HCII Course Descriptions

With the growth of online environments like MySpace, Second Life, World of Warcraft, Wikipedia, blogs, online support groups, and open source development communities, the web is no longer just about information. This course, jointly taught by a computer scientist and a behavioral scientist, will examine a sampling of the social, technical and business challenges social web sites must solve to be successful, teach students how to use high-level tools to analyze, design or build online communities, and help them understand the social impact of spending at least part of their lives online. This class is open to advanced undergraduates and graduate students with either technical or non-technical backgrounds. Course work will include lectures and class discussion, homework, class presentations, and a group research or design project.

This is a project course, where interdisciplinary teams build desktop and immersive (helmet-based) interactive virtual worlds. The course will cover world building, environmental design, non-linear storytelling, and related topics. Students will use 3D Studio Max (CAD modeler), paint tools, such as Adobe PhotoShop and DeepPaint, sound processing tools, and the Alice authoring system (www.alice.org/bvw.htm). Each year, we hold an exhibition in McConomy auditorium to show class projects to the Carnegie Mellon community. The goal of the course is to take students with varying talents, backgrounds, and perspectives and put them together to do what they couldn?t do alone. The course is targeted at undergraduates, but grad students may also enroll. To enroll, students must have ONE of the following skills: Modeling with 3D Studio Max Painting using shadow/shape/light in a realistic style Programming, as evidenced by using the Alice system (www.alice.org) Ability to compose and record original music Storyboarding Production tracking Other relevant skills The key thing is that there are no "idea people" in the course; everyone must share in the mechanical creation of the worlds. This is a hands-on course and it takes a lot of time, but most students find it very fulfilling and fun. Note that we don?t try to teach artists to program, or engineers to paint; we form teams where everyone does what they?re already skilled at to attack a joint project. We are scheduled for 2 weekly meetings, 2.5 hours each. These slots are roughly split between regular lectures, display/critique of group projects, and guest lectures.

Most of management is communication. You communicate to get information that will be the basis of decisions, coordinate activity, to provide a vision for the people who work for and with you, to and to sell yourself and your work. The goal of this course is to identify communication challenges within work groups and organizations and ways to overcome them. To do this requires that we know how communication normally works, what parts are difficult, and how to fix it when it goes wrong.

The focus of this course is on providing you with a broad understanding of the way communication operates within dyads, work groups, and organizations. The intent is to give you theoretical and empirical underpinnings for the communication you will undoubtedly participate in when you move to a work environment, and strategies for improving communication within your groups. Because technology is changing communication patterns and outcomes both in organizations and more broadly in society, the course examines these technological changes. Readings come primarily from the empirical research literatur.

This course introduces the skills and concepts of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) that enable computer scientists to design systems that effectively meet human needs. A concrete illustration of the practice of HCI, this course covers iterative design processes, interactive prototype construction, discount evaluation techniques, and the historical context of HCI. The course is intended for undergraduates and graduate students not majoring in HCI. Students considering a major in HCI should take 05-410, Introduction to HCI Methods instead.

The purpose of this course to develop an understanding of how basic cognitive science becomes an application – or tries to. It is an excellent complement to Human Factors. The course will sample applications stemming from basic research in perception, learning, memory, and cognitive neuroscience, in collaboration with other disciplines. Examples are virtual reality environments, computer-generated navigation systems, cognitive tutors, decision aids, guidelines for eyewitness interrogation, neuro-marketing, and speech recognition and synthesis. No background in psychology is required, as the general topics will be covered along with the applications. The goals are for students to acquire fundamental knowledge of cognitive science and to learn how basic research is applied. As the course progresses, the class arrives at a shared understanding of how promising and relevant research becomes an application, as well as what stands in the way.

This course provides and overview and introduction to the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). It introduces students to tools, techniques,a nd sources of information about HCI and provides a systematic approach to design. The course increases awareness of good and bad design through observation of existing technology, and teaches the basic skills of task analysis, and analytic and empirical evaluation methods. This is a companion course to courses in visual design (05-650) and software implementation (05-630, 05-631). Course is open to undergrads and graduate level non-hci majors. Sophomores must get permission of the instructor.

This course uses theory and research from human factors, cognitive science, and social science to understand and design the interactions of humans with the built world, tools, and technology. The course emphasizes current work in applied domains such as automotive design, house construction, medical human factors, and design of information devices. The course also will emphasize not only individual human factors (e.g., visual response, anthropometry) but also the organizational arrangements that can amplify or correct human factors problems. Through reading, discussion, and projects, you will learn about human perceptual, cognitive, and physical processes that affect how people interact with, and use, technology and tools. You will learn why we have so many automobile accidents, voting irregularities, and injuries from prescription medication. You will learn some tried and true solutions for human factors problems, and some of the many problems in human factors that remain. You will also have gained experience in research in this field.

