UC Berkeley School of Information

Five MIDS alumni built VeriMap for the UN x Google Data Commons hackathon in New York! 🌐🏙️ VeriMap pulls and checks SDG indicators across UN agencies, with no new code per indicator, starting with renewable energy access and affordability. ⚡️ Read more: https://bit.ly/4ywQAiJ

✨ Meet MIMS student Ponette Rubio! ✨ This summer, she was an AI Graduate Fellow at the New Jersey Innovation Authority, building FAIR, a tool that helps civil rights investigators move through interview materials.

MIMS and Ph.D. alumna @kingjen.bsky.social spoke to @sciam.bsky.social about whether or not AI is stealing ideas and fears about privacy. She noted what while enterprise accounts might be okay, "if you are on a personal account, all bets are off."

Meet Morgan Wofford, the I School's newest Bellwether Postdoc! 🌍 She studies how open climate data gets shared, trusted, and reused, working with Prof. John Chuang in the IceBerk Lab.

✍️ Writing with AI is now a spectrum. 🗣️ Join us next week for a talk with Aarhus University Prof. Mads Rosendahl Thomsen on AI-shaped writing as part of the Cultural Analytics Series. @ucbids.bsky.social 📆 October 30, 12-1:30 pm 📍 210 South Hall and Online

15 years after graduation, MIMS alum Thejo Kote is paying it forward with a new fellowship that supports incoming MIMs students from India. First recipient Sohamm Joshii (MIMS '28) says "that belief [in me] lights a fire in me to...master everything the I School has to offer."

🔔 Join us for a panel with @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social al.bsky.social Berkeley Professors David Hausman, Caitlin Patler, and Jennifer Urban, & Deirdre Mulligan, who'lll discuss the state of U.S. immigration enforcement and surveillance. 📆 Oct 28, 3:30-5:00 PM 📍 820 Social Sciences Building

🚨 Hiring: Assistant Professor of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) 🚨 The I School is seeking applicants who are defining the next generation of human-computer interaction. Final review date: Monday, November 2, 2026. https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05482

✨ Meet new Bellwether Postdoc Christopher Hauck! ✨ Prior to joining the I School, Hauck worked at Riot Games as a researcher. He now studies prosocial behavior in online communities.

New research by @dbamman.bsky.social found that in animated films, nonhuman characters are overwhelmingly male. “...We were surprised that there’s an even stronger male skew when looking at the screen time of nonhuman characters in animated films," Bamman said to @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social.

✨ CALL FOR PROPOSALS ✨ @cltcberkeley.bsky.social invite proposals from UC Berkeley graduate students, post-doctoral scholars and pre-tenure faculty pursuing novel research for its 8th annual Cal Cybersecurity Research Fellowship!

Congrats to MIMS '05 alum Hong Qu for his new position as the @dorisdukefdn.bsky.social's chief technology officer, where he will be responsible for bolstering the systems, tools and practices the foundation uses for operations. 👏👏

Bellwether Lecture TODAY! 🔔🗣️ @ucdavis.bsky.social Prof. Rob Voigt will discuss a line of work on police-community interaction using computational models to analyze police body-worn camera footage. 📅 October 14, 12:10-1:30 pm 📍 210 South Hall

Congratulations to MIDS alumnus Michael Marks for his appointment as Chief AI Engineer at the Office of Data and Innovation! 👏👏 Marks graduated from the I School in 2016 and has been the Principal Lead Data Scientist at Analytica Consulting since 2018.

Congratulations to incoming I School Prof. @@sayash.bsky.social for being named one of @technologyreview.com 35 Innovators Under 30. 👏👏 Kapoor was named an innovator in the field of artifical intelligence, where he "tests whether AI is living up to its promise."

@cltcberkeley.bsky.social's Executive Director Ann Cleaveland spoke to @wafb.com about the Cyber Civil Defense Summit: Central in Baton Rouge, LA. She spoke about the focus on "whole-of-state cybersecurity" to create protections for smaller communities and critical infrastructure.

