Program highlights

AIMING SKY HIGH

Shannon Gatta, a data engineer at Blue Origin, has big dreams for herself — and for helping others rise, too

Photo by Doug Parry

By Jessi Loerch

“For me, it was a lot of large-scale topics I’d never really imagined,” she said. “It helped me align with what my goals were

Shannon Gatta’s work is out of this world. going to be.”

Gatta, who graduated from the iSchool in 2020 with a degree While studying at Seattle Central, Gatta found opportunities in Informatics, works as a data engineer for the private aero- to get involved in aerospace research at the UW. She learned space company Blue Origin, has completed the first level of about Informatics and the iSchool, which sounded like the private astronaut training, and has interned at NASA. right fit for her. After she started at the iSchool, she took a data

She’s not content with fulfilling her own dreams; she’s using science class and liked it immediately. her talents to help other people — particularly those from “I loved that the class wasn’t just about the technology, it was marginalized groups — shoot for the stars as well. about the responsibility that comes with knowing the data, and

Gatta first found a passion for space while at Seattle how you manipulate it and the power and accountability that Central College. She had moved to Seattle after serving with comes along with the insight you provide,” she said. the Army National Guard in Afghanistan, with a goal of trans- Gatta was selected as a candidate for Out Astronaut in 2019 ferring to the University of Washington. At Seattle Central, she and completed the first phase of training. She’s still part of that joined a rocketry club, which started her on a path she’d never expected. GATTA, continued on Page 33

Alumni spotlight: Jamie Prins, Informatics, 2005

NOW: SENIOR PRODUCT LEAD, AMAZON “I recently led the launch of Alexa’s first masculine-sounding voice and newest wake word, “Ziggy” (while parenting two kids at home during the pandemic) . To try the new voice, say, “Alexa, change your voice .” As part of the Alexa Personality team, I advocate for strong design and UX research to ensure we are meeting the needs of our customers and being thoughtful about the role of personified AI in society . My Informatics background and the program’s focus on human-centered design has served me well at Amazon .”

QTPOC films in the spotlight

By Luna Reyna

As a teenager, Michael Mungin would go to Columbia City Library in South Seattle to find books and films about the intersecting complexities of being Black and gay, or what he called as a teenager, “same-gender loving.” Fortunately, some helpful librarians supported his pursuit by setting aside things that they thought he would find interesting. He realized libraries can be a useful safe space and can point people toward resources that might make an impact in their lives. The experience stayed with him and has culminated in the work he is doing now as a research and instruction librarian at UW Bothell.

According to Mungin, ’10, finding films that center the experiences of queer and trans people of color (QTPOC) may have saved his life. “I think the lack of representation robs you of your imagination for your own future,” he says. But when he was 13, he discovered the 1996 documentary “All God’s Children.” The short film explores the way Black Christian families with gay and lesbian family members are able to reconcile their faith with their family member’s sexuality. The documentary is an example of how people can learn to sit with their discomfort and accept the ones they love as they are. “I remember that really resonating with me because it’s what I had hoped my experience in coming out to my family would be like,” Mungin says.

In 2018, Mungin was awarded a Carnegie Whitney Grant from

the American Library Association to create Michael Mungin “An Intersectional Lens: Towards a QTPOC Film Canon.” The canon offers a curated list of films that showcase QTPOC in many intersecting and uniquely intimate and eccentric ways of being and loving. “This is the kind of thing that I wish existed when I was a little younger, when I was a teenager just discovering libraries,” Mungin says. “It was always a struggle for me to find things that spoke to what my future might be.” The life-changing impact “All God’s Children” had for Mungin is what he hopes the film canon can have for other QTPOC people who have never seen themselves in film and are looking for real representation. He includes films like “The Watermelon Woman” by Black lesbian filmmaker Cheryl Dunye and “Tongues Untied” by director Marlon Riggs, a documentary about the experiences of Black homosexual men. “It is just such an amazing, energetic documentary,” Mungin says. Story courtesy of UW Magazine. Read more about Mungin’s film canon at ischool.uw.edu/mungin.

‘The Watermelon Woman’ and ‘Tongues Untied’ are among the works in a QTPOC film canon curated by Michael Mungin.

Alumni spotlight: Traci Timmons, MLIS, 1999

NOW: SENIOR LIBRARIAN, SEATTLE ART MUSEUM “Art museum librarians support the work of their institutions at all levels and are being called on to find innovative ways to meet the educational, technological and social challenges museums face in the 21st century . I’m proud to shine a spotlight on this work in ‘The New Art Museum Library’ (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021) . Through a series of scholarly essays, readers will develop an understanding about this dynamic field and the creative ways in which art museum librarians are making their institutions better .”

Strength in numbers

Student group focused on cybersecurity is thriving — and more relevant than ever

By Jessi Loerch

When Andy Herman joined the Information School’s Master of Science in Information Management program, he went looking for other students who shared his interest in cybersecurity.

When he found that there wasn’t a cybersecurity-focused student group, Herman joined with some friends to create one. He chose to affiliate with ISACA, a worldwide organization that supports people who work in information security, risk management and related fields.

Now, five years later, Herman has long since handed over the reins of ISACA, but he’s too attached to let it go completely. He now leads the governance, risk and compliance team within Mixed Reality at Microsoft, but continues to stay connected with the group’s new leaders and its academic advisor, Annie Searle, an iSchool associate teaching professor.

