Human-Centered Computing Bachelor of Science Degree
Human-Centered Computing
Bachelor of Science Degree
With roots in computing, psychology, and design, RIT’s human-centered computing degree examines how people use technology and the ways computing systems can become more intuitive.
Overview
9 Majors That Launch Your Career in Digital Media
With a growing reliance on computing in our daily lives, technology is no longer the exclusive realm of tech-savvy users. With roots in multiple areas of computing, psychology, and design, the human-centered computing degree blends strengths from these varied disciplines to understand the ways in which people use technology, and how technologies can be developed that are more intuitive and usable.
What is Human-Centered Computing?
Fundamental to human-centered computing is a focus on humans as individuals and how they behave with technology. Students in this major find themselves at the intersection of computer advancements and human behavior around technology. Topics of consideration include the design, evaluation, and implementation of interactive computing systems and understanding the ways in which such systems can transform our lives. Given the growing reliance on computing in our everyday lives, technology no longer is the exclusive realm of tech-savvy users; industry has recognized the need to make software and devices that are usable and desirable to everyone. This major prepares you for careers in industry or to pursue graduate study, offering options for you to specialize in different areas of human-centered computing depending on individual interests in computing, design, or psychology.
HCC degrees are about leveraging technology, and exploring and adapting how people access and interact with it. Finding ways to integrate technology with our everyday lives—regardless of our physical capabilities, age, or location—is a key component of the program. HCC professionals are changing the world every day. HHC professionals have pioneered a range of development, including creating ways for computers to reproduce realistic animations of American Sign Language, designing the successor for the Fitbit, or building the next generation of speech recognition software. HCC students are the driving force at the center of the global accessibility effort.
RIT’s Human-Centered Computing Degree
The human-computer relationship is constantly evolving, and the days of the singular do everything device is disappearing. New innovations promise a future of multiple, interconnected technologies that respond to our needs in real time. The world needs professionals that are able to design, prototype, implement, and evaluate interactive computing systems. These skills make up the core of the HCC degree.
The HCC major is unique in its foundation of courses grounded in psychology, design, and technology. The curriculum combines courses from three different RIT colleges to ensure students develop a firm understanding of these diverse subjects. Core courses include several foundational classes in technology, cognitive science and psychology, Gestalt, color theory, and creative thinking. This is an interdisciplinary degree with six concentrations, allowing you to immerse yourself in two areas you find most interesting.
- Accessibility: Learn to develop systems that are equally accessible to all people, making the benefits of technology a reality for everyone.
- Design: Learn to integrate elements of imagery, type, actions, color, and more to form a unified graphical interface that is understandable to people everywhere.
- Front End Development: Master programming and development for desktop, web, and mobile computing interfaces, with a focus on efficient code and meeting user needs.
- Instructional Technology: Plan, organize and develop systems to effectively leverage technology to convey knowledge and skills to users.
- Natural Language Processing: Study the interactions between computers and human language. Learn about the latest advances in computational linguistics and how computers derive meaning via natural language processing.
- Psychology: Explore how humans perceive, process, and store information. Study best practices in research and evaluation, and learn how to implement them into your work.
The major also requires students to complete two blocks of cooperative education, which may begin after the second year of study.
Accelerated 4+1 MBA
An accelerated 4+1 MBA option is available to students enrolled in any of RIT’s undergraduate programs. RIT’s Combined Accelerated Pathways can help you prepare for your future faster by enabling you to earn both a bachelor’s and an MBA in as little as five years of study.
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Careers and Experiential Learning
Typical Job Titles
| UX Designer | Product Designer |
| UI Developer | Software Developer |
| Technology Development Programmer | Web and Systems Programmer |
Salary and Career Information for Human-Centered Computing BS
Cooperative Education
Cooperative education, or co-op for short, is full-time, paid work experience in your field of study. And it sets RIT graduates apart from their competitors. It’s exposure–early and often–to a variety of professional work environments, career paths, and industries. RIT co-op is designed for your success.
Students in the human-centered computing degree are required to complete two blocks of cooperative education experience.
Creative Industry Day
RIT’s Office of Career Services and Cooperative Education hosts Creative Industry Day, which connects students majoring in art, design, film and animation, photography, and select computing majors with companies, organizations, creative agencies, design firms, and more. You'll be able to network with company representatives and interview directly for open co-op and permanent employment positions.