Bellwether Lecture Next Week! 🔔🗣️ Prof. @robvoigt.bsky.social will discuss a line of work on police-community interaction using computational models to analyze police body-worn camera footage. 📅 October 14, 12:10-1:30 pm 📍 210 South Hall

Join us this Friday, Oct. 9, for an addition to the Cultural Analytics series! In her talk, CU Boulder Prof. mariaa.bsky.social argues for descriptive, analytical methods for exploring and mapping narrative spaces. 📅 12-1:30 pm 📍 210 South Hall & Online

Ph.D. student Sarah Barrington and @cmist-cmu.bsky.social Prof. Hannah Bailey explore how history repeats itself when regulators confront frontier technologies like AI. Their essay has been published in the Journal of Online Trust and Safety.

A first-of-its-kind project by I School Prof. Diag Davenport and Bellwether Scholar Denis Peskoff is using AI and data science to collect every digitally accessible law in a free, open-access database. “We’ve built a new kind of telescope — one pointed at governance itself," explained Davenport.

Ph.D. alum and Cornell Prof. @zephoria.bsky.social's new book, Data Are Made, Not Found, provides an insider’s account of the 2020 census, the decade of planning leading up to it, and how the global COVID pandemic threatened to take it down like a Jenga tower.

Meet Jadda Miller, one of our new Bellwether Postdocs! Jadda will workalongside Professor Kimiko Ryokai and is looking at ways science education can enhance its relevance by connecting classroom learning with the complex social-ecological challenges that students experience in their communities.

ICYMI 📰 Prof. Tim Tangherlini received the Linda Dégh Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research (ISCLR) for his work on computational methods for the study of legends and rumor. https://contemporarylegend.org/prizes/degh/

@cltcberkeley.bsky.social released a new white paper proposing recommendations for policies that can be implemented to regulate technologies that enable the creation and dissemination of AI-powered NCII and CSAM. #academicsky

Former Dean Hal R. Varian was named a Citation Laureate for his work in the pioneering analysis of the economics of information technology. Citation Laureates reflect researchers whose work is of Nobel class and merits global recognition.

MIMS student Priya Charagondla was a Library AI Literacy and Instructional Design Intern at @ucberkeleylibrary.bsky.social, where she designed a Library Staff AI Exchange event. There, she presented research on how libraries can leverage AI to enhance accessibility.

Ph.D. student @laurenmarietta.bsky.social co-wrote an op-ed for @insidehighered.com, discussing why graduate students are leaving academia. "Graduate students are not abandoning academia. They are asking whether the academy, as it is currently structured, deserves their trust."

Ph.D. alum @justintime.ai has been named "AI Science Advisor to the California Department of Technology" as part of the California's AI Science Residency Program. In his role, he'll advise senior leadership on California frontier AI safety legislation.

I School MIMS alum Anna Lanzino was recently featured in an article by @cltcberkeley.bsky.social. Lanzino graduated in 2025 and recently started her own cybersecurity advising firm, attributing her decision to the Cybersecurity Clinic class she took at the I School.

MIDS alums Alex Kim, Alex Lei, Sia Morris, and Elaine Chan are the minds behind the Varian Award-winning project EpiNTelligence, which helps collect and organize outbreak information for health officials. Check out the team's Q&A:

LISTEN 🎧: @cltcberkeley.bsky.social Executive Director Ann Cleaveland spoke to @kqedforum.bsky.social about cyberattacks on local, public infrastructure. "Small cities or small operators sometimes think, 'We’re too small to be a target.'" she explained.

Ticket sales end today! Our Centennial Celebration is next week! 🎉 Closing the day w/ a fireside chat: Dean Meyer, Prof. AnnaLee Saxenian, alums Thejo Kote, Tonya Nguyen & Larry Arpia, on the School's past, present & future. Join 9/26 at South Hall. https://bit.ly/3TYeghk

Join us this Friday, Sept. 18 for a Cultural Analytics Lecture! Duke Prof. @aarthivadde.bsky.social discusses the early adoption of generative AI models in the work of English-language writers. 📅 Sept. 18, 12-1:30 pm 📍 210 South Hall & Online @ucbids.bsky.social https://shorturl.at/DuM0G

As the School of Information marks 100 years as a professional school at UC Berkeley, the I School community completed a strategic planning process, resulting in 7 priorities & 17 initial actions. Check out our priorities for the decade: https://shorturl.at/pz7rb

