 15:09

Aiden Dowling, an information science major, met with Casey Fiesler [INFO faculty] to learn more about INFO 4871. The AI and Society special topics course will be INFO 1511: AI and Society in fall 2026.

How does this course plan to educate undergrads on the impact of AI?
AI is already shaping a lot of things about our lives, from social feeds to job prospects, and the more you understand about it, the better equipped you are to make informed choices about how to react. This course is also designed to be valuable for both students who love using generative AI tools and those who are actively avoiding them.

What are some key takeaways from this course undergrads should be aware of before enrolling?
The course is about what AI actually is, how we got here, and where we're going. This includes what you need to know about how generative AI actually works in order to understand its limitations, as well as how it's impacting everything from jobs to creativity to the environment to learning. We also talk a lot about current events!

What type of student do you see benefiting the most from this course?
We're all being impacted by AI right now, and most people - including many who are actively making decisions about AI - don't have a solid grasp of what it can and can't do. Understanding AI itself as well as its ethical implications and impacts is what everyone needs to be able to make informed, responsible decisions about how to engage with it or just how to exist around it.

What do you hope students will learn after completing this course?
One of the goals of this course is for students to develop their own personal values and boundaries around whether and how they will use generative AI tools in aspects of their own lives - and these are likely decisions they will be making in their coursework, jobs, and other aspects of life moving forward.

Can you give a brief overview of what undergrads will learn from this course?
I really hope that students feel informed in a really practical way - people who can ask critical questions, cut through hype, and make informed decisions. And considering that starting next year this class is likely to be mostly non-majors, I hope that they come out of it wanting to learn more about AI through the perspective of Information Science.

A new course gives undergraduates a practical understanding of AI—how it works, where it came from and how it’s shaping everything from jobs to creativity and daily life.

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2 minutes with: Averie Dow

Joe Arney — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 18:20:46 +0000

2 minutes with: Averie Dow Joe Arney Tue, 04/21/2026 - 12:20

If you didn’t experience an interruption in your Wi-Fi coverage when CU’s new network went online, you can thank Averie Dow’s standout poster design. Photo by Zoë Dauksch.

Remember those posters that were all over campus in early spring, warning you to upgrade to the new campus Wi-Fi network? Averie Dow (InfoSci’26) helped design them. Her inspiration? Those wet floor signs custodians put out when they’re mopping up. “We needed a visual that was boring—yet so jarring that you couldn’t not see it,” she said. We caught up with Averie about her interests in design and technology.

This conversation edited for length and clarity.

If you didn’t experience an interruption in your Wi-Fi coverage when CU’s new network went online, you can thank Averie Dow’s standout poster design. Photo by Zoë Dauksch.

It’s an honor to get to speak with the person who helped inspire those intense posters.
(Laughs) You have no idea how many people said to me, “Averie, do you know how irritating it is to have to look at that poster?” And I was like, yes, yes I do.

Well, I guess you get the last laugh. I don’t know anyone who wasn’t aware of the new Wi-Fi network. Walk me through your process.
I was involved because I work for OIT, the CU Office of Information Technology. The user experience team was concerned that people would just think the Wi-Fi was down, instead of realizing they needed to take action. As a student, I see so, so many posters on campus. So, I suggested the wet floor sign design, which is why it’s that memorable shade of yellow. Believe me, we know how it looks!

I didn’t end up designing the final poster. But in my graphic design class the next day, we had to redesign a poster we saw on campus. And everyone and their mom wanted to do the Wi-Fi sign—and I had to pretend like I didn’t have anything to do with it.

A graphic designer and a technologist. You must be right at home in information science.
What I love about the info major is how it keeps updating. People will tell you about a class you took a year ago, and it’s changed so much as a result of everything that’s going on.

Where does your interest in tech come from?
Well, in high school, I was a Kode with Klossy scholar…

Code with who?
Kode with Klossy. It’s my favorite thing. There is a very well-known supermodel, Karlie Kloss, and her backup plan, if modeling didn’t work out, was programming. As a young girl, you love to see that, right? You can be a supermodel, and you can be a computer scientist. That’s where I learned to do web and app development.

Sounds like a cool program. Tell me more about the future, since you’re graduating a year early. What are you interested in doing next?
I would love to be on a user experience team, doing design and testing, especially from the lens of accessibility. A big part of my work with OIT is making the internet accessible for people who need a screen reader, or can’t use a mouse. I want to make a world that is accessible to people who weren’t considered when the internet was made—if everyone is online all the time, then everyone deserves to participate.

Wow. That might be the most information science career path I’ve heard.
It is! It’s humbling to design something, and then find people’s expectations to be way off when you do interviews around usability. It’s almost like a game where you have to get someone to do something without telling them what it is. And in redirecting them, you get better ideas of how to make your design more intuitive and accessible.

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

If you knew to update your settings to get on the new campus Wi-Fi earlier this year, you have Averie Dow’s poster design to thank.

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