Core Courses

• INFO–I 500 Fundamental Computer Concepts in Informatics (3 cr.) An introduction to fundamental principles of computer concepts for Informatics study, including an overview of computer architecture, computer algorithms, fundamentals of operating systems, data structure, file organization and database concepts. This course is expected to impart the required level of competency in computer science. It may be waived in lieu of six undergraduate credit hours of computer science or informatics coursework, covering areas of programming, discrete structures, and data structures.

• INFO–I 501 Introduction to Informatics (3 cr.) P: Graduate standing. Basic information representation and processing; searching and organization; evaluation and analysis of information. Internet-based information access tools; ethics and economics of information sharing.

• INFO–I 502 Information Management (3 cr.) Survey of information organization in medical, health, chemical, and biology-related areas; basic techniques of the physical database structures and models, data access strategies, management, and indexing of massively large files; analysis and representation of structured and semi-structured medical/clinical/chemical/biological data sets.

• INFO–I 503 Social Impact of Information Technologies (3 cr.) An overview of important social, legal, and ethical issues raised by information technology.

• INFO–I 504 Social Dimensions of Science Informatics (3 cr.) Course will examine ethical, legal, and social issues surrounding contemporary research and practice in science informatics.  Topics include the nature of science and technology, the ramifications of recent advances in science informatics, and relevant science policy and research ethics. General knowledge of science informatics is assumed.

• INFO–I 505 Informatics Project Management (3 cr.) This is a professional introduction to informatics project management and organizational implementation of integrated information solutions. The target audience is informatics project team members likely to pursue informatics project manager roles as well as all members not likely to do so. Through reading, lecture, discussion, practice, and targeted projects, students gain historical perspectives, current awareness, and proficiency with informatics project management terminology, techniques, and technologies.

• INFO–I 506 Globalization and Information (3 cr.) Explores the processes that promote and impede movement of human action and informational activities to the most general levels, e.g., the level of the world as a whole. Surveys diverse theories of globalization to identify the best approaches for professional informatics career planning and making information globally accessible.

• INFO–I 510 Data Acquisition and Laboratory Automation (3 cr.) This course covers the entire process by which signals from  laboratory instruments are turned into useful data: (1) fundamentals of signal conditioning and sampling; (2) interfacing, communications and data transfer; (3) markup languages and  capability systems datasets; (4) general lab automation; (5) robotics.  A significant portion of this course is devoted to practical learning using LabVIEW.

• INFO–I 511 Laboratory Information Management Systems for Health and Life Sciences (3 cr.) This course involves a comprehensive study of Laboratory Information/Laboratory Information Management Systems in the Healthcare and Life Sciences. It consist of the history, applications, case studies, functional requirements, databases, data flow, workflows, system and network architecture, laboratory roles, establishment of these systems including selection, installation, customization, integration, and validation.

• INFO–I 512 Scientific and Clinical Data Management (3 cr.) Management and mining of data generated in scientific laboratories and clinical trials for data mining and knowledge discovery requires robust solutions that include knowledge discovery techniques and databases, extraction of data/metadata stored in data warehouses that use Storage Area Networks and dealing with security issues of handling this data.

• INFO–I 519 Introduction to Bioinformatics (3 cr.) P: One semester programming course or equivalent. Sequence alignment and assembly; RNA structure, protein and molecular modeling; genomics and proteomics; gene prediction; phylogenetic analysis; information and machine learning; visual and graphical analysis bioinformatics; worldwide biologic databases; experimental design and data collection techniques; scientific and statistical data analysis; database and data mining methods; and network and Internet methods.

• INFO–I 525 Organizational Informatics and Economics Security (3 cr.) Organizational process embed implicit and explicit decisions and information control.  Security technologies and implementations make explicit organizational choices that determine individual autonomy within an organization.  Security implementations allocate risk, determine authority over processes, make explicit relationships in overlapping hierarchies, and determine trust extended to organizational participants.

