Wayne State’s School of Information Sciences will offer its first undergraduate course, Intro to Informatics: Data, Information & Knowledge in the 21st Century (INF 4010), during the fall 2021 semester. The class will be co-taught by Dr. Tim Bowman and Dr. Nic DePaula. 

Have you ever wondered how Alexa is able to interpret your requests? Why so many people believe false information in the media, or what impact misinformation has on society?

This course will explore how our psychological biases and social forces impact science, information, and technologies.

"Around the world companies are collecting, storing, manipulating, and distributing vast amounts of information to society every day, yet most people don't have the slightest idea how it's done or why it impacts their lives,” said Bowman. “We'll give you a peek behind the curtain in INF 4010 and challenge you to think about the positive and negative repercussions. With more than 20 years of practical experience in the profession, my goal is to impart some of the lessons I've learned to students in the course to both introduce the skills necessary for an informatics-related job and to provide a deeper consideration of the impacts these types of activities have on society."

INF 4010 will examine the fundamentals of information technology and introduce students to computer programming, data analysis, and how to use spreadsheet software to examine and visualize datasets. It will also teach students to critically think about data and information, science, and misinformation in the world today. 

“People too often believe what they like, not what is true,” said DePaula. "This class explores technical skills in computation and data analysis, and how people can develop strong convictions from well-reasoned thought. The wellbeing of society depends on people's willingness and capacity to reason and communicate with each other about complex ideas.”

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Distinguish among the major components of computers, the Internet, and databases.
• Code basic functions and operations in a programming language such as Python.
• Extract and operate online datasets via spreadsheet software (e.g. Excel).
• Analyze and visualize online datasets with basic statistical techniques.
• Discuss the role of information and technologies across society and organizations.
• Evaluate the quality of information based on aspects of science and reasoning.
• Explain ethical and policy issues concerning information, technology and society.

INF 4010 (CRN 18149) will be offered asynchronously online and is open to undergraduate students. This course is the main introductory course for the Informatics minor, which will soon be available from the School of Information Sciences to all undergraduates at Wayne State University.

View a draft of the class syllabus here. 

Please contact Megen R. Drulia at ay6086@wayne.edu with questions or registration issues.