Featured Profiles
A Lasting Impact in Accessibility and Usability
Faculty Emerita Vicki Hanson
Although Vicki Hanson stepped away from her full-time faculty role within the School of Information more than three years ago and has since become the Chief Executive Officer of the Association for...
Creating an App to Assist Clinical Trials
Emily Mills
Emily Mills, a human-centered computing major, completed a co-op as a UX/UI intern for Oracle's Health Sciences Global Business Unit.
Curriculum for Human-Centered Computing BS
Human-Centered Computing, BS degree, typical course sequence
| Course | Sem. Cr. Hrs. | |
|---|---|---|
| First Year | ||
| ISTE-110 | General Education – First-Year Writing: FYW: Ethics in Computing (WI) Computing and the Internet are now integral parts of our lives. In this course, we consider and discuss how ethical theories and principles can inform and provide guidance about interactions and uses of computing technologies. Topics include the development interpretation, and application of ethical theory, moral values, personal responsibility, codes of conduct, ethics in the real and virtual worlds, intellectual property, and information security. This is a Writing Intensive (WI) course. Students are provided with guidance and opportunities for improving informal and formal writing skills. Grades received on writing assignments will constitute a significant component of the final course grade. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring). |
3 |
| ISTE-140 | Web & Mobile I This course provides students with an introduction to internet and web technologies, and to development on Macintosh/UNIX computer platforms. Topics include HTML and CSS, CSS3 features, digital images, web page design and website publishing. Emphasis is placed on fundamentals, concepts and standards. Additional topics include the user experience, mobile design issues, and copyright/intellectual property considerations. Exercises and projects are required. Lec/Lab 3 (Fall, Spring). |
3 |
| ISTE-262 | Foundations of Human Centered Computing This course explores how the fields of psychology, digital design, and computing converge in the design, development, and evaluation of new technologies that people find effective and enjoyable to use. Students will investigate the field of human-computer interaction (HCI), with a focus on how users' various sensory, motor, and cognitive abilities are essential to their successful use of technology. Students will be exposed to modern research methods and paradigms in field of human-computer interaction, including predictive modeling, heuristic evaluation, interpretive methods, and experimental user testing. Students will learn key design principles and guidelines and apply them to analyze existing designs and conduct a design process that is centered on human users of technology. (Prerequisites: (NMDE-111 or NAIS-130) and (ISTE-140 or IGME-230 or NACA-172) or equivalent courses.) Lecture 3 (Spring). |
3 |
| NMDE-111 | New Media Digital Design Survey I This project-based course is an investigation of the computer as an illustrative, imaging, and graphical generation tool. It develops foundational design skills in raster and vector image creation, editing, compositing, layout and visual design for online production. Emphasis will be on the application of visual design organization methods and principles for electronic media. Students will create and edit images, graphics, layouts and typography to form effective design solutions for online delivery. (This course is restricted to students in the WMC-BS or HCC-BS or NMDE-BFA or NWMEDID-BS or DIGHSS-BS program.) Lab 3, Lecture 2 (Fall, Spring). |
3 |
| PSYC-101 | General Education – Scientific Principles Perspective: Introduction to Psychology Introduction to the field of psychology. Provides a survey of basic concepts, theories, and research methods. Topics include: thinking critically with psychological science; neuroscience and behavior; sensation and perception; learning; memory; thinking, language, and intelligence; motivation and emotion; personality; psychological disorders and therapy; and social psychology. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer). |
3 |
| PSYC-223 | General Education – Elective: Cognitive Psychology This course examines how people perceive, learn, represent, remember and use information. Contemporary theory and research are surveyed in such areas as attention, pattern and object recognition, memory, knowledge representation, language acquisition and use, reasoning, decision making, problem solving, creativity, and intelligence. Applications in artificial intelligence and human/technology interaction may also be considered. (Prerequisites: PSYC-101 or PSYC-101H or completion of one (1) 200 level PSYC course.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer). |
3 |
| STAT-145 | General Education – Mathematical Perspective A: Introduction to Statistics I This course introduces statistical methods of extracting meaning from data, and basic inferential statistics. Topics covered include data and data integrity, exploratory data analysis, data visualization, numeric summary measures, the normal distribution, sampling distributions, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing. The emphasis of the course is on statistical thinking rather than computation. Statistical software is used. (Prerequisite: MATH-101 or MATH-111 or NMTH-260 or NMTH-272 or NMTH-275 or a math placement exam score of at least 35.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer). |
3 |
| STAT-146 | General Education – Mathematical Perspective B: Introduction to Statistics II This course is an elementary introduction to the topics of regression and analysis of variance. The statistical software package Minitab will be used to reinforce these techniques. The focus of this course is on business applications. This is a general introductory statistics course and is intended for a broad range of programs. (Prerequisites: STAT-145 or equivalent course.) Lecture 6 (Fall, Spring, Summer). |
