Programs
Listed below are the academic programs associated with the Computational Design Lab. For more information on admission procedures, please visit the School of Architecture admission website.
Master of Tangible Interaction Design
We are amidst a radical transformations of our physical and built world – the pervasive computing revolution. Everyday objects, from shoes to ships are embedded with sensors and are networked as nodes in the internet. New materials – sensing elastopolymers, electroluminescent wire and surfaces, thermochromic dyes – are also part of the new landscape of “stuff” with which we make and build. And the means of manufacture are also changing rapidly, with mass-customization and local production that laser and water-jet cutters and three-dimensional printers are making possible.
Innovative and entrepreneurial makers of tomorrow won’t see a world divided by disciplinary boundaries. The things they make, the people they work with, the processes they manage lead them to see the world as a designer does: as systems to be organized and integrated. Through broad exploration they see patterns in the work they do across traditional disciplines. Tomorrow’s makers feel at home in the arts, humanities, science, engineering, and mathematics. They see these not as specialties to select but as sources of knowledge for their work.
The Master of Tangible Interaction Design program is a three- or four- semester program at Carnegie Mellon University centered around new computational technologies in making. The program serves two distinct groups: those with significant engineering and/or computer science knowledge who wish to master design or artistic skills, and those with significant design, art, or architecture experience who wish to master technological means of making.
The scope of study in the mTID program is broad, including digital fabrication, analog and digital electronics, media and materials, and computer programming. Students attend design and technology courses and a studio where they apply these skills. Students also read and discuss the literature of this emerging field in a seminar course.
For more information please visit the Master of Tangible Interaction Design program page.
PhD in Computational Design
The PhD program in Computational Design started in the late 1960′s and is among the best known in the US. From the beginning, the program has benefited from close cooperation with other units in the university, especially the School of Computer Science and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Research has concentrated on fundamental issues that arise in connection with the emergence of computers as a design and decision-making tool and medium. Its mission is to advance the state-of-the-art in computing technology and building design and to establish a rigorous foundation for its use.