Information Science Minor

A minor in information science is available to students in the Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Architecture, Art, and Planning (available to Architecture and Planning students only); Arts and Sciences; Engineering; Human Ecology; and the Schools of Hotel Administration and Industrial and Labor Relations. Because of small differences in regulations between the colleges, the requirements may vary slightly, depending on a student’s college and, in a few cases, a student’s major. Students interested in pursuing the information science minor must initiate the process by sending an e-mail message with their name, college, year of study (e.g., second-semester sophomore), expected graduation date, and (intended) major to minor@infosci.cornell.edu. See www.infosci.cornell.edu/ugrad.html for the most up-to-date description of the minor and its requirements.

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 minor has been designed to ensure that students have substantial grounding in all three of these areas, as well as in statistics. To this end, the requirements for the undergraduate minor are as follows: All courses must be chosen from the course lists below. In addition, a letter grade of at least C is required; S–U courses are not allowed.

Note: Course credits from institutions other than Cornell may not be counted toward the IS minor. Engineering students must use ENGRD 2700 or CEE 3040 . Hotel students must use HADM 2010 (formerly 2201) .

Statistics: one course.
Human-centered systems (human-computer interaction and cognitive science): two courses (for all colleges except Engineering and Hotel); one course (Engineering and Hotel).
Social systems (social, economic, political, cultural, and legal issues): one course.
Information systems (primarily computer science): two courses for all colleges except Hotel. Hotel students need to take one course in this area. Engineering students may not use INFO 1300 . CS 2110 may not be used by students who are required to take it for their major.
Elective: one additional course from any component area. Hotel students must take three courses in this category, from the following: HADM 3740 (formerly 3374) , HADM 4890 (formerly 4489) , or AEM 3220 . (Engineering students and all 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 to make sure there are no special departmental restrictions or requirements.)

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.

Engineering students must take one of the following:

Hotel students must take:

HADM 2010 (formerly 2201) - Hospitality Quantitative Analysis

All other students can meet this requirement with any one of the following:

Human-Centered Systems:

COGST 1101 - Introduction to Cognitive Science (crosslisted)
PSYCH 2050 - Perception
INFO 2140 - Cognitive Psychology (crosslisted)
INFO 2450 - Communication and Technology (crosslisted)
PSYCH 2800 - Introduction to Social Psychology
PSYCH 3420 - Human Perception: Application to Computer Graphics, Art, and Visual Display (crosslisted)
INFO 3400 - Online Relationships (crosslisted)
INFO 3450 - Human-Computer Interaction Design (crosslisted)
INFO 3460 - Online Communities (crosslisted)
PSYCH 3470 - [Psychology of Visual Communications]
INFO 3650 - Technology in Collaboration (crosslisted)
PSYCH 3800 - Social Cognition
INFO 4320 - Introduction to Rapid Prototyping and Physical Computing *
INFO 4400 - Advanced Human-Computer Interaction Design (crosslisted)
INFO 4450 - Computer-Mediated Communication (crosslisted)
INFO 4500 - Language and Technology (crosslisted)
DEA 4700 - Applied Ergonomic Methods

Note:

*INFO 4320 may count toward the minor in Human-Centered Systems or Information Systems but not both.

Social Systems:

Note:

*Only one of ECON 3010 and ECON 3130 can be taken for IS credit. Only one of ORIE 4350 and ECON 3680 can be taken for IS credit.

Information Systems:

The following exceptions apply:

*INFO 1300 : engineering students and Computer Science majors may not use this course for the minor.

*INFO 2300 : Computer Science majors may not use this course for the minor.

*CS 2110 : students for whom this is a required major course may not use it for the minor, e.g., Computer Science or Operations Research and Engineering majors.

Note:

**INFO 4320 may count toward the minor as Information Systems or Human-Centered Systems but not both.