• INFO–I 529 Machine Learning for Bioinformatics (3 cr.) P: INFO I519, or equivalent knowledge. The course covers advanced topics in bioinformatics with a focus on machine learning. The course will review existing techniques such as hidden Markov models, artificial neural network, decision trees, stochastic grammars, and kernel methods. Examine application of these techniques to current bioinformatics problems including: genome annotation and comparison, gene finding, RNA secondary structure prediction, protein structure prediction, gene expression analysis, proteomics, and integrative functional genomics.

• INFO–I 530 Seminar in Health Informatics Applications (3 cr.) Presents an overview of the various professional applications and research directions taken in health informatics. Requires directed laboratory experience.

• INFO–I 530 Foundations of Health Informatics (3 cr.) This course will introduce the foundation of health informatics.  It will review how information sciences and computer technology can be applied to enhance research and practice in healthcare.  The basic principles of informatics that govern communication systems, clinical decisions, information retrieval, telemedicine, bioinformatics and evidence based medicine will be explored.

• INFO–I 532 Seminar in Bioinformatics (1–3 cr.) Presentation and discussion of new topics in bioinformatics. Concentration on a particular area each semester to be announced before registration. Total credit for seminars and independent study courses may not exceed nine hours.

• INFO–I 533 Seminar in Chemical Informatics (1–3 cr.) Presentation and discussion of new topics in chemical informatics. Concentration on a particular area each semester to be announced before registration. Total credit for seminars and independent study courses may not exceed nine hours.

• INFO–I 534 Seminar in Human-Computer Interaction (1–3 cr.) Topics vary yearly and include the following: information visualization, immersive technologies, designing hypermedia for educational applications, user-centered design techniques and tools, formal methods and cognitive modeling in HCI. Total credit for seminars and independent study courses may not exceed nine hours.

• INFO–I 535 Clinical Information Systems (3 cr.) Clinical Information Systems includes: human computer interface and systems design; healthcare decision support and clinical guidelines; system selection; organizational issues in system integration; project management for information technology change; system evaluation; regulatory policies; impact of the Internet; economic impacts of e-health; distributed healthcare information technologies and future trends.

• INFO–I 536 Foundational Mathematics of Cybersecurity (3 cr.) Students will learn mathematical tools necessary to understand modern cyber security. The course will cover introductory mathematical material from a number of disparate fields including probability theory, computational theory, complexity theory, group theory, and information theory.

• INFO–I 537 Legal and Social Informatics of Security (3 cr.) This is a case-based course on privacy and security in social contexts.  Privacy and security technologies can diverge from their designers’ intent. Privacy-enhancing technologies have been used to defeat data protection legislation, and crytographic technologies of freedom can be used by corrupt regimes to protect their records from external view.

• INFO–I 538 Introduction to Cryptography (3 cr.) Introduction to the foundational primitives of cryptography and implementations. A primary goal of this course will be to understand the security definitions for each primitive, and how they are used in cryptographic protocols. The ethics of insecure or on-the-fly protocol design will be discussed.

• INFO–I 539 Cryptographic Protocols (3 cr.) The class teaches a basic understanding of computer security by looking at how things go wrong, and how people abuse the system. The focus of the class is on how computer systems are attacked, and once this is understood it is possible to propose ways to make the system secure.

• INFO–I 540 Data Mining for Security (3 cr.) The objective of this course is to provide an understanding of the impact of data mining in security with a particular focus on intrusion detection.  There will be an introduction to data mining where data mining techniques including association rules, clustering and classification are described.  Security basics will be presented, focusing on topics such as authentication and access control that are relevant to data mining.  This seminar course will explore recent research work in this area and intrusion detection.

• INFO–I 541 Human Computer Interaction Design I (3 cr.) This course covers human computer interaction theory and application from an integrated-approach of knowledge domains, i.e., the cognitive, behavioral, and social aspects of users and user context, relevant to the design and usability testing of interactive systems.

• INFO–I 543 Usability and Evaluation Methods (3 cr.) Web usability principles (theory) and practices are covered with a semester long project that draws upon relationships between Web and software design and usability engineering.  Students also learn a collection of user requirement and testing processes and techniques for the development of more usable interactive systems.