4 |
| YOPS-10 | RIT 365: RIT Connections RIT 365 students participate in experiential learning opportunities designed to launch them into their career at RIT, support them in making multiple and varied connections across the university, and immerse them in processes of competency development. Students will plan for and reflect on their first-year experiences, receive feedback, and develop a personal plan for future action in order to develop foundational self-awareness and recognize broad-based professional competencies. Lecture 1 (Fall, Spring). |
0 |
General Education – Elective |
3 | |
Open Elective |
3 | |
| Second Year | ||
| GCIS-123 | Software Development and Problem Solving I A first course introducing students to the fundamentals of computational problem solving. Students will learn a systematic approach to problem solving, including how to frame a problem in computational terms, how to decompose larger problems into smaller components, how to implement innovative software solutions using a contemporary programming language, how to critically debug their solutions, and how to assess the adequacy of the software solution. Additional topics include an introduction to object-oriented programming and data structures such as arrays and stacks. Students will complete both in-class and out-of-class assignments. Lab 6 (Fall, Spring). |
4 |
| GCIS-124 | Software Development and Problem Solving II A second course that delves further into computational problem solving, now with a focus on an object-oriented perspective. There is a continued emphasis on basic software design, testing & verification, and incremental development. Key topics include theoretical abstractions such as classes, objects, encapsulation, inheritance, interfaces, polymorphism, software design comprising multiple classes with UML, data structures (e.g. lists, trees, sets, maps, and graphs), exception/error handling, I/O including files and networking, concurrency, and graphical user interfaces. Additional topics include basic software design principles (coupling, cohesion, information expert, open-closed principle, etc.), test driven development, design patterns, data integrity, and data security. (Prerequisite: C- or better in SWEN-123 or CSEC-123 or GCIS-123 or equivalent course.) Lab 6 (Fall, Spring, Summer). |
4 |
| ISTE-99 | School of Information Second Year Seminar This course helps students prepare for cooperative employment by developing job search approaches and material. Students will explore current and emerging aspects of IST fields to help focus their skill development strategies. Students are introduced to the Office of Career Services and Cooperative Education, and learn about their professional and ethical responsibilities for their co-op and subsequent professional experiences. Students will work collaboratively to build résumés, cover letters, and prepare for interviewing. (Prerequisites: This class is restricted to HCC-BS or CMIT-BS or WMC-BS or COMPEX-UND Major students with at least 2nd year standing.) Lecture 1 (Fall, Spring). |
0 |
| ISTE-240 | Web & Mobile II This course builds on the basics of web page development that are presented in Web and Mobile I and extends that knowledge to focus on theories, issues, and technologies related to the design and development of web sites. An overview of web design concepts, including usability, accessibility, information architecture, and graphic design in the context of the web will be covered. Introduction to web site technologies, including HTTP, web client and server programming, and dynamic page generation from a database also will be explored. Development exercises are required. (Prerequisites: (ISTE-120 or CSCI-140 or CSCI-141 or NACA-161 or IGME-105 or IGME-101 or NMAD-180) and (ISTE-140 or NACA-172 or IGME-230) or equivalent course.) Lec/Lab 3 (Fall, Spring). |
3 |
| ISTE-264 | Prototyping and Usability Testing This course will explore how modern human centered computing design and evaluation methodologies can be effectively used to create high-quality and usable technologies for a variety of users. Students will learn how an initial design can be evaluated and improved through the use of prototyping and user evaluations. Students will investigate a variety of high- and low-fidelity prototyping techniques, plan an iterative design process for an application, conduct an evaluation of a prototype, and analyze the results of user testing to drive a design process. Programming is required. (Prerequisites: ISTE-262 or equivalent course.) Lec/Lab 3 (Spring). |
3 |
| ISTE-266 | Design for Accessibility This course will explore the design, evaluation, and use of computing and information technologies to benefit people with disabilities and older adults. Students will learn how to analyze the accessibility of existing software or websites, and they will learn how to design technology that can be effectively, enjoyably, and efficiently used by people with diverse sensory, motor, and cognitive abilities. Students will learn about cutting-edge ways in which science and technology has provided assistance and accessibility for people with disabilities. Students will learn how to investigate the needs of users with disabilities, design technologies according to universal design or accessibility principles, interpret key accessibility regulations and guidelines, and include people with disabilities in the design and evaluation of new technologies. Programming is required. (Prerequisites: ISTE-264 or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Fall). |
3 |
