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Upcoming program changes
Starting Fall 2024, SIAT will be offering new concentrations and courses to its students. This section details upcoming changes to the SIAT program, classes, and concentrations. These include:
If you have questions about these changes and how they may affect your degree progress please reach out to SIAT advising.
IAT 333 is being revised to become part of the new Designing Interactions concentration.
Prerequisites for IAT 333 will become: Completion of 48 units, including IAT 235 with a minimum grade of C-. (IAT 265 is being removed as a prerequisite).
Reason for the change: The material covered in Multimedia Programming for Art and Design (IAT 265) is no longer required to complete IAT 333.
IAT 352 is being revised to become part of the new Design and Development for Web and Mobile concentration.
IAT 352 will be moved to IAT 459, and IAT 352 will no longer be offered.
IAT 459’s description will be: This course focuses on the server-side technologies for cross-platform applications. Students will design and implement relational databases to store and extract data to support the application. Server-client and service oriented architectures are examined from the perspective of building interactive systems. Technologies for the deployment of web applications on the internet are reviewed. Students apply conceptual knowledge by programming a web application using server-side scripting, AJAX, and a database, integrating it with the web or mobile front-end.
Prerequisites for IAT 459 will be: Completion of 48 units, including IAT-339 and IAT-359 with a minimum grade of C-. Students with credit for IAT 352 may not take this course for further credit. IAT-339 and 359 are being added as pre-requisites and if you have taken 352 previously you cannot take 459 for credit.
Reason for the change: IAT 459 will become the ‘destination’ course that builds off of Web Design and Development (IAT 339) and Mobile Computing (IAT 359) to complete the package of knowledge covered by the concentration.
IAT 359 is being revised to become part of the renew Design and Development for Web and Mobile concentration.
Prerequisites for IAT 359 will become: Completion of 48 units, including IAT 265 with a minimum grade of C-. (IAT 267 will be removed as a prerequisite).
Reason for the change: The material covered in Introduction to Technological Systems (IAT 267) is no longer required to complete IAT 359.
IAT 431 is being revised to become part of the new Designing Interactions concentration.
Prerequisites for IAT 431 will become: Completion of 60 units, including IAT 309W and IAT 333 with a minimum grade of C-. (IAT 309W and IAT 333 are being added as prerequisites).
Reason for the change: Interaction Design Methods (IAT 333) is part of the Designing Interactions concentration. Both IAT 333 and Writing Methods for Research (IAT 309W) are now required to allow for more practice in critical thinking and writing before attempting IAT 431.
IAT 438 is being revised to become part of the new Designing Interactions concentration.
Prerequisites for IAT 438 will become: Completion of 75 units, including IAT 309W and IAT 333 with a minimum grade of C-. (IAT 334 will be removed as a prerequisite).
Reason for the change: Interface Design (IAT 334) is not part of the Designing Interactions concentration and the knowledge will no longer be considered required to attempt IAT 438.
IAT 443 is being revised to become part of the new Creative Media concentration.
IAT 443 will be retitled to Senior Project in Creative Media, and become a 6 unit course.
IAT 443’s description will be: A senior level investigation of skills and knowledge learned across the Creative Media concentration. Examines recombinant, computational and compositional structures related to image, sound, video and/or motion capture. Students will explore emergent creative production areas to tackle meaningful problems and tell thoughtful stories. They will design, produce and critically appraise both their own work and the work of others. Students will produce a project of significant size and scope that helps to prepare students to be creative producers in our rapidly evolving computer-mediated world.
Prerequisites for IAT 443 will become: Completion of 60 units, including IAT 313, IAT 340 and IAT 344 with a minimum grade of C-. (IAT 313 and IAT 340 are being added as prerequisites).
Reason for the change: Both Narrative and New Media (IAT 313) and Sound Design (IAT 340) are part of the Creative Media concentration and will allow students in IAT-443 to complete a broader range of projects.
New classes
From Fall 2024 to Summer 2025, the following new courses will start being offered. Provided below is an overview of each of the new courses, when it will first be offered, and faculty who will teach it. If you have questions about integrating these new courses into your degree plan please reach out to SIAT advising.
