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Concentration / Minor in Information Science

Information Science is an interdisciplinary field covering all aspects of digital information. The program has three main areas: human-centered systems, social systems, and information systems. Human-centered systems studies the relationship between humans and information, drawing from human-computer interaction and cognitive science. Social systems examines information in its economic, legal, political, cultural, and social contexts. Information systems studies the computer science problems of representing, storing, manipulating, and using digital information.

The concentration/minor has been designed to ensure that you'll have substantial grounding in all three of these areas, as well as in statistics.

Eligibility

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (Architecture and Planning students only)
College of Arts and Sciences
College of Engineering
College of Human Ecology
School of Hotel Administration
School of Industrial and Labor Relations

The Minor/Concentration in Information Science is offered in every undergraduate college at Cornell. Because of small differences in regulations between the colleges, there are sometimes slight variations in the requirements depending on your college and, in a few cases, your major.

Getting started

To start the major, send an e-mail message with your name, college, year of study (e.g. 2nd semester sophomore), expected graduation date, and (intended) major to: minor@infosci.cornell.edu. The minor is self-guided. See below for requirements and standards.

Completing the minor/concentration

When completed, the minor/concentration will appear as a line on your transcript. In order to complete the minor:

A&S, AAP, HE and ILR students

minor completion form

[PDF]

CALS students

minor completion form

[PDF]

minor@infosci.cornell.edu

Engineering students

College of Engineering Minor Form

[PDF]

Hotel students

Hotel Administration IS Minor Form

[PDF]

Requirements

All courses must be chosen from the list in Appendix A (below); no substitutions are allowed. Appendix B (below) lists special requirements for certain departments.
In addition, a letter grade of C or better is required; S/U courses are not allowed.

Some courses in the minor/concentration count toward college distribution requirements. Use the Courses of Study search page to verify whether a course fulfills a distribution in your college.

Note:
Course credits from institutions other than Cornell cannot be counted towards the Information Science minor.

IS minor/concentration requirements by college:

	Agriculture and Life Sciences; Architecture, Art, and Planning; Arts and Sciences; Human Ecology; Industrial and Labor Relations	Engineering	Hotel School
Statistics	One course. AP Stats credit may be used, but an additional course from any other area of the minor must be taken in its place.	One course Must be one of ENGRD 2700 Basic Engineering Probability and Statistics or CEE 3040 Uncertainty Analysis in Engineering	One course Must be H ADM 2201 Hospitality Quantitative Analysis
Human-centered systems (human computer interaction and cognitive science)	Two courses	One course	One course
Social systems (social, economic, political, cultural, and legal issues)	One course	One course	One course
Information systems (designing and implementing information systems; web programming)	Two courses	Two courses* *INFO 1300 cannot be used. INFO 2300 cannot be used by Computer Science majors. CS 2110 cannot be used by majors for which it is a required course, e.g. Computer Science and Operations Research and Information Engineering.	One course
Elective/Additional	One course from one of the following areas: human-centered systems, social systems, or information systems.* *Computer Science majors must select a course from human-centered systems or social systems. Communication majors must select a course outside Communication. Students in other majors should check with their advisors that there are no special departmental restrictions or requirements.	One course from either human-centered or social systems	Three courses Must be: H ADM 3374 Fundamentals of Database Management and Data Analysis H ADM 4474 Strategic Information Systems OR AEM 3220 one of H ADM 4476 Visual Basic for Applications: End-user Programming or H ADM 5575 Internet Technologies

Appendix A is a list of courses that satisfy the above requirements. As Information Science grows, new courses will be added to the concentration.

Enrollment information for Fall 2009: offering notes and roster

All semester and offering info on this page pertains to 08-09 academic year.

Key:

Fall Course

Spring Course

Fall & Spring Course

[ ]=not offered 08-09

Appendix A

Courses that Satisfy the Requirements for the Concentration/Minor in Information Science (no course substitutions allowed).

Statistics

An introductory course that provides a working knowledge of basic probability and statistics and their application to analyzing data occurring in the real world.

	MATH 1710(171)	Statistical Theory and Application in the Real World
	HADM 2201(201)	Hospitality Quantitative Analysis
	AEM 2100(210)	Introductory Statistics
	PAM 2100(210)	Introduction to Statistics
	STSCI 2010(210)	Introductory Statistics
	ENGRD 2700(270)	Basic Engineering Probability & Statistics
	BTRY 3010(301)	Biological Statistics I
	SOC 3010(301)	Evaluating Statistical Evidence
	CEE 3040(304)	Uncertainty Analysis in Engineering
	ILRST 3120(312)	Applied Regression Methods
	ECON 3190(319)	Introduction to Statistics and Probability
	PSYCH 3500(350)	Statistics & Research Design