4 days left to register for the I School Centennial Celebration! Join us as we celebrate a century of history behind the School of Information on Sept. 26. Some events are sold out but there are still spots at our Dinner & Conversation event. 🎫 https://bit.ly/3TYeghk

ICYMI 📰 Dang Nguyen, Bellwether postdoc scholar, was invited to give a keynote talk titled “Rendering Domination Technical: Gender and the Hardening of Digital Sovereignty” at the Statecraft, Sovereignty & Digital Government symposium at Goldsmiths, UK. https://digitalstatecraft2026.org/

The Bellwether Lecture Series returns to the I School with a talk by @uni-wuerzburg.de Prof. @fotisjannidis.bsky.social! In his talk, Jannidis presents an experimental approach to modeling character abstractions. 📅 Tomorrow, Sept 9, 12:10-1:30 pm 📍 210 South Hall & Online https://bit.ly/4gqssc0

Prof. Josh Blumenstock is a featured speaker at Stanford University's World Development Report 2026, an all-day event on what AI means for developing countries, and how it can offer them a path to greater prosperity. 📅 Sep 24, 9 am–5:15pm 📍 Vidalakis Dining Hall, Stanford

Ph.D. student Sarah Barrington spoke to @paloaltoonline.com, where she identified harms coming from AI content. "People have tried to rewrite history by altering content for hundreds of years. … AI has enabled us to supercharge an existing harm," she said.

The Bellwether Lecture Series returns to the I School with a talk by @uni-wuerzburg.de Prof. @fotisjannidis.bsky.social! In his talk, Jannidis will present an experimental approach to modeling character abstractions. 📅 September 9, 12:10-1:30 pm 📍 210 South Hall & Online https://bit.ly/4gqssc0

MICS students Brandon Tarca and Sash Upadhyaya are the minds behind "TrustLayer AI," the Chang Award-winning capstone project. The project reads through chatbot prompts, scan for sensitive information, and make decisions around content redaction. https://bit.ly/4gHSbva

Join us for the I School Centennial Bday Celebration! 📣 We're celebrating 108 yrs since Berkeley's first full-time program in library science & 100 yrs since starting the Library School. 📅 Sep. 26, 1:30-8 pm 📍 South Hall Early bird tickets end TODAY!

@ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social shared 9 fascinating new classes, including new Professor Kate Metcalf's "Data and the Body." The class is fully waitlisted and aims to give students practice digesting and discussing complex academic texts.

Get to know the MIMS Class of 2028! 54 students from around the world joined us, with 76% identifying as women and coming from backgrounds in business, biology, humanities, marketing, and more. https://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/news/2026/meet-mims-class-2028

Check out this new exhibition premiering at the Worth Ryder Art Gallery! The exhibition Hidden Layers: AI Infrastructures and Hallucinations brings together 17 artists and researchers to make visible what AI keeps out of sight.

LISTEN 🎧: Ph.D. student Sarah Barrington was featured on an episode of journalist @marcfennell.bsky.social's new audio series:"Unreal: When AI Becomes Us". In the episode (Episode 3!), Barrington puts Fennell to the test to see if he can identify AI-generated audio.

MIDS student Sunil Thakur shared his thoughts about building an enterprise governance framework that'll keep up with the speed of AI innovation. "Risk, compliance, and security define the boundaries within which innovation can safely operate," he wrote.

This week, we welcomed our new MIMS and Ph.D. students during Orientation and celebrated the end of summer with our annual Welcome Picnic 🥰 It was a blast connecting with both familiar and new faces and we thank everyone for joining us! Event album: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjD2Hj1

Recent MIDS grad Alex Kim published a Medium article about lessons learned while doing his capstone project. "Ask not what the model can do. Ask what is preventing someone who already knows what they’re doing from doing it even better," he said. medium.com/berkeleyisch...

ICYMI 📰 Anthony Li, MIDS student, gave a talk at Purdue University Global as part of a series of Autism Speaks events on predicting burnout phases to improve the quality of life for autistic individuals. https://www.purdueglobal.edu/student-experience/student-life/communities-clubs/