Humanities, Computing, and Des - Rochester Insti

Tuition Fee

Start Date

Medium of studying

Duration

Details

Program Details

Degree

Bachelors

Major

Digital Media

Area of study

Information and Communication Technologies | Humanities

Course Language

English

About Program

Program Overview

Humanities, Computing, and Design Bachelor of Science Degree

Overview

RIT’s humanities, computing, and design major pairs the liberal arts with tech to prepare you for a dynamic career that requires advanced computing and digital skills.

Why Study Humanities, Computing and Design at RIT?

Multidisciplinary Approach: Humanities, computing, and design is an RIT New Economy Major. This collection of degree programs is forward-thinking and future-forming, and helps prepare you to excel in the multidisciplinary nature of our modern, dynamic economy.
Hands-On Experience: Develop a professional portfolio showcasing your work on dynamic, hands-on projects to employers.
Flexible Skill Set: Learn to collaborate effectively with all stakeholders on a project, navigate user needs, and anticipate technical possibilities and other skills used across various industries.
Teaching Partnership Program Available: 4+1 or 3+2 programs enable you to earn your bachelor’s degree at RIT and a master’s degree in education at one of our partner universities.

What is Humanities, Computing, and Design?

Humanities, computing, and design is a dynamic field of study that creates a bridge between the traditional liberal arts and the digital world, where critical thinking, cultural awareness, and communication integrate with digital technologies. A bachelor’s degree in humanities, computing, and design prepares you for emerging career opportunities that have resulted from professionals finding new and exciting ways to combine digital technologies and computing into everything from business and communications to education, history, museum studies, politics, public policy, and more.

Studying Humanities, Computing, and Design at RIT

RIT's bachelor of science in humanities, computing, and design pairs digital tools with computing to further a range of liberal arts fields, including anthropology, communication, culture, history, journalism, literature, and the arts. It creates new possibilities for these traditional fields by integrating digital technologies, computing skills, visual communication, data analytics, and more.

Career Opportunities

Career opportunities encompass endless ways to pair digital technologies with the liberal arts. For example:

Journalists must have a strong foundation in social media and web content strategy as people turn to their digital devices to consume news and information.
Advertising and marketing on social media are created using traditional market research to identify a target audience and advanced digital technologies to engage and track the behaviors of those users.
Storytelling in games requires a writer to understand the function and gameplay of a particular interactive world as well as the creative writing skills to craft a captivating story.
Visual communication (infographics, interactive content, motion graphics) must be dynamic, compelling, and effective as it’s used to present evidence in court cases, sell products in stores, and communicate instructions or directions.
Museums and cultural institutions are creating new and exciting ways to integrate digital technologies to educate the public, engage visitors, and enhance the guest experience.
Hotels, amusement parks, and resorts are turning to interactive apps that plan and manage guest experiences, wearables that unlock guest room doors and serve as your admission ticket, and a host of digital tools that enable online check-in, food ordering, and more.

RIT’s Degree in Humanities, Computing and Design

This major is uniquely interdisciplinary. You’ll pair course work in three of RIT’s colleges–College of Liberal Arts, Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences, and College of Art and Design–to understand the historical and cultural contexts for, and to think critically about, how new technologies can impact traditional areas of the liberal arts.

Partnerships within RIT with the RIT Libraries, The Cary Graphic Arts Collection, and The RIT Press, as well as external relationships with The Library Company of Philadelphia and Malmö University in Sweden, provide distinctive opportunities for imagination and application.

As a student in the humanities, computing, and design major, you will learn to employ a range of tools and techniques, including:

3D design visualization
Geospatial technology
Electronic literature

The major also fosters critical analysis of digital culture, social media, and digital games. Team-based projects and public engagement are hallmarks of the program.