Human-Centered Systems

	INFO 2140(214)	Cognitive Psychology
	INFO 2450(245)	Psychology of Social Computing
	INFO 3450(345)	Human-Computer Interaction Design
	INFO 3650(365)	Technology and Collaboration
	INFO 4400(440)	Advanced Human-Computer Interaction Design
	INFO 4450(445)	Seminar in Computer Mediated Communication
	[INFO 4500(450)]	Language and Technology
	COGST 1101(101)	Introduction to Cognitive Science
	[DEA 4700(470)]	Applied Ergonomic Methods
	PSYCH 2050(205)	Perception
	PSYCH 2800(280)	Introduction to Social Psychology
	PSYCH 3420(342)	Human Perception: Applications to Computer Graphics, Art, and Visual Display
	PSYCH 3470(347)	Psychology of Visual Communications
	PSYCH 3800(380)	Social Cognition
	PSYCH 4160(416)	Modeling Perception and Cognition

Social Systems

	INFO 2040(204)	Networks
	INFO 2921(292)	Inventing an Information Society
	[INFO 3200(320)]	New Media and Society‡
	[INFO 3490(349)]	Media Technologies
	[INFO 3551(355)]	Computers: From the 17th Century to the Dot.Com Boom
	INFO 3561(356)	Computing Cultures
	[INFO 3660(366)]	History and Theory of Digital Art
	[INFO 3871(387)]	The Automatic Lifestyle: Consumer Culture and Technology
	[INFO 4290(429)]	Copyright in the Digital Age
	[INFO 4144(444)]	Responsive Environments
	INFO 4470(447)	Social and Economic Data
	INFO 5150(515)	Culture, Law, and Politics of the Internet
	AEM 3220(322)	Internet Strategy†
	COMM 4280(428)	Communication Law
	ECON 3010(301)	Microeconomics±
	ECON 3130(313)	Intermediate Microeconomic Theory±
	ECON 3680(368)	Game Theory*
	[ECON 4190(419)]	Economic Decisions Under Uncertainty
	ECON 4760(476)	Decision Theory I
	ECON 4770(477)	Decision Theory II
	HADM 4489(489)	The Law of the Internet and e-Commerce
	ORIE 4350(435)	Introduction to Game Theory*
	[SOC 3040(304)]	Social Networks and Social Processes
	STS 2501(250)	Technology in Society
	[S&TS 4111(411)]	Knowledge, Technology, and Property
	SOC 4150 (415)	Internet and Society‡

*Only one of ORIE 4350 and ECON 3680 can be taken for IS credit.
†Only one of AEM 3220 and HADM 474 can be taken for IS credit.
(Note: HADM 474 is no longer offered.)
‡Only one of INFO 3200 and SOC 4150 can be taken for IS credit.
±Only one of ECON 3010 and ECON 3130 can be taken for IS credit.

Information Systems

INFO 1300

Introductory Design and Programming for the Web*

*Students who took INFO 1301 & 1302 do not have to take 1300.

	INFO 2300(230)	Intermediate Design & Programming for the Web
	INFO 3300(330)	Data-Driven Web Applications
	[INFO 3720(372)]	Explorations in Artificial Intelligence
	INFO 4300(430)	Information Retrieval
	[INFO 4302(431)]	Web Information Systems
	INFO 5300(530)	Architecture of Large-Scale Information Systems
	CIS 3000(300)	Introduction to Computer Game Design
	CS 2110(211)	Object-Oriented Programming and Data Structures
	CS 4450(419)	Computer Networks
	CS 4320(432)	Introduction to Database Systems
	CS 4620(465)	Introduction to Computer Graphics
	CS 4700(472)	Foundations of Artificial Intelligence
	[CS 4780(478)]	Machine Learning
	CS 5150(501)	Software Engineering
	CS 5430(513)	System Security
	CS 5780(578)	Empirical Methods in Machine Learning and Data Mining
	ECE 5620(562)	Fundamental Information Theory
	LING 4424(424)	Computational Linguistics
	LING 4474(474)	Introduction to Natural Language Processing
	ORIE 4740(474)	Statistical Data Mining I
	ORIE 4800(480)	Information Technology
	[ORIE 4810(481)]	Delivering OR Solutions with Information Technology
	ORIE 4850(483)	Application of Operations Research and Game Theory in Information Technology

Appendix B

Departmental Regulations for the Concentration/Minor in Information Science

Computer Science Department Computer Science majors cannot use INFO 1300, INFO 2300, or CS 2110. All CS students must select their elective course from human-centered systems or social systems.

Hotel School students may not use HADM 4474 as a Social Systems course because this course is already required in the additional course area (see chart above).

Communication majors must take their elective course outside Communication.

Students in other majors should check with their advisors that there are no special departmental restrictions or requirements.