Concentration changes
As of Fall 2024, the Design, Media Arts, and Interactive Systems concentrations will not be available to new students. Students already enrolled in SIAT can still complete their degrees with the Design, Media Arts, or Interactive Systems concentrations, or choose to change their graduation requirements (please see further description in next section) and take the new concentrations instead.
SIAT is changing the definition of concentrations (for majors):
- It is a group of related courses that approved IAT majors can pursue within their degree
- Students may complete more than one concentration
- Students may complete no concentrations (if they choose)
- Concentrations will be recognized on your transcript
- There is no GPA requirement to access a concentration
- There are no ‘reserves’ or ‘reserved seating’ in courses for those declared in a concentration
- Joint majors are required to complete one concentration
The new Fall 2024 concentrations are as follows:
In the Creative Media Concentration, students gain skills in emergent areas such as narrative, interactivity, video, sound design, motion capture, visual effects and immersive technologies to tackle meaningful and critically-engaged stories, preparing them for further work in graduate studies or careers in entertainment, film, media arts, and software media industries.
This concentration includes the following courses:
- Narrative and New Media (IAT 313)
- Sound Design (IAT 340)
- Moving Images (IAT 344)
- Senior Project in Creative Media (IAT 443) (see changes to IAT 443)
Designing Interactions develops competencies in interaction design, speculative design and user experience design. Projects develop problem-solving capabilities rigorously tested by critique after framing and research for interventions for people and communities. The role of the designer is explored in a range of contexts. Projects range from screen-based to tangible artifacts, products and services.
This concentration includes the following courses:
- Interaction Design Methods (IAT 333) (see changes to IAT 333)
- Speculative Design (IAT 431) (see changes to IAT 431)
- User Experience Design (IAT 438) (see changes to IAT 438)
The XR & Game Design concentration provides a blend of technical, theoretical, and practical skills in diverse areas of extended reality and game design. Students learn to create compelling gaming and immersive experiences, apply user-centered design, manage projects, work collaboratively, communicate effectively, and engage in critical thinking and ethical practices.
This concentration includes the following courses:
- Foundations of Game Design (IAT 312)
- Animation (IAT 343)
- Advanced Game Design (IAT 410)
- Immersive Environments (IAT 445)
This concentration is aimed to teach students the skills to extract insights from data, design and build AI systems for interactive technologies, data-driven decision-making, and computer assisted creativity. It emphasizes applying human-centered computing principles and ethical considerations to AI and data science to design, evaluate and deploy state-of-the-art interactive systems.
This concentration includes the following courses:
- Introduction to Visual Analytics (IAT 355)
- Exploring AI: Its Use, Concepts, and Impact (IAT 360) (see more info on the new IAT 360)
- Generative Art and Computational Creativity (IAT 460) (see more info on the new IAT 460)
- Data Science for Human-Centered Systems (IAT 461) (see more info on the new IAT 461)
This concentration provides students with the theories, tools and methods for developing digital applications for the web and mobile. There is a heavy focus on modern development practices, accessibility considerations and creating applications tailored to meet the unique needs of the target audience while considering the context of use.
This concentration includes the following courses:
- Web Design & Development (IAT 339)
- Mobile Computing (IAT 359) (see changes to IAT 359)
- Internet Computing Technologies (IAT 459) (see changes to IAT 459)
Changes to graduation requirements
As a student, your requirements for graduation are set the day you start your program.
If SIAT changes requirements while you are in the program, you can decide to move your graduation requirements forward to the new changes but you will no longer be able to move back to your original requirements. If you would like to access the new concentrations you will have to move to the Fall 2024 graduation requirements. It is highly recommended that you reach out to SIAT advising before changing graduation requirements.
Applying to change your graduation requirements will be integrated into the Concentration Application form and processed on February, June, and October 1st every year.
The following changes are being made to lower division (100- and 200-level) requirements in Fall 2024:
- For IAT majors, complete six of the following courses: IAT 201, IAT 202, IAT 206W, IAT 222, IAT 233, IAT 235, IAT 265, IAT 267 (previously eight were required)
- For IAT majors taking a BSc, there is no longer a non-SIAT science course required
- For Joint majors, there are no longer ‘concentration specific’ requirements such as IAT 202 for Media Arts, IAT 233 for Spatial Design, or IAT 267 for Interactive Systems