A Unique Pairing of Courses

The humanities, computing, and design major combines information science and technologies with the liberal arts to provide you with the integrative literacy increasingly necessary for careers in cultural institutions, government, educational institutions, and technology firms. You’ll take courses in:

New media design
Web and mobile design and development
Database and data modeling
Computing

Professional electives enable you to gain knowledge in areas you can apply directly to your professional pursuits, such as:

Multi-platform journalism
Digital design in communication
Gaming and literature
2D animation and asset production
Museums in the digital age

You’ll also gain broad knowledge as well as expertise in an area of specialization. A minor or immersion adds a secondary area of study.

Hands-On Experience to Gain Real-World Skills

In the humanities, computing, and design major, you will gain invaluable hands-on experience:

A senior capstone project allows you to tackle a humanities computing problem and propose an innovative solution.
At least one block of cooperative education and internship means full-time, paid career experience in industry.
Team-based projects and lab courses.
Study abroad or in an international co-op to enhance your understanding of global cultures.

Furthering Your Education in Humanities, Computing, and Design

Combined Accelerated Bachelor's/Master's Degrees

Today’s careers require advanced degrees grounded in real-world experience. RIT’s Combined Accelerated Bachelor’s/Master’s Degrees enable you to earn both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in as little as five years of study, all while gaining the valuable hands-on experience that comes from co-ops, internships, research, study abroad, and more.

+1 MBA: Students who enroll in a qualifying undergraduate degree have the opportunity to add an MBA to their bachelor’s degree after their first year of study, depending on their program. Learn how the +1 MBA can accelerate learning and position you for success.

RIT’s Teaching Partnership Programs

Whether your goal is to go into early childhood or elementary education, become a secondary education teacher with a content area specialty at the middle or high school level, or work in the higher education or counseling fields, RIT’s partnership programs with local universities provide a guided pathway to a career in teaching.

These 4+1 or 3+2 programs enable you to earn your bachelor’s degree at RIT and a master’s degree in education at one of our partner universities. As you progress, you’ll benefit from focused academic advising, career exploration opportunities, and resources for research, learning, and skill development.

RIT's humanities, computing, and design degree is eligible for RIT’s Teaching Partnership Program.

Curriculum

Humanities, Computing, and Design, BS degree, typical course sequence

First Year
- DHSS-101: Computation and Culture
- DHSS-102: Industrial Origins of the Digital Age
- DHSS-200: DHSS Seminar: Foundations
- Choose one of the following:
  - GCIS-123: Software Development and Problem Solving I
  - IGME-101: New Media Interactive Design and Algorithmic Problem Solving I
  - ISTE-140: Web & Mobile I
  - YOPS-10: RIT 365: RIT Connections
- General Education – Artistic Perspective
- General Education – Ethical Perspective
- General Education – First-Year Writing (WI)
- General Education – Social Perspective
- General Education – Elective
Second Year
- DHSS-103: Ethics in the Digital Era
- ISTE-230: Introduction to Database and Data Modeling
- ISTE-240: Web & Mobile II
- ITDL-102: Unlocking Success: Career Prep for Liberal Arts Majors
- NMDE-111: New Media Design Digital Survey I
- NMDE-112: New Media Design Digital Survey II
- STAT-145: General Education – Mathematical Perspective A: Introduction to Statistics I
- General Education – Immersion 1
- General Education – Mathematical Perspective B
- General Education – Global Perspective
- General Education – Natural Science Inquiry Perspective
Third Year
- DHSS-200: DHSS Seminar: Leadership
- DHSS-377: Media Narrative (WI-PR)
- DHSS-499: DHSS Co-Op (summer)
- Choose one of the following:
  - IGME-382: Maps, Mapping and Geospatial Technologies
  - IGME-384: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
- General Education – Immersion 2,3
- General Education – Scientific Principles Perspective
- General Education – Electives
- Professional Electives
- Project Courses
Fourth Year
- DHSS-489: DHSS Capstone I
- DHSS-490: DHSS Capstone II
- General Education – Electives
- Open Electives