| ISTE-499 | Undergraduate Co-op (summer) Students perform paid, professional work related to their program of study. Students work full-time during the term they are registered for co-op. Students must complete a student co-op work report for each term they are registered; students also are evaluated each term by their employer. A satisfactory grade is given for co-op when both a completed student co-op report and a corresponding employer report that indicates satisfactory student performance are received. (Enrollment in this course requires permission from the department offering the course.) CO OP (Fall, Spring, Summer). |
0 |
| NMDE-112 | New Media Digital Design Survey II Through formal studies and perceptual understanding, including aesthetics, graphic form, structure, concept development, visual organization methods and interaction principles, students will design graphical solutions to communication problems for static and interactive projects. Students will focus on creating appropriate and usable design systems through the successful application of design theory and best practices. Assignments exploring aspects of graphic imagery, typography, usability and production for multiple digital devices and formats will be included. (Prerequisite: NMDE-111 or NMAD-155 or equivalent course.) Lab 3, Lecture 2 (Fall, Spring). |
3 |
| PSYC-250 | General Education – Elective: Research Methods I (WI-PR) This course will serve as an introduction to research methods in psychology, with the goal of understanding research design, analysis and writing. Topics include examining the variety of methods used in psychology research, understanding research ethics, developing empirical hypotheses, designing experiments, understanding statistical concepts, interpreting results, and writing research and review papers in APA style. This is a required course for all psychology majors, and is restricted to students in the psychology program. (Prerequisites: PSYC-101 or PSYC-101H and STAT-145 or STAT-145H equivalent course and student standing in PSYC-BS or HCC-BS programs.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring). |
3 |
| PSYC-251 | General Education – Elective: Research Methods II (WI-PR) This course will serve as an advanced research methods course in psychology, and will build on the foundational knowledge presented in Research Methods I. Topics and tasks for this course include designing single and multi-factor experiments, interpreting correlational research, completing statistical analyses appropriate to design, completing and analyzing an IRB application, understanding observational and survey research, and presenting results in APA style. This is a required course for all psychology majors, and is restricted to students in the psychology program. (Prerequisites: PSYC-250 and STAT-146 or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring). |
3 |
General Education – Social Perspective |
3 | |
General Education – Natural Science Inquiry Perspective |
3 | |
| Third Year | ||
| ISTE-252 | Foundations of Mobile Design This course is an introduction to designing, prototyping, and creating applications and web applications for mobile devices. These devices include a unique set of hardware and communications capabilities, incorporate novel interfaces, are location aware, and provide persistent connectivity. Topics covered include user interaction patterns, connectivity, interface design, software design patterns, and application architectures. Programming projects are required. (Prerequisites: ISTE-240 or IGME-330 or equivalent course.) Lec/Lab 3 (Fall, Spring). |
3 |
| ISTE-499 | Undergraduate Co-op (summer) Students perform paid, professional work related to their program of study. Students work full-time during the term they are registered for co-op. Students must complete a student co-op work report for each term they are registered; students also are evaluated each term by their employer. A satisfactory grade is given for co-op when both a completed student co-op report and a corresponding employer report that indicates satisfactory student performance are received. (Enrollment in this course requires permission from the department offering the course.) CO OP (Fall, Spring, Summer). |
0 |
HCC Concentration Courses |
12 | |
General Education – Artistic Perspective |
3 | |
General Education – Global Perspective |
3 | |
General Education – Immersion 1 |
3 | |
Open Electives |
6 | |
| Fourth Year | ||
| ISTE-500 | Senior Development Project I The first course in a two-course, senior level, system development capstone project. Students form project teams and work with sponsors to define system requirements. Teams then create architectures and designs, and depending on the project, also may begin software development. Requirements elicitation and development practices introduced in prior coursework are reviewed, and additional methods and processes are introduced. Student teams are given considerable latitude in how they organize and conduct project work. (This class is restricted to WMC-BS, HCC-BS, CMIT-BS students with a minimum of 2 terms of co-op completed.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring). |
3 |
| ISTE-501 | Senior Development Project II (WI-PR) The second course in a two-course, senior level, system development capstone project. Student teams complete development of their system project and package the software and documentation for deployment. Usability testing practices introduced in prior course work are reviewed, and additional methods and processes are introduced. Teams present their developed system and discuss lessons learned at the completion of the course. (Prerequisites: ISTE-500 or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring). |
3 |
HCC Concentration Courses |
6 | |
General Education – Ethical Perspective |
3 | |
General Education – Immersion 2, 3 |
6 | |
Open Elective |
3 | |
General Education - Elective |
3 | |
| Total Semester Credit Hours | 120 |
|
Please see General Education Curriculum (GE) for more information.