• INFO–I 545 Music Information Representation, Search and Retrieval (3 cr.) A comprehensive, comparative study of computer-based representation schemes for music, including those oriented toward music notation, music performance, and music analysis. Overview of musical metadata. Techniques and tools for search and retrieval of music information. Credit not given for both INFO I545 and MUS N564.

• INFO–I 546 Music Information Processing: Symbolic (3 cr.) This course deals with both methodology and specific applications that attempt to algorithmically annotate, understand, recognize, and categorize music in symbolic (score-like) form. Particular applications will include key finding, harmonic analysis, note spelling, rhythm recognition, meter induction, piano fingering, and various classification problems such as genre or composer identification. The methodology we will employ will be probabilistic and will include ideas from Machine Learning such as optimal classifiers, hidden Markov models, and Bayesian networks. Students will have computing assignments, present papers, and be expected to implement solutions to some of the problems we address using a high-level language such as R or Matlab.

• INFO–I 547 Music Information Processing: Audio (3 cr.) This course deals with various music analysis and processing problems that use sampled audio as the primary data representation. We discuss digital signal processing including filtering and its relationship to Fourier techniques. Topics include synthesis, effects processing, score following, and blind music recognition, and accompaniment systems.

• INFO–I 548 Introduction to Music Informatics (3 cr.) History, issues, and applications in music information technology. Survey of various types of musical information. Introduction to digital musical media, including data standards and processing; database structure and organization standards and processing; database structure and organization of audio-, score-, and text file objects; and discussion of copyright issues.

• INFO–I 550 Legal and Business Issues in Informatics (3 cr.) Provides students with a solid foundation on legal and business matters that impact informatics and new media, including intellectual property, privacy, confidentiality and security, corporate structure, project planning, tax implications, marketing, obtraining capital, drafting business plans and working with professionals such as attorneys, accountants, and insurance agents.

• INFO–I 551 Independent Study in Health Informatics (1–3 cr.) Independent study under the direction of a faculty member, culminating in a written report. Total credit for seminars and independent study courses may not exceed nine hours. May be repeated for credit.

• INFO–I 552 Independent Study in Bioinformatics (1–3 cr.) Independent study under the direction of a faculty member, culminating in a written report. Total credit for seminars and independent study courses may not exceed nine hours. May be repeated for credit.

• INFO–I 553 Independent Study in Chemical Informatics (1–3 cr.) Independent study under the direction of a faculty member, culminating in a written report. Total credit for seminars and independent study courses may not exceed nine hours. May be repeated for credit.

• INFO–I 554 Independent Study in Human-Computer Interaction (1–3 cr.) Independent study under the direction of a faculty member, culminating in a written report. Total credit for seminars and independent study courses may not exceed nine hours. May be repeated for credit.

• INFO–I 556 Biological Database Management (3 cr.) Study about database management and its application to bioinformatics. Topics include data modeling, data indexing and query optimization with a bioinformatics perspective, and database issues in complex nature of bioinformatics data. The course also involves study of current challenges related to bioinformatics data management, data integration and semantic Web.

• INFO–I 561 Human Computer Interaction Design II (3 cr.) As a continuation of HCI 1, this course introduces students to advanced HCI theories and practices. Areas of study include: product design research methods and issues underlying design thinking, advanced usability practices, and other human-system interaction models. Thesis research planning, methods, and data analysis will also be covered.

• INFO–I 563 Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction (3 cr.) Covers the psychological and behavioral science of human computer interaction, including cognitive architecture, memory, problem-solving, mental models, perception, action, and language.  Emphasis is placed on developing an understanding of the interaction between human and machine systems and how these processes impact the design and testing of interactive technologies.

• INFO–I 564 Prototyping for Interactive Systems (3 cr.) This course covers methodologies for designing and prototyping graphic user interfaces, including rapid (paper) and dynamic (interactive) prototypes. Principles of design research and visual communication are discussed in the context of interaction design, cognition, and user behavior, as well as usability testing techniques for concept validation.