Professional Electives

COMM-203: Effective Technical Communication
COMM-223: Digital Design in Communication
COMM-263: Data Journalism
COMM-343: Technology-Mediated Communication
COMM-356: Critical Practice in Social Media
COMM-357: Communication, Gender, and Media
COMM-461: Multiplatform Journalism
CRIM-290: Computer Crime
DHSS-488: Special Topics
ENGL-215: Text & Code
ENGL-315: Digital Literature
ENGL-361: Technical Writing
ENGL-373: Media Adaptation
ENGL-374: Games and Literature
ENGL-375: Storytelling Across Media
ENGL-386: World Building Workshop
ENGL-389: Digital Creative Writing Workshop
ENGL-450: Free & Open Source Culture
ENGL-543: Game-Based Fiction Workshop
FNRT-215: Video Game Criticism
HIST-324: Oral History
HIST-326: Digital History
HIST-480: Global Information Age
IGME-101: New Media Interactive Design Algorithmic Problem Solving I
IGME-102: New Media Interactive Design Algorithmic Problem Solving II
IGME-119: 2D Animation and Asset Production
IGME-220: Game Design & Development I
IGME-320: Game Design & Development II
IGME-382: Maps, Mapping, and Geospatial Technologies
IGME-384: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
ISTE-260: Design the User Experience
LING-351: Language Technology
LING-581: Intro to Natural Language Processing
MUSE-225: Museums & the Digital Age
MUSE-359: Digital and Critical Curation
MUSE-360: Visitor Engagement & Museum Technologies
PHIL-307: Philosophy of Technology
PHIL-314: Philosophy of Vision and Imaging
STSO-441: Cyborg Theory: (Re)thinking the Human Experience in the 21st Century
VISL-383: Traumatic Images

Project Courses

ANTH-244: Human Centered Design
ENGL-422: Maps, Spaces, and Places
ENGL-543: Game-Based Fiction Workshop
ENGL-379: Virtual Worlds
ENGL-475: Immersive Storytelling
IGME-580: IGM Production Studio
IGME-581: Innovation & Invention
IGME-589: Research Studio
MUSE-354: Exhibition Design
NMDE-201: New Media Design Elements II
NMDE-203: New Media Design Interactive II
NMDE-302: New Media Design Graphical User Interface
VISL-377: Imag(in)ing Rochester
VISL-383: Traumatic Images
VISL-384: Art of Dying

Careers and Experiential Learning

Typical Job Titles

Analyst/Programmer
Database Manager
Digital Media Archivist
Information Technology Coordinator
Interactive Exhibit Curator
Marketing and Communications Supervisor
Project Manager
Software Engineer
Strategy and Marketing Rep
UI/UX Designer
Web Developer

Industries

Advertising, PR, and Marketing
K-12 Education
Health Care
Internet and Software
Manufacturing
Journalism, Media, and Publishing
Museum
Research

Admissions and Financial Aid

First-Year Admission

First-year applicants are expected to demonstrate a strong academic background that includes:

4 years of English with a strong performance is expected.
3 years of social studies and/or history with a strong performance is expected.
3 years of math is required and must include algebra, geometry, and algebra 2/trigonometry.
2-3 years of science

Transfer Admission

Transfer applicants should meet these minimum degree-specific requirements:

A minimum of precalculus is required. Calculus ispreferred.
Chemistry or physics is required.
Computing courses are preferred.

Financial Aid and Scholarships

100% of all incoming first-year and transfer students receive aid.

RIT’s personalized and comprehensive financial aid program includes scholarships, grants, loans, and campus employment programs. When all these are put to work, your actual cost may be much lower than the published estimated cost of attendance.

Faculty

Jessica Lieberman: Associate Professor
Michael Frank: Lecturer
James Rankine: Visiting Lecturer

Facilities

Center for Worldbuilding and Storytelling

Events

August 29: Donuts with the Dean in the College of Liberal Arts
September 25: Donuts with the Dean in the College of Liberal Arts
October 24: Donuts with the Dean in the College of Liberal Arts

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Humanities, Computing, and Design BS