This course is for those with moderate programming skills who want to express their interactive ideas in working prototypes. The course will cover several prototyping tools and require a number of prototypes to be contstructed in each. These will range from animated mock-ups through fully functional programs. The course will also cover usability testing of interactive prototypes. Prerequisities: proficienty in a programming language such as C, programming methodology and style, problem analysis, program structure, algorithm analysis, data abstraction, and dynamic data. Normally met through an introductory course in programming in C, C++, Pascal or JAVA.

This course is intended for those with advanced programming skills who want to do serious development of graphical user interfaces. This course includes: basic principles of computer graphics used in UI implementation; event handling and event dispatching models; screen update algorithms and UI architectures; input syntax formalisms and their transformation into programs; interactive geometry; architectures for advanced features such as cut/copy/paste, macros and groupware. The course is intended for computer science majors. In some cases, the student and the Program Director will jointly determine the choice of 05-430 or 05-431, based upon the student's previous programming experience.

This course addresses the use of cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence to create computer-based "intelligent tutoring systems". Students will learn data-driven and theoretical methods for creating cognitive models of human problem solving. Such models have been used to create educational software that has been demonstrated to dramatically enhance student learning in domains like mathematics and computer programming. In addition to discussion and readings on methods and models of problem solving, learning, and tutor design, the course will have a substantial "learning by doing" component. Students will be analyzing data, designing cognitive models and interfaces, and implementing an intelligent tutoring system. Students should either have programming skills (LISP experience is desirable but not necessary) or experience in the cognitive psychology of human problem solving. Addtional pre-req preferred: 05-610 Into to HCI or a course in Artificial Intelligence.

• HUMAN ALGORITHMS - 12 units
• PHYSICAL COMPUTING: INTERACTIVE INSTALLATIONS AND SOCIAL INTERFACES - 10 units
• PERCEPTIVE COMPUTING - 12 units
• INTERACTIVE PROGRAMMING
  

This is a project-oriented course, which will deal with all four aspects of project development: the application, the artifact, the computer-aided design environment, and the physical prototyping facilities. The class consists of students from different disciplines who must synthesize and implement a system in a short period of time. Upon completion of this course the student will be able to: generate systems specifications from a perceived need; partition functionality between hardware and software; produce interface specifications for a system composed of numerous subsystems; use computer-aided development tools; fabricate, integrate, and debug a hardware/software system; and evaluate the system in the context of an end user application. The class consists of students from different disciplines who must synthesize and implement a system in a short period of time.

Experiential learning is a key component of the MHCI program. Through a substantial team project, students apply classroom knowledge in analysis and evaluation, implementation and design, and develop skills working in multidisciplinary teams.

 Independent Study Form

Students will attend the HCII Seminar Series ot talks by leaders in the field of Human-Conmputer Interaction, then meet to discuss these topics.

This course provides and overview and introduction to the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). It introduces students to tools, techniques,a nd sources of information about HCI and provides a systematic approach to design. The course increases awareness of good and bad design through observation of existing technology, and teaches the basic skills of task analysis, and analytic and empirical evaluation methods. This is a companion course to courses in visual design (05-650) and software implementation (05-630, 05-631).

This course is for those with moderate programming skills who want to express their interactive ideas in working prototypes. The course will cover several prototyping tools and require a number of prototypes to be contstructed in each. These will range from animated mock-ups through fully functional programs. The course will also cover usability testing of interactive prototypes. Prerequisites: proficienty in a programming language such as C, programming methodology and style, problem analysis, program structure, algorithm analysis, data abstraction, and dynamic data. Normally met through an introductory course in programming in C, C++, Pascal or JAVA.

This course is intended for those with advanced programming skills who want to do serious development of graphical user interfaces. This course includes: basic principles of computer graphics used in UI implementation; event handling and event dispatching models; screen update algorithms and UI architectures; input syntax formalisms and their transformation into programs; interactive geometry; architectures for advanced features such as cut/copy/past, macros, and groupware. Prerequisites: undergraduate degree in computer science or permission of the instructor.