“When we started ISACA, it was not the intent to have it burn out after a year,” Herman said. “We wanted to have a legacy.”

The group formed in spring 2016, and by the fall had 200 members. Herman and his fellow leaders organized events to allow students to connect with and learn from each other and professionals in the field. They invited guest speakers and held workshops to help students explore security and information management from a variety of perspectives.

In the years since Herman started the group, it’s continued with new students leading the effort. Elizabeth (Liz) Crooks was the president of ISACA in 2018. She had come to the iSchool planning to study information security, and so was excited to find ISACA. She says ISACA was a valuable way to help students understand how broad the field of information security is — including jobs in compliance, risk management, auditing and software engineering. After graduation, she worked at Coalfire, a cybersecurity consulting company, and she now works for a law firm that focuses on privacy and data security.

“I think ISACA is really valuable because it gives students another doorway into the professional world,” she said. “It’s a way to get connected with professionals and potential careers and learn more about the overall profession. The iSchool does good conceptual and hands-on work, but it’s still incredibly valuable to hear what those folks do in their day-to-day and the types of things they’re thinking about.”

This year, Nicola Kalderash is carrying on the effort as ISACA’s new president. Kalderash, who is earning his MSIM, says that recent news events, such as the SolarWinds hack, are important reminders of the value of cybersecurity. He believes that everyone needs to understand cybersecurity, even if it’s not directly part of their job.

“We will all be in roles where we will be dealing with information that is private and confidential,” he said. “You need to know how to protect those assets.”

With that in mind, Kalderash is working this year to expand the group’s reach, including by teaming up with other student groups such as Women in Informatics and the Informatics Undergraduate Association. He also stresses the importance of looking at cybersecurity from many different angles.

“We need diversity of thought. We need a diverse workforce, both in education and background,” he said. “Hackers have various points of view, so we need that in the field as well.”

From top: Andy Herman, Liz Crooks and Nicola Kalderash.

Alumni spotlight: Emily Smalligan, MSIM, 2018

NOW: BUSINESS MANAGER, MICROSOFT “I started a new role at Microsoft this past January, which has been a great next step (I was formerly a tech consultant at PwC) . I manage the business rhythms, financials and people initiatives for a 500+ person, global organization . I work closely with a wide variety of people from engineers to program managers to human resources staff — always seeking new ways to streamline our business processes, leverage Microsoft technologies, and exchange information quickly in this, still at the moment, entirely virtual world .”

New vistas in virtual reality

Rachel Franz wins Apple Scholars fellowship that will support her work to improve the accessibility of VR

By Samantha Ahlhorn

Rachel Franz, a Ph.D. student in the iSchool, recently received the Apple Scholars in AI/ML fellowship — awarded to researchers working in the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning — for her work improving accessibility in virtual reality technology.

Franz has worked with accessibility in technology for many years, after majoring in cognitive science & architecture and human-computer interaction as an undergraduate. The field is somewhat unexplored, making her research unique.

“There’s not that many people working in that space yet,” Franz said.

Her past research focused on making technology easier to use for older individuals, who generally have changing abilities and a reluctance to use trial and error when learning new technologies.

Franz aimed to make technology more user-friendly by way of artificial intelligence, hopefully allowing older people to take advantage of new technologies.

However, once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she was unable to continue research with older participants. This led her to look for a new topic of study.

“I started realizing that there’s quite a few accessibility issues with VR,” Franz said. “[For] 30-some years, people have been working on different ways to move in VR, different ways to interact with objects in VR, and yet, the accessibility of these techniques hasn’t been explored yet.”

Thus, she began research in improving accessibility in VR for people with mobility limitations — research that would earn her the Apple Scholars fellowship.

“My goal is to eventually design a recommender system that recommends interaction techniques based on people’s abilities, their preferences, [and] possibly the structure of the virtual environment,” Franz said.

This system would evaluate the user’s performance — how quickly and accurately they can use the technology — and adapt to it, increasing the amount of people who could use VR.

This system will be applied to a wide variety of VR technologies and a wide variety of mobility limitations. “Across VR apps, they use different locomotion techniques, different object manipulation techniques, and so the use case would just be to kind of choose the best interaction techniques for that individual and for their physical abilities and that they would be able to use it across different apps,” Franz said.

The Apple Scholars fellowship, which was granted to 15 students globally this year, funds two years of research and provides a two-year mentorship with an Apple researcher with similar interests. Franz is working with Jeffrey P. Bigham, a researcher studying AI for accessibility.

This story is republished with permission of The Daily of University of Washington.

Rachel Franz hopes to develop a system that can adapt to the abilities of people using VR technologies.

Alumni spotlight: Rachel Ivy Clarke, Doctorate, 2016

NOW: ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, SYRACUSE UNIV. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES “I’ve been researching ways to increase access to diverse reading materials . My recent paper, co-authored with Sayward Schoonmaker (MSLIS ’19), ‘Metadata for Diversity: Identification and Implications of Political Access Points for Diverse Library Resources,’ won both the 2020 ALCTS Outstanding Publication Award and the 2020 Jesse H . Shera Award for Distinguished Published Research . We have since designed a prototype library catalog that retrieves and surfaces works from people with marginalized identities .”