• INFO–I 571 Chemical Information Technology (3 cr.) P: Consent of instructor. Overview of chemical informatics techniques, including chemical structure coding, chemical data representation, chemical database and search systems, molecular visualization and modeling techniques, and the development of chemical informatics software.

• INFO–I 572 Computational Chemistry and Molecular Modeling (3 cr.) P: INFO-I571. Computer models of molecules and their behavior in gas and condensed phases; implicit and explicit salvation models; quantum and molecular mechanics; search strategies for conformational analysis, geometry optimization methods; information content from Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations; QSAR; CoMFA; docking.

• INFO–I 573 Programming for Science Informatics (3 cr.) Students will receive a thorough understanding of software development for chemical informatics and bioinformatics, and broaden experience of working in a scientific computing group. Topics include programming for the web, depiction of chemical and biological structures in 2D and 3D, science informatics tool kits, software APIS, AI and machine-learning algorithm development, high performance computing, database management, managing a small software development group, and design and usability of science informatics software.

• INFO–I 575 Informatics Research Design (3 cr.) P: Undergraduate or graduate course in general statistics. Introduction and overview to the spectrum of research in informatics. Qualitative and quantitative research paradigms, deterministic experimental designs to a posteriori discovery. Issues in informatics research; conceptual, design, empirical, analytical, and disseminative phases of research.

• INFO–I 576 Structural Approaches to Systems Biology (3 cr.) Computational approaches to characterizing and predicting tertiary protein configuration, based on known data of atomic, intramolecular and intermolecular interactions.  The course presents a balanced and integrative outlook at the various molecular components that determine biological function, sub-cellular organization, dysfunction and even disease examined at the nanoscale.

• INFO–I 578 Data Analysis for Clinical Administrative Decision Making (3 cr.) Focuses on understanding, manipulating, and analyzing quantitative data in nursing and healthcare. Includes use of computer-based systems for data management and statistical analysis. Application and interpretation of multivariate statistical models for decision-making.

• INFO–I 581 Health Informatics Standards and Terminologies (3 cr.) Health information standards specify representation of health information for the purpose of communication between information systems. Standards not only standardize data formats, but also the conceptualizations underlying the data structures. The design process of data standards, domain analysis, conceptualization, modeling, and the methods and tools commonly used are explored.

• INFO–I 590 Topics in Informatics (1–3 cr.) Variable topic. Emphasis is on new developments and research in informatics. Can be repeated with different topics, subject to approval of the Dean.

• INFO–I 600 Professionalism and Pedagogy in Informatics (3 cr.) Course will introduce students to topics and skills necessary for entering careers in industry or the academy. Topics covered will include career planning, curriculum development, effective teaching, research ethics, scholarly and trade publishing, grantsmanship, and intellectual property consideration.

• INFO–I 601 Introduction to Complex Systems (3 cr.) The course will cover fractals, emergent behavior, chaos theory, cooperative phenomena, and complex networks. Students will learn how to think differently about complexities, finding ways to understand their complexity and addressing the problems they pose.

• INFO–I 604 Human Computer Interaction Design Theory (3 cr.) The course will explore, analyze, and criticize underlying assumptions and the rational behind some of the most influential theoretical attempts in HC and related fields. The purpose of the course is to make students aware of how theories can influence practice and to develop critical thinking around the role, purpose, and function for theories.

• INFO–I 605 Social Foundations of Informatics (3 cr.) Topics include the economics of information businesses and information societies, legal and regulatory factors that shape information and information technology use, the relationship between organization cultures and their use of information and information technology, and ownership of intellectual property.

• INFO–I 611 Mathematical and Logical Foundations of Informatics (3 cr.) An introduction to mathematical methods for information modeling, analysis, and manipulation. The topics include proof methods in mathematics, models or computation, counting techniques and discrete probability, optimization, statistical inference and core advanced topics that include but are not limited to Markov chains and random walks, random graphs, and Fourier analysis.

