ARCHIVED SITE (last updated Fall 2005)
For current information, please visit http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu
 

Our Mission and Program

Information is the DNA of modern economic and social life. The School of Information Management and Systems (SIMS) prepares leaders to understand, organize, and manage information. Social scientists and technologists work together at SIMS to address the challenges posed for organizations and society by information ubiquity and abundance.

We are committed to enhancing information access and quality. Our goal is to design and develop systems and policies that meet the needs and protect the rights of different information users--including individuals and groups, organizations and communities, and society as a whole.

Our faculty specializes in human-computer interface, information design and architecture, information economics and policy, the sociology of information, and information assurance. Through research and teaching we seek to discover better ways to collect, describe, evaluate, classify, store, retrieve, manipulate, present, and distribute information. We work with information as text, statistics, graphics, video, and audio, both stored and real-time sensor data.

SIMS offers both a masters and a doctoral program. The Masters of Information Management and Systems program provides students with the fundamental tools and skills to design and operate information systems and services. Our doctoral program equips scholars with the theoretical and research capabilities they need to help deepen our understanding of information management, use, systems, and policy. Both programs draw on the unique mix of technical and social science disciplines represented at SIMS. Graduates pursue careers in corporate, government, and academic settings in professions that include information management, consulting, information architecture, and knowledge management.

SIMS is a small multi-disciplinary intellectual community. We encourage interaction among our approximately 100 graduate students and 13 faculty members. Our curriculum emphasizes small classes and project-based learning. Students in their second year complete a semester-long group "capstone project" that makes use of knowledge and skills acquired in the program. Our size and selectivity enable us to support a vibrant community of scholars and professionals and to involve many students in faculty research.

Students selected for admission to SIMS have access to the world-class research capabilities and extraordinary range of professional and intellectual development opportunities of the University of California at Berkeley. The School enjoys close relationships with other professional schools including Computer Science, Law, Business, Journalism, Architecture, Public Policy, and Planning. We are core members of the newly established interdisciplinary Center for New Media, and we have access to Berkeley's leading social science and humanities departments. SIMS benefits as well from our proximity to Silicon Valley and the world's leading information technology companies.

Welcome to SIMS. You are joining a rich, continually-changing community of students, leaders, and scholars. You will find teachers and colleagues eager to share their experience and knowledge with you and help you to contribute to our understanding of information management and systems.

AnnaLee Saxenian
Dean and Professor