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MS in Computing: Digital Media

This computing track is for students who are interested in tailoring their MS program to include some digital media content. This generally means allowing a broader range of electives from other departments that involve some sort of digital media area, where the term "digital media" is interpreted fairly broadly in this context. Students interested in the Digital Media track may be interested in computer games, graphics, character animation, kinetic art, HCI, information-visualization, computer animation, experimental media, and many other areas that have a media focus.

Digital Media students take some courses from the MGS (Masters Game Studio) basic curriculum, and then branch out into interest-specific electives. The MGS courses are somewhat game-centric in terms of projects, but the information is transferrable across a wide range of topics. For example, Game Design could easily be thought of as advanced interactive programming techniques using games as an example. Game Arts could be thought of as media content creation that just happens to use games as the project example. etc. The Digital Media track is also flexible in case there is a strong reason to take different fundamental courses with committee approval.

Track Faculty: Digital Media

Erik Brunvand (Track Chair)

Adam Bargteil

Bob Kessler

Miriah Meyer

Craig Caldwell

Roger Altizer

Mark Van Langeveld

Cem Yuksel

Track Requirements: Digital Media

Committee Requirements: Each Digital Media track student will form a committee made up of three faculty members, at least 2 of whom should be Digital Media track faculty.

Fundamental Course Requirements: 30 total credit hours are required. MS degrees may be course-only, project, or thesis. All students should choose two of the following MGS course sequences (four classes - 12 hours total)

Note that this doesn't include the III class in the series, but students may choose to include the III as an elective. Also note that a small minority of students might petition to use a different set of CS courses for their fundamental courses. This must approved by their committee.

The remaining 18 credit hours (6 classes) should be 6000/7000 courses in CS, or other courses as approved by the student's committee, and can include the III class in a series above. For a course-only MS in Digital Media, at most 3 credit hours may be independent study. For a project-based MS, at least 3 and at most 6 hours should be independent study with the project being in a digital media area (as defined by the student and committee). For a thesis MS, at least 6 hours of Thesis Research (CS6970) should be included.

Theme Groupings for Electives: Students are also required to define a theme for at least three of their electives and have that theme (and those courses) approved by their committee. The theme can be negotiated between the student and their committee. The idea is to have them plan and defend how their electives fit into a coherent Digital Media theme.

Example theme groupings: Each grouping is three courses for 9 hours or half of the elective hours. Note that these are example course groupings, but it is not guaranteed that a Digital Media track student will automatically be able to take the suggested courses that are offered in other departments. Individual negotiation will be required for entry into upper division courses in other departments, and especially for courses in other colleges.