(WI) Refers to a writing intensive course within the major.
Please see Wellness Education Requirement for more information. Students completing bachelor's degrees are required to complete two different Wellness courses.
Concentrations
Accessibility
| ISTE-362 | Access & Assistive Technology Students will gain hands-on experience and knowledge about a wide variety of accessibility and assistive technology available for people with disabilities. Students will understand the design principles underlying this technology and how the features and capabilities of assistive technology can be tailored to a particular individual’s needs and capabilities. Students will learn about how new technologies and research in accessibility can be made available for users, and they will learn how to design websites and software that work effectively with a user’s own technology. Specific technologies discussed in the course may include, e.g.: alternative input devices, communication devices, and screen readers and magnifiers for people with visual impairments. Programming is required. (Prerequisites: ISTE-266 or equivalent course.) Lec/Lab 3 (Spring). |
| ISTE-462 | Research in Accessibility Students will dive into cutting edge research in the field of computer accessibility and assistive technology; they will read, present, and discuss research literature from major conferences and journals in the field. Students will learn about recent developments and ongoing research efforts in accessibility, and they will learn how to synthesize the results from research publications. Students will learn how to identify high quality research and how to critique this work to identify areas for improvement or future research directions. Students will learn the elements of a high-quality research publication, and they will explore and gain expertise in a particular topic in the field of accessibility in depth. (Prerequisites: ISTE-266 and PSYC-251 or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Fall). |
| ISTE-464 | Accessibility Through the Lifespan Students will explore how accessibility and assistive technologies intersect with aging throughout the lifespan, with a particular focus on the early and later stages of human development, including: educational contexts (for children or young adults) and effective design strategies for promoting accessibility for older adults with diverse capabilities. Students will learn key legal regulations that govern special education and accessibility in educational contexts, including the provision of assistive technologies and the accessibility of instructional technologies. Students will also explore typical changes in ability and impairments that relate to the human aging process, and they will investigate how to design usable and engaging technology for the growing population of older adults. Students will come to understand the concepts and needs of younger and older users firsthand through, e.g., guest speakers or personal interactions. (Prerequisites: ISTE-266 or equivalent course.) Lec/Lab 3 (Spring). |
Design
| NMDE-201 | New Media Design Elements II Information design for static, dynamic and interactive multimedia integrates content with visual indicators. Legibility and clear communication of information and direction is important to the success of any user interface design. This course integrates imagery, type, icons, actions, color, visual hierarchy, and information architecture as a foundation to design successful interactive experiences. (Prerequisites: NMDE-102 or 112 or equivalent course and student standing in NMDE-BFA or HCC-BS or DIGHSS-BS program.) Lab 3, Lecture 2 (Fall). |
| NMDE-203 | New Media Design Interactive II This course extends previous interactive design and development experience and skills to emphasize interactive design principles and development. The emphasis in this course will be on the creative process of planning and implementing an interactive project across multiple platforms. Students will concentrate on information architecture, interactive design, conceptual creation, digital assets, visual design and programming for interactions. (Prerequisites: NMDE-103 or ISTE-140 and NMDE-112 and NMDE-201 or equivalent courses.) Lab 3, Lecture 2 (Spring). |
| NMDE-302 | New Media Design Graphical User Interface This course examines the user-centered and iterative design approaches to application and interactive development with a focus on interface design, testing and development across multiple devices. Students will research and investigate human factors, visual metaphors and prototype development to create effective and cutting edge user interfaces. (Prerequisites: NMDE-201 and NMDE-203 or equivalent courses.) Lab 3, Lecture 2 (Fall). |
Front End Development
