Computational Media
Why Computational Media?
Computational Media is all around us — video games, interactive narratives, dynamic visualizations, smartphone apps, virtual reality, social media, personality-rich robots, individualized health coaching, and more. Creating, understanding, and advancing novel forms of media requires a new kind of interdisciplinary thinker and maker. The graduate degrees in computational media at UC Santa Cruz are designed with this person in mind.
The M.S. helps you build on your existing strengths while exploring new areas. The Ph.D. program is for those already working in computational media and seeking to develop new knowledge that expands what is possible. We provide an interdisciplinary foundation and a supportive research community to push the boundaries of your work. For more information about our graduate programs, contact the graduate advisor.
Computational Media at UC Santa Cruz spans multiple research areas
Games
Human-centered AI
Human-computer/agent/robot interactions
Interactive media/VR/XR for societal impacts
Procedural content generation
Human Computer Interaction M.S.
What are the effects of technology on society? How are people shaping technologies to fit their needs? How do we design technologies that uplift a diverse range of users? Human Computer Interaction (HCI) embraces a multidisciplinary approach incorporating computer science, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and the humanities to thoughtfully design a more equitable future with technologies.
Please check the registrar’s website for the most recent tuition and fee information, and refer to Graduate Admissions for the current application due date.
Meet your CM advising team
Drop-in advising hours
Tuesday – Thursday, 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Graduate Director
Program Learning Outcomes
Computational Media (M.S.)
- Use fundamental computational media knowledge to describe the field’s development as well as trade-offs between different project design and evaluation approaches.
- Use knowledge of least one topic in computational media to identify a potentially novel contribution and relate it to prior work in the field.
- Use sufficient and appropriate technical knowledge to develop a CM contribution.
Computational Media (Ph.D.)
- Synthesize fundamental computational media knowledge to describe: the field’s development, trade-offs between different project design and evaluation approaches, and the relations of these topics with each other.
- Use knowledge of least one topic in computational media to identify a potentially novel contribution and relate it to prior work in the field.
- Use sufficient and appropriate technical knowledge to develop a CM contribution.