(formerly Visual Interface & Interaction Design) An interface is the link between a user and a product, which communicates how a product is to be used, and creates an experience for the people who will use it. Interaction design is the process of creating product interfaces and defining product behavior, encompassing both usability and aesthetic dimensions of the artifact. In this course, we will explore issues that pertain to the design of visual and multimodal interfaces. The class will focus on elements of the larger interaction design process including basic design principles, information architecture and navigation, planning and brainstorming methods, and techniques for developing rapid sketches and prototypes. Course Requirements: Fundamentals of Communication Design or equivalent course work are a required pre-requisite for this course. This class will not focus on learning specific software tools. Students are expected to have prior experience using a variety of design and programming tools. Please speak with the Professor if you have questions regarding these pre-requisites.

Experiential learning is a key component of the MHCI program. Through a substantial team project, students apply classroom knowledge in analysis and evaluation, implementation and design, and develop skills working in multidisciplinary teams. The project begins in the spring semester before graduation and continues full-time through the final summer semester; it must be taken in consecutive spring and summer semesters.

This is the second consecutive course of the two-semester HCI Project course. Experiential learning is a key component of the MHCI program. Through a substantial team project, students apply classroom knowledge in analysis and evaluation, implementation and design, and develop skills working in multidisciplinary teams. The project begins in the spring semester before graduation and continues full-time through the final summer semester; it must be taken in consecutive spring and summer semesters.

Process and Theory is a project course intended to provide new researchers with an introduction to the skills and perspectives inherent in interdisciplinary HCI research. It is taught each fall and our incoming PhD students are required to take it. Course work is divided into:

- Discussions about the nature of interdisciplinary research in HCI based around guest lectures by faculty approaching the same problem area from different perspectives

- Specific research skills such as writing, presentation, publishing norms and ethics

- A semester long group project experience

One of a series of four, seminar style mini-courses, to expose researchers to the breadth of classic and cutting edge research in four distinct traditions in Human Computer Interaction -- computer science, cognitive science, social science, and design. Although no project is required for this course, there wil be significant reading and writing. The four courses are: 05-773 Computer Science Perspectives in HCI; 05-772 Social Perspectives in HCI; 05-774 Cognitive Science Perspectives in HCI; 05-775 Design Perspectives in HCI.

We will explore  the innovations and challenges that have been tackled by the pioneers of our field over the past 60 years. The intersection of humans and computation has reflected dramatic changes in technology over time, from the vision of Vannevar Bush to the ability to predict human interruptibility with sensors.

The material in this class would be of value to anyone interested in classic and cutting edge work representing the history and future of computational innovation in the service of humans. It is one of a series of four, seminar style mini-courses covering four distinct traditions in HCII--computer science, cognitive science, social science, and design.

Each week, we will discuss one or two important areas. In the class itself, there will be reviews of readings, discussions and exercises in proposing new topics.  You'll read six to eight articles to prepare for the class session. Papers will be selected either because they frame a sub area, are the first best paper in the area, represent different approaches to the a subarea and so on. While we can't possibly cover every important paper that has been published in the last 4 decades, we will try to focus on pioneering work, and we will try to cover enough areas to give a sense of the breadth of HCI.

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Overview

Online groups and communities are increasingly important in the ways we work, play, learn, conduct commerce, organize politically, and receive social support. To be successful online communities must overcome challenges common to off-line groups: e.g., recruiting and socializing new members, developing members’ commitment, eliciting contributions, regulating behavior and coordinating work. Online communities are socio-technical systems. As such, their success depends on social engineering – how the technology and rules that constrain participants’ behavior match “human nature,” i.e., the principles that describe the way people normally behave.

This research-oriented seminar is intended to help students analyze communities, to understand what makes them succeed or fail, with an eye toward designing and improving them. For computer scientists and designers the course will introduce relevant theory and empirical research on small groups and organizations, which should underlie design decision. For behavioral and social science students, it will introduce online communities as platforms to test and extend theory in groups and organizations.

The course will cover such types of communities as open-source software development projects, Wikipedia, health support groups, and massively multi-player games. It will deal with such conceptual issues as the basis of commitment to groups, free riding and other motivational problems, communication, coordination, control and recruitment, socialization and retention. Students will read recent research papers focusing on online communities and relevant empirical studies and theory describing behavior in groups and organizations more generally. Students will plan and execute a relevant research project, either individually or in small groups.

This course uses theory and research from human factors, cognitive science, and social science to understand and design the interactions of humans with the built world, tools, and technology. The course emphasizes current work in applied domains such as automotive design, house construction, medical human factors, and design of information devices. The course also will emphasize not only individual human factors (e.g., visual response, anthropometry) but also the organizational arrangemenhts that can amplify or correct human factors problems. Through reading, discussion, and projects, you will learn about human perceptual, cognitive, and physical processes that affect how people interact with, and use, technology and tools. You will learn why we have so many automobile accidents, voting irregularities, and injuries from prescription medication. You will learn some tried and true solutions for human factors problems, and some of the many problems in human factors that remain. You will also have gained experience in research in this field.

