Overview

Education

Facilities

NSF IGERT

Our IGERT program is a model for graduate education in the multidisciplinary area of interactive digital multimedia. Participating doctorate students have opportunities for collaborative research, a range of courses and seminars, internships in industry, experience in management and entrepreneurship, and training in ethics and career management, all in an environment that transcends traditional departmental boundaries. The broad backgrounds of students and faculty from Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Media Arts and Technology, Psychology, and Geography create a diverse, unique mix, engendering a visible community of participants at UCSB. Consider the following examples:

• a multimedia composer who received a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering
• a doctoral candidate in Psychology who moved to Geography to create his own PhD program
• an electrical engineer who is now pursuing a PhD in Human Perception/Psychology
• a multimedia artist who was funded to work in areas of bioinformatics

As part of their education, we require our trainees to participate in substantial, interdisciplinary group projects. Trainees gain experience in group dynamics, leadership development, and multidisciplinary research. Many of these projects continue from year to year, often with new, more complex research directions. Some projects spin-off into other research efforts, with participation from students who are not directly under the IGERT umbrella. This is a significant educational achievement as our training trickles down to masters and doctoral students in other departments and programs. One example is our Spheres of Influence library installation which has now gone through three distinct versions and spawned research in video segmentation, digital media education, human computer interaction, data mining, geospatial databases, and the visual/spatial arts.

In addition to regular coursework as determined by department and major research area, we require our trainees to enroll in the the Interactive Digital Multimedia Seminar Series. Over the past five years, the Seminar Series has brought a variety of external speakers to the university and provided an arena for local researchers, faculty, and graduate students to present updates to their community. In Fall 2008, the Series was absorbed into the regular curriculum of the Media Arts and Technology Program.