| ISTE-340 | Client Programming This course will explore the analysis, design, development, and implementation of client-side programming in the context of Internet technologies, mobile devices, Web-based client systems and desktop applications. Students will learn to design and build usable and effective interactive systems, clients, and interfaces. Key features addressed will include browser and platform compatibility, object reusability, bandwidth and communications issues, development environments, privacy and security, and related technologies and APIs. Programming is required. (Prerequisites: (ISTE-240 or IGME-330) and (ISTE-121 or ISTE-200 or CSCI-142 or CSCI-140 or IGME-106 or IGME-102) or equivalent courses.) Lec/Lab 3 (Fall, Spring). |
| ISTE-454 | Mobile Application Development I This course extends the material covered in the Foundations of Mobile Design course and provides students with the experience of creating interesting applications for small-size form factor mobile devices such as smartphones These devices are exceptionally portable, have unique sets of hardware and communications capabilities, incorporate novel interfaces, are location aware, and provide persistent connectivity. Students are encouraged to make creative use of these unique device characteristics and operating properties to develop innovative applications. Programming projects are required. (Prerequisites: (ISTE-252 and ISTE-340) or IGME-330 or equivalent courses.) Lec/Lab 3 (Fall, Spring). |
| ISTE-456 | Mobile Application Development II This course extends the Foundations of Mobile Design course in that students will learn to apply mobile design skills to develop applications in the Android platform. Students will design, develop, and test mobile applications using the Android Studio IDE. This course covers the major components such as activities, receivers, content providers, permissions, intents, fragments, data storage, and security. Programming projects are required (Prerequisites: (ISTE-252 and ISTE-340) or IGME-330 or equivalent courses.) Lec/Lab 3 (Fall, Spring). |
Instructional Technology
| ISTE-560 | Fundamentals of Instructional Technology Instructional Technology encompasses the basic processes for developing and delivering instruction. Instructional Systems Design (ISD) is a well-established methodology for describing knowledge and skills and developing instructional systems to effectively convey knowledge. This course enables the student to plan, organize, and systematically develop instructional materials. The course uses an ISD model to analyze, design, deliver, and evaluate instruction. Lecture 3 (Fall). |
| ISTE-561 | Interactive Courseware Instructional software is referred to as courseware. This course is a continuation of Fundamentals of Instruction Technology (ISTE-560), and serves as a transition from general instructional design principles to the actual application of these principles in a computer-based environment. Using teaching and learning principles is somewhat different when developing instruction that will be delivered by computer. This course teaches techniques that have been successful in the design and development of courseware as well as reviewing current theories and models. (Prerequisites: ISTE-121 and ISTE-560 or equivalent courses.) Lecture 3 (Spring). |
| PSYC-235 | Learning and Behavior This course covers topics in learning such as non-associative learning, classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning, stimulus control of behavior, reinforcement, generalization and discrimination, and observational learning. Topics on learning and behavior in non-human animals may also be covered. (Prerequisites: PSYC-101 or PSYC-101H or completion of one (1) 200 level PSYC course.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer). |
Natural Language Processing
| ENGL-351 | Language Technology (required) We will explore the relationship between language and technology from the
invention of writing systems to current natural language and speech
technologies. Topics include script decipherment, machine translation,
automatic speech recognition and generation, dialog systems, computational
natural language understanding and inference, as well as language
technologies that support users with language disabilities. We will also trace
how science and technology are shaping language, discuss relevant artificial
intelligence concepts, and examine the ethical implications of advances in
language processing by computers. Students will have the opportunity to
experience text analysis with relevant tools. This is an interdisciplinary
course and technical background is not required. Lecture 4 (Spring). |
| ENGL-581 | Introduction to Natural Language Processing (required) This course provides theoretical foundation as well as hands-on (lab-style) practice in computational approaches for processing natural language text. The course will have relevance to various disciplines in the humanities, sciences, computational, and technical fields. We will discuss problems that involve different components of the language system (such as meaning in context and linguistic structures). Students will additionally collaborate in teams on modeling and implementing natural language processing and digital text solutions. Students will program in Python and use a variety of relevant tools. Expected: Programming skills, demonstrated via course work or instruction approval. Lecture 3 (Spring). |