Perception, broadly defined, is the construction of a representation of the external world, for purposes of thinking about it and acting in it. Although we often think of perception as the processing of inputs to the sense organs, the world conveyed by the senses is ambiguous, and cognitive and sensory systems interact to interpret it. In this course, we will examine the sensory-level mechanisms involved in perception by various sensory modalities, including vision, audition, and touch. We will learn how sensory coding interacts with top-down processing based on context and prior knowledge and how perception changes with learning and development. The goals include not only imparting basic knowledge about perception, but fostering an appreciation for the beauty of perceptual systems and providing some new insights into everyday experiences.

Computers have been used in organizations since World War II. Their use has both intensified and changed in character in recent decades. For a typical firm, fully fifty percent of its capital investment goes into computers and telecommunications equipment. While early computers were primarily used for mathematical functions and accounting, they are now used for a much wider array of functions, including process control, development of new products, various forms of organizational communication and electronic commerce. This course examines the introduction, diffusion, and use of computers and telecommunications in orgainizations from a social perspective. Information technology is assessed in terms of its interaction with human behavior, organizational characteristics and organizational procedures. Both historical and contemporary examples will be used. By the end of the course, students should have a better understanding of the range of uses to which information technologies are put in organizations, the controversies surrounding their use, and the complexities involved in predicting their effects. The course is appropriate for three types of students: 1)those who expect to work in fields in which they create or manage computing systems; b) those with a research interest in organizational processes; and c) those who want to be able to participate knowledgeably in current debates on computing and information systems. Undergrads with permission of instructor only

APPLIED RESEARCH METHODS - 9 units - formerly 05-899 A. This course is for graduate students who will carry out research in domains such as social effects of the Internet, evaluation of interactive robots and agents, and the use of sensors for predicting user behavior in information systems. The course will be run as a lab and seminar involving hands-on practice of skills such as experimentation, web survey design, ethnographic observation, and content analysis. Students will complete a research project in the course.

This course will cover the research and implementation of user interface software. The students will get a comprehensive understanding of all the approaches that have been investigated by researchers and commercial systems for user interface software. After a quick overview of the design of user interfaces, students will concentrate on how to implement the chosen design. Particular emphasis will be placed on user interface software tools, such as windowing systems, toolkits, interface builders, prototypers, and advanced user interface development environments. In particular, the course will cover MS Windows, OLE, MFC, Macintosh Toolbox, MacApp, OpenDoc, X/11, Motif, Visual Basic, Director, HyperCard, Java Swing, Java Beans, and various research systems like Amulet, InterViews, and subArctic. Lectures will discuss the fundamental principles behind all of these systems, while showing the historical progression of the ideas from research prototypes to commercial systems. Today's research topics and open issues in user interface software will be emphasized throughout. Students will all use an interactive prototyping tool first, like HyperCard, Director, Visual Basic or Delphi. Then each student will implement the same interface in three other "high-level" tools, which will be chosen so that the full range of tools is covered by members of the class. Students will compare and evaluate the various tools for ease of learning and effectiveness.

This is a project course, where interdisciplinary teams build desktop and immersive (helmet-based) interactive virtual worlds. The course will cover world building, environmental design, non-linear storytelling, and related topics. Students will use 3D Studio Max (CAD modeler), paint tools, such as Adobe PhotoShop and DeepPaint, sound processing tools, and the Alice authoring system (www.alice.org/bvw.htm). Each year, we hold an exhibition in McConomy auditorium to show class projects to the Carnegie Mellon community. The goal of the course is to take students with varying talents, backgrounds, and perspectives and put them together to do what they couldn?t do alone. The course is targeted at undergraduates, but grad students may also enroll. To enroll, students must have ONE of the following skills: Modeling with 3D Studio Max Painting using shadow/shape/light in a realistic style Programming, as evidenced by using the Alice system (www.alice.org) Ability to compose and record original music Storyboarding Production tracking Other relevant skills The key thing is that there are no "idea people" in the course; everyone must share in the mechanical creation of the worlds. This is a hands-on course and it takes a lot of time, but most students find it very fulfilling and fun. Note that we don?t try to teach artists to program, or engineers to paint; we form teams where everyone does what they?re already skilled at to attack a joint project. We are scheduled for 2 weekly meetings, 2.5 hours each. These slots are roughly split between regular lectures, display/critique of group projects, and guest lectures.