• INFO–I 617 Informatics in Life Science and Chemistry (3 cr.) P: Advanced graduate standing or consent of instructor. Introduces the fundamental notions in genome and proteome informatics and chemical informatics focus. Introduces students to major historical, contemporary, and emerging theories, methods, techniques, technologies and applications in the field of bioinformatics. Students will explore relevant and influential research, results and applications. Students will develop an understanding of leading research approaches and paradigms, and will design an independent research program in relation to their individual research fields and personal interests. The course will focus on research approaches in bioinformatics, emerging technologies in biology and chemistry, and basic computational techniques, using the design and organizing issues in information systems used in those areas. The course is designed for students with no biology or chemistry background, but some knowledge in informatics, who want to learn basic topics in bioinformatics and chemical informatics.

• INFO–I 619 Structural Bioinformatics (3 cr.) Course covers informatics approaches based on the sequence and 3D structure of biological macromolecules (DNA, RNA, Protein) whose objective is to improve our understanding of the function of these molecules. Topics will include molecular visualization; structure determination, alignment, and databases; and prediction of protein structure, interactions, and function.

• INFO–I 621 Computational Techniques in Comparative Genomics (3 cr.) Course will summarize computational techniques for comparing genomes on the DNA and protein sequence levels. Topics include state of the art computational techniques and their applications: understanding of hereditary diseases and cancer, genetic mobile elements, genome rearrangements, genome evolution, and the identification of potential drug targets in microbial genomes.

• INFO–I 624 Advanced Seminar I – Human Computer Interaction (3 cr.) P: Advanced graduate standing or consent of instructor. Introduces students to major historical, contemporary and emerging theories, methods, techniques, technologies and applications in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. Students will explore relevant and influential research, results and application. Students will design an independent research program in relation to their individual research fields and personal interests.

• INFO–I 627 Advanced Seminar I – Bioinformatics (3 cr.) P: Advanced graduate standing or consent of instructor. Introduces students to major historical, contemporary, and emerging theories, methods, techniques, technologies and applications in the field of bioinformatics. Student will explore relevant and influential research, results and applications. Students will develop an understanding of leading research approaches and paradigms, and will design an independent research program in relation to their individual research fields and personal interests. The course will focus on research approaches in bioinformatics, and emerging technologies in biology and chemistry, and basic computational techniques.

• INFO–I 634 Advanced Seminar II – Human Computer Interaction (3 cr.) P: Advanced graduate standing or consent of instructor. Introduces students to major historical, contemporary and emerging theories, methods, techniques, technologies, and applications in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. Students will explore relevant and influential research, results and applications. Students will develop an understanding of leading research approaches and paradigms, and will design an independent research program in relation to their individual research fields and personal interests.

• INFO–I 637 Advanced Seminar II – Bioinformatics (3 cr.) P: Advanced graduate standing or consent of instructor. Introduces students to major historical contemporary and emerging theories, methods, and techniques in the field of Bioinformatics. Students will examine and explore relevant and influential research, results and applications. Students will develop an understanding of leading research approaches and paradigms, and will design and independent research program in relation to their individual research fields and personal interests. The course will focus on research approaches in bioinformatics, emerging technologies in biology and chemistry, and basic computational techniques.

• INFO–I 641 Business of Health Informatics (3 cr.) This class focuses on the economic importance of healthcare information technology adoption for value realization, as a strategic asset, as an investment, and transformation toward integrated decision making. Topics covered include but are not limited to implementation of Decision Support System, barcode tracking, Electronic Health Records, pay-for-performance, incentives for e-prescribing.

• INFO–I 642 Clinical Decisions Support Systems (3 cr.) This course provides an overview of the background and state-of-the-art Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS). Topics include: the design principles behind clinical decision support systems, mathematical foundations of the knowledge-based systems and pattern recognition systems, clinical vocabularies, legal and ethical issues, patient centered clinical decision support systems, and the applications of clinical decision support systems in clinical practice.

