Supplement to SIS’s Academic Requirements System; Hypocrisy or Adaptation: How BP Defends Its Reputation in the Climate Emergency

How do existing sociotechnical systems change in response to their audience? Institutional pressures from stakeholders can elicit a myriad of responses from conformity to new demands or at the very least the appearance of conformity.
A new tool is proposed, namely a web application that seeks to improve upon the way students at UVA can track their progression through their major. Deficiencies in UVA’s Student Information System (SIS) are addressed, specifically: poor user interface design, which makes navigating curriculum requirements more difficult than necessary, and linking the functionality of a schedule builder to provide a more easily accessible way to plan for their next semester. Informal talks with other students who had frustrations with the current way SIS displays academic requirements shed light on the need for this tool. Page scraping (of likely both students' academic requirements report and Lou's List) and the fundamentals of programming websites are used to create an intuitive mode of staying on top of one's required courses.
How then, does BP, despite depending on fossil fuels for its revenues, strive to promote a public reputation as a responsible global corporate citizen? At a glance, BP’s rebranding seems to be truthful, yet they are rightly accused of greenwashing. The perspectives of independent environmentally-concerned scientists, local governments and a case study of the Volkswagen Emissions Scandal are considered. Dissection of BP’s statements on their sustainability goals is performed to prove their ideal green narrative departs from the reality of their actions.

School of Engineering and Applied Science
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Technical Advisor: Daniel Graham, Jim Cohoon
STS Advisor: Peter Norton