2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog
Information Science Minor
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Return to: School of Computing and Information
In every profession, actions are taken, and decisions are made, using information, systems, and/or networks. Companies collect data to determine future product lines, banks and financial institutions depend upon complicated and real-time systems to move money, while all governments depend on the secure and efficient transmission of data across regional and international networks. Whether you plan to work in healthcare, manufacturing, finance, education, politics, or sales, having skills in system design, network management, and data analysis will make you more marketable to employers. How to do this while still following your undergraduate degree plans? Select the Minor in Information Science. While mastering your chosen discipline, you can gain a strong foundation in understanding information, analyzing/transmitting/securing information in context, and using information in decision-making.
The Department of Informatics and Networked Systems is home to one of the oldest Information Science majors in the United States. Our degree and research programs are at the confluence of information, networks, and human cognition, perception, and behavior.
Now, our 15-credit Minor allows University of Pittsburgh students from any degree program to add technical expertise to their professional capabilities. In the Information Science Minor, students take one required programming course and a select combination of electives to design a program of study that best suits their potential career goals. Students can choose a series of courses that are of interest to them, or courses that will provide more in-depth study on a specific topic by following one of the optional pathways described below.
The Minor in Information Science will comprise five (5) classes including one required course and a minimum of four INFSCI classes. Only INFSCI courses numbered 0100 and greater can be used in the minor. Internship, capstone courses (courses in INFSCI 17XX) and co-ops cannot be used for the minor.
Several optional pathways are suggested below. Please note some classes have prerequisites.
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Required Programming Course
Students are required to complete an intermediate course in programming. Only ONE of these two courses will count toward the minor.
Minor Electives
In addition to the required programming course, students will select four INFSCI courses numbered 0100 or greater. The paths outlined below are examples of courses that can be clustered together to achieve a specific educational or professional goal. The paths are optional.
The most general path comprises the core components of Information Science - Human Centered Systems, Data Analysis, and Networks and Information.
Suggested classes include:
Pathway Electives
As noted above, the optional paths outlined below are examples of courses that can be clustered together to achieve a specific educational goal. It is not required to follow a specific pathway.
How to Declare the Minor in Information Science
Students declare the Minor by completing the Undergraduate Minor Declaration/Change Form.
It is recommended that students declare the Minor by the end of the term in which they will earn 90 credits, to ensure enough time to enroll in appropriate and/or desired courses. Students are welcome to declare the Minor in Information Science prior to that time.
User Experience Pathway
The User Experience pathway prepares students with the skills and capabilities to design and develop technology solutions that address problems and improve the user experience. Guided by the design thinking process, students tackle problems by assessing the needs and goals of users and other stakeholders; learn how to develop quality solutions through ideation, prototyping, and testing; and strengthen their communication skills in order to work across a variety of stakeholders and users.
Suggested classes include:
Data Analytics Pathway
A rigorous Python programming grounding (INFSCI 0201 ) is recommended for the Data Analytics pathway. This pathway creates the competencies to (i) scrape, munge, explore data from different sources including the web, (ii) work with database management systems, including relational, graph, and document databases (iii) build models of data in Python/R ranging such as linear and logistic regression, support vector machines, Bayesian inference and time series (iv) do Monte-Carlo and discrete event simulations in Python and (v) examine and visualize network data using Python/R Visualize different types of data and create interactive visualizations using Python, R (ggplot), or D3.js.
Suggested classes include:
Cybersecurity Pathway
In the Cybersecurity pathway, students learn fundamental Information Science techniques such as mathematical and agent-based modeling facilitating the establishment of cybersecurity through an understanding of networks (in particular the Internet), and foundational/practical concepts in network and information system security.
Suggested classes include:
Policies for the IS Minor
Students who have completed courses equivalent or similar to those listed in the options above will not be able to double-count the courses with other majors, minors, or certificates. These students must substitute them with a different INFSCI course.
For example, a student who has completed CS 1555: Database Management Systems would replace INFSCI 1500: Database Management Concepts and Applications with a different data-oriented INFSCI course.
Satisfactory/No Credit (S/NC) grade options for IS Minors
The student should check with his or her academic advisor before deciding to take a course S/NC (formerly the S/N option). The Department of Informatics and Networked Systems does not accept S grades for courses required for the completion of the Information Science Minor.
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