This course addresses the use of cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence to create computer-based "intelligent tutoring systems". Students will learn data-driven and theoretical methods for creating cognitive models of human problem solving. Such models have been used to create educational software that has been demonstrated to dramatically enhance student learning in domains like mathematics and computer programming. In addition to discussion and readings on methods and models of problem solving, learning, and tutor design, the course will have a substantial "learning by doing" component. Students will be analyzing data, designing cognitive models and interfaces, and implementing an intelligent tutoring system. Students should either have programming skills (LISP experience is desirable but not necessary) or experience in the cognitive psychology of human problem solving. Addtional pre-req preferred: 05-610 Into to HCI or a course in Artificial Intellience.

This course will cover new techniques and technologies for creating high quality user interfaces. It will consider current work in this area, emphasizing readings from the research literature as well as practical projects involving the implementation of new concepts in user interface software or other technology. Typical topics to be covered might include: advanced interaction techniques, ubiquitous computing, tangible interfaces, mobile and wearable computing, web-based interaction, information visualization, virtual and augmented reality, new input devices, audio, speech, and other new interaction modalities. Specific topics for each year will be chosen from the current research literature.

The technology to allow humans to communicate with machines by speech and the technology to enable machines to understand when humans communicate with each other is rapidly maturing. This course provides an introduction to the theoretical background as well as the experimental practice that has made the field what it is today. We will cover theoretical foundations, essential algorithms, major approaches, experimental strategies and current state-of-the-art systems and will introduce the participants to ongoing work in representation, algorithms and interface design. The course will be completed by a brief overview of multilingual speech recognition dealing with various languages. This course is primarily for graduate students in LTI, CS, Robotics, ECE, HCI, Psychology, or Computational Linguistics. Others by prior permission of instructor. No prior experience with speech recognition is necessary. The course is suitable for graduate students with some background in computer science and electrical engineering, as well as for advanced undergraduates. The course involves written and programming assignments. Some reading of papers may also be required.

Human computer interaction (HCI) is an interdisciplinary field in which computer scientists, engineers, psychologists, social scientists, and design professionals play important roles. The goal of this field is to solve real problems in the design and use of technology, making computer-based systems easier to use and more effective for people and organizations. Ease of use and effectiveness are critical to the success of any systems that interact with people, including software systems, home, office and factory appliances, and web applications.

This course provides an overview and introduction to the field of human-computer interaction, with a focus on how it applies to managers, technology executives, and others who will work with HCI professionals. Particular emphasis will be placed on what HCI methods and HCI-trained specialists can bring to design and development teams. The course will introduce students to tools and techniques for creating or improving user interfaces, such as Contextual Inquiry, Heuristic Analysis, and Think-Aloud User Testing. Students at the end of the course will have learned some useful techniques and an understanding of systematic procedures for creating usable and useful designs and systems.

Open to graduate students from all departments who have sufficient computing background (see the prerequisites).
Required course in the Technology Leadership MBA Track.
Approved as an elective in INI, MSE, IS, and other Master's programs.
May be available to undergraduates in SCS and Information Systems with permission of the instructor.
Enrollment limited to 60.
[This course is not appropriate for students in the degree programs of the Human Computer Interaction Institute.]

This is a project-oriented course, which will deal with all four aspects of project development: the application, the artifact, the computer-aided design environment, and the physical prototyping facilities. The class consists of students from different disciplines who must synthesize and implement a system in a short period of time. Upon completion of this course the student will be able to: generate systems specifications from a perceived need; partition functionality between hardware and software; produce interface specifications for a system composed of numerous subsystems; use computer-aided development tools; fabricate, integrate, and debug a hardware/software system; and evaluate the system in the context of an end user application. The class consists of students from different disciplines who must synthesize and implement a system in a short period of time.

Sound is a critical component toward the success of interactive media, yet it is quite often an underutilized element in the development of the end-user's experience. New audio technologies, interfaces and controllers are developing at an unprecedented rate and increase the designer's options for leveraging novel methods of interaction in the virtual and physical world. This course will investigate protocols for integrating audio into a variety of interactive experiences with a series of sonic project assignments.

• EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY DESIGN, IMPLEMENTATION, AND EVALUATION - 9 units
• INFORMATION VISUALIZATION - 12 units
• PERCEPTIVE COMPUTING - 12 units
• TELEPRESENCE - 10-12 units
• INNOVATION PROCESS - 12 units
• APPLIED RESEARCH METHODS - 9 units (new course # 05-816 beg. F03)