| Plus one of the following: | |
| ENGL-582 | Seminar in Computational Linguistics Study of a focus area of increased complexity in computational linguistics. The focus varies each semester. Students will develop skills in computational linguistics analysis in a laboratory setting, according to professional standards. A research project plays a central role in the course. Students will engage with relevant research literature, research design and methodology, project development, and reporting in various formats. (Prerequisites: ENGL-581 or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Spring). |
| ENGL-584 | Spoken Language Processing This course introduces students to speech and spoken language processing with a focus on real-world applications including automatic speech recognition, speech synthesis, and spoken dialog systems, as well as tasks such as emotion detection and speaker identification. Students will learn the fundamentals of signal processing for speech and explore the theoretical foundations of how human speech can be processed by computers. Students will then collect data and use existing toolkits to build their own speech recognition or speech synthesis system. This course provides theoretical foundation as well as hands-on laboratory practice. Prerequisite: Programming skills, demonstrated via coursework or instructor approval. (Prerequisite: ENGL-482 or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Fall). |
Psychology
| PSYC-430 | Memory and Attention This course is intended for students in the cognitive track. This course reviews current research in the areas of memory and attention. This course will consider such memory topics as: classic theories of memory, Baddeley’s model of working memory, in-formation processing, implicit and explicit memory, principles of forgetting, developmental changes in memory, skill memory, autobiographical memory, eyewitness memory, and the neural bases of memory. Attention topics covered in this course will include: Selective and divided attention, search and vigilance, signal detection theory, and neural correlates of attention. (Prerequisites: PSYC-223 and (PSYC-251 or 0514-315, 0514-350 and 0514-400) or equivalent courses.) Lecture 3 (Biannual). |
| PSYC-431 | Language and Thought This course is intended for students in the cognitive track. This course examines the structure of human language and its relationship to thought, and surveys contemporary theory and research on the comprehension and production of spoken and written language. In addition, we will discuss categorization, representation of knowledge, expertise, consciousness, intelligence, and artificial intelligence. Topics on language and thought in non-human animals may also be covered. Part of the cognitive track for the psychology degree program. (Prerequisites: PSYC-223 and (PSYC-251 or 0514-315, 0514-350 and 0514-400) or equivalent courses.) Lecture 3 (Biannual). |
| PSYC-432 | Decision Making, Judgment and Problem Solving This course is intended for students in the cognitive track. This course explores judgment, decision-making and problem-solving processes and focuses on the social and cognitive aspects of complex information processing. Major topics include normative, descriptive (heuristics and biases), and naturalistic approaches to decision-making, as well as selective perception, memory and hindsight biases, framing effects, social influences, group processes and human error. Models of decision-making considered include the prospect theory, expected utility theory, and Bayes’ Theorem. Problem solving will be examined from perspectives of formal, computational methods as well as intuition and creativity. Experimental methods and applications in design of systems and decision aids will receive special attention. (Prerequisites: PSYC-223 and (PSYC-251 or 0514-315, 0514-350 and 0514-400) or equivalent courses.) Lecture 3 (Biannual). |
Admission Requirements
Freshman Admission
For all bachelor’s degree programs, a strong performance in a college preparatory program is expected. Generally, this includes 4 years of English, 3-4 years of mathematics, 2-3 years of science, and 3 years of social studies and/or history.
Specific math and science requirements and other recommendations
- 3 years of math are required and pre-calculus is recommended
- Requires chemistry or physics and strongly recommends both
- Computing electives are recommended
Transfer Admission
Transfer course recommendations without associate degree
Courses in computer science, calculus, liberal arts; calculus-based physics, chemistry, or biology
Appropriate associate degree programs for transfer
AS degree in computer science, engineering science, or liberal arts
Learn about admissions, cost, and financial aid
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