|
On Campus: A Degree for Both Sides of the Brain
When
Alyssa Reuter had to choose a college, she wanted one that offered
programs in computer science and the arts. “The one school that was
strong in both was Carnegie Mellon,” she says.
But how could
she combine her two passions? Getting undergraduate degrees from both
SCS and the College of Fine Arts—a double major—would have meant an
extremely heavy workload, because the majors don’t have many
overlapping courses.
As it turns out, Reuter wasn’t the only
student asking to combine the disciplines into one undergraduate
degree, says Franco Sciannameo, director of Carnegie Mellon’s Bachelor
of Humanities and Arts (BHA) and Bachelor of Science and Arts (BSA)
programs—joint efforts between CFA, the College of Humanities and
Social Sciences, and the Mellon College of Science.
Students
were literally “knocking on my door,” Sciannameo says. From game design
and computer animation to computer music and robotic art, technology
and the arts are no longer separable, he says. “This is Carnegie
Mellon, the temple of arts and technology combined. Students come to
us, attracted by these two pillars of today’s world. The time was right
to create another program.”
The newly created Bachelor of Computer Science and Arts
(BCSA) degree has the enthusiastic support of SCS Dean Randal Bryant
and CFA Dean Hilary Robinson, and passed both college councils
unanimously, according to Sciannameo. Eight Carnegie Mellon students
(four each from SCS and CFA) transferred into the program this fall.
Others will follow in the spring, and the first freshmen are slated to
enter the program in the fall of 2009.
The students combine
coursework in SCS with studies in CFA’s schools of art, architecture,
design, drama, and music. “The BCSA program eliminates some of the
courses that aren’t completely necessary for pursuing the combination
of the two,” Reuter says. “It makes perfect sense to me. I’m really
happy about it.”
SCS has long encouraged connections between
computer science and other disciplines. Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment
Technology Center, a joint venture between SCS and CFA, offers the only
master’s of entertainment technology (MET) degree in the United States,
while undergraduate computer science majors already must select a minor
in another field. Mark Stehlik, SCS assistant dean for undergraduate
education and computer science advisor to the BCSA program, says
upper-level courses combining CFA and SCS students have provoked lively
interactions. “When you get very creative people with different skill
sets working together, magic can happen,” he says.
Reuter, now a
junior, plans to go into game development, animation, or
special-effects production. “I also think that it would be really
interesting to explore other ways computer science and art could be
combined in more of a gallery situation,” she says.
The BCSA
degree also will serve as a pathway to the MET degree; an accelerated
program will allow students to complete their BCSA in three and a half
years and their MET in a year and a half. “The goal of the BCSA program
is to help students who really want to achieve a complete fusion of two
fields of inquiry,” Sciannameo says.
Interest in the BCSA is
high; Reuter’s friends keep telling her the program is a “cool idea.”
But perhaps the strongest measure of its success are the inquiries that
Sciannameo is getting from students in the Carnegie Institute of
Technology and the Tepper School of Business, who want to know when
they’ll get their own joint degree programs. To which Sciannameo says,
“one discipline-bridging program at a time.” —Karen Hoffmann (S’04)
|
Gates and Hillman Centers Photo Tour
cs.cmu.edu