• INFO–I 643 Natural Language Processing and Text Mining for Biomedical Records and Reports (3 cr.) This course familiarizes students with applications of Natural Language Processing and text mining in health care. While the course provides a short introduction to commonly used algorithms, techniques and software, the focus is on existing health care applications including clinical records and narratives, biomedical literature and claims processing.

• INFO–I 646 Computational Systems Biology (3 cr.) Introduction on how Omics data are generated, managed, analyzed from large-scale computational perspectives, exploring computational resources, especially biological pathways for integrative mining and computational analysis, representing and modeling multi-scale biological networks, relating static/dynamic properties to the understanding phenotypic functions at the molecular systems level.

• INFO–I 651 The Ethnography of Informatics (3 cr.) Introduces ethnography as a social science methodology and way of knowing with which to study information and its social contexts. Places ethnography in relation to other research methodologies relevant to the production of the Informatics knowledge base. Trains students in the use of a broad range of ethnographic techniques relevant to study of automated information technology in use. Designed to be open to students from other programs with sufficient methodological and substantive background.

• INFO–I 656 Translational Bioinformatics Applications (3 cr.) This course entails a cohesive approach to the theory and practice of bioinformatics applications in translational medicine [TM]. It includes topics related to the complexities of low, medium and high-throughput applications in TM and powerful solutions to TM data management problems by employing various informatics frameworks.

• INFO–I 667 Advanced Seminar II in Health Informatics II (3 cr.) Advanced graduate seminar in health informatics, designed to complement INFO- I530, Seminar in Health Informatics Applications. This seminar is intended for graduate students enrolled in the Informatics Doctoral Program, taking the Health Informatics Track.

• INFO–I 668 Seminar in Health Informatics II (3 cr.) Seminar course covers a variety of research areas in the discipline of health informatics. The seminars provide the students with an opportunity to enrich their academic experience by improving communication and presentational skills, improving interaction with other professionals, extending knowledge in related disciplines, and keeping updated with current issues.

• INFO–I 690 Topics in Informatics (1–3 cr.) P: Graduate standing. Variable topic. Emphasis is on new developments and research in informatics. Course in intended for Ph.D. students in the School of Informatics. Can be repeated with different topics, subject to approval of the Dean.

• INFO–I 691 Thesis/Project in Health Informatics (1–6 cr.) The student prepares and presents a thesis or project in an area of health informatics. The product is substantial, typically multi-chapter paper or carefully designed and evaluated application, based on well-planned research of scholarly project. Details are worked out between the student and the sponsoring faculty member. May be repeated for credit.

• INFO–I 692 Thesis/Project in Bioinformatics (1–6 cr.) The student prepares and presents thesis or project in an area of bioinformatics. The product is substantial, typically a multi-chapter paper or carefully designed and evaluated application, based on well-planned research or scholarly project. Details are worked out between student and sponsoring faculty member. May be repeated for credit.

• INFO–I 693 Thesis/Project in Chemical Informatics (1–6 cr.) The student prepares and presents a thesis or project in an area of chemical informatics. The product is substantial, typically multi-chapter paper, or a carefully designed and evaluated application, based on well-planned research or scholarly project. Details are worked out between the student and sponsoring faculty member. May be repeated for credit.

• INFO–I 694 Thesis/Project in Human-Computer Interaction (1–6 cr.) The student prepares and presents a thesis or project in an area of Human-computer interaction. The product is substantial, typically multi-chapter paper, or a carefully designed and evaluated application, based on well-planned research or scholarly project. Details are worked out between the student and sponsoring faculty member. May be repeated for credit.

• INFO–I 698 Research in Informatics (1–12 cr.) Research under the direction of a member of the graduate faculty that is not dissertation related. Can be repeated for credit for a total of 30 credit hours.

• INFO–I 699 Independent Study in Informatics (1–3 cr.) Independent readings and research for Ph.D. students under the direction of a faculty member, culminating in written report. May be repeated for a maximum of 12 credit hours.

• INFO–I 790 Informatics Research Rotation (3 cr.) Work with faculty, investigate research opportunities. Can be repeated for a maximum of 6 credit hours.

• INFO–I 798 Professional Practice/Internship (0 cr.) Provides for participation in graduate level professional training and internship experience.

• INFO–I 890 Thesis Readings and Research (1–12 cr.) Research under the direction of a member of the graduate faculty leading to a Ph.D. dissertation. Can be repeated for credit for a total of 30 credit hours.

Required Elective Graduate Courses

Note: A student's committee, working in conjunction with an Informatics committee designated to oversee the minor, will decide what elective courses are appropriate for a given student.

• CSCI 548 Algorithms in Bioinformatics (3 cr.)

• GRAD 652 R607 Biostatistics II (3 cr.)

• GRAD–R 607 Advanced Statistics (3 cr.)

• NURS 630 Introduction to Nursing Informatics (3 cr.)

• NURS 635 Consumer Health Informatics (3 cr.)

New Media

• NEWM–N 500 Principles of Multimedia Technology (3 cr.) This course examines issues related to digital media communication in the context of e-commerce and the information industry, especially its impact on the cultural, economic, social, and ethical dimensions of local and global communities. Topics also include: usability, intellectual property, and a diversity of user markets for new media products.

• NEWM–N 501 Foundations of Digital Arts Production (3 cr.) This course examines the production process and management of digital multimedia. Students investigate and produce projects by researching foundations in the use of digital video with special emphasis on production process of storytelling. Skills learned will include: project development and video production. Students will develop presentation skills through research papers.

• NEWM–N 502 Digital Media Motion and Simulation Methods (3 cr.) Applications in animation/simulation design and creation using computer desktop tools. Examines the fundamentals of three-dimensional animation through storyboards and planning, modeling, texturing, lighting, rendering, and composite techniques. Topics will include nurbs design development, texture mapping for realism and stylistic output, keyframe and path animation, and cinematography lighting techniques. Skills will be developed through design and modeling of individual or team multidisciplinary projects.

• NEWM–N 503 Digital Media Application Design Processes (3 cr.) Presents the principles and fundamentals of design techniques using authoring tools on PC, Macintosh and emerging computer platforms. Included are storyboarding, planning and organization of scripts, use of current technology, computers, video, and digital arts equipment; computer-assisted design and project planner software tools and management of design team concepts.

• NEWM–N 504 Advanced Interactive Design Applications (3 cr.) Incorporates extensive analysis and use of computer and multimedia authoring tools intended for character simulation design. The course will study the concepts of physics based bipedal movement in relation to gravity, balance, anticipation, potential energy, personality constructs, and locomotion. Assessment modeling for character depiction and animation will be planned and storyboarded. Other topics include more advanced facets of computer animation including paint tube modeling, layered, texture mapping, and track and block animation for cyclical actions.

• NEWM–N 505 Internship in Media Arts and Technology (3 cr.) An internship program for students to work with and learn from experts in media (digital arts) technology fields who developing and using new applications in commercial and educational settings. Requirements for interns include the development of a technology project proposal; interview; resume; and project presentation; on-site intern residency; project report; oral and media presentation of project outcomes.

• NEWM–N 506 Media Arts and Technology Project (1–6 cr.) Students create and orally present a multimedia teaching/training project combining elements of digital media technology including CD-ROM, videodisc, digital audio and video, MIDI, and Internet applications. Requirements include technology project proposal development; oral presentation of proposal, research and development of project, project final report, and the presentation of project. Final project to be submitted in digital form for permanent archive.

• NEWM–N 510 Web Database Concepts (3 cr.) Addresses diverse issues arising when designing World Wide Web interface. Basic database concepts will be presented but the course will focus on discussion of interface issues specific to Web databases, technologies for linking databases to Web servers for delivery, discussion of various Web database applications, case studies, and industry trends.

• NEWM–N 553 Independent Study (1–3 cr.) This course provides graduate students in the New Media Program an opportunity to work on a project that is beyond any other existing new media courses. The course focuses on developing graduate students with evaluation, synthesis and analysis abilities through a project to obtain an in-depth knowledge of new media within a context of their choice. A graduate student could be engaged in a research project or a production project.