S.05-12
a
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
Senate Committee on University Priorities
?
/1
Memorandum
TO: Senate
?
FROM:
?
John WaterIous XA'
Chair,
SCUP,
Vice-President, Academic
RE: MA, MSc and PhD Programs
?
DATE:
?
Decemb, 2004
SlAT ?
^r
Attached is a proposal from the Senate Graduate Studies Committee for new MA, MSc
and PhD programs in the School for Interactive Arts and Technology.
The Senate Committee on University Priorities reviewed the proposal at its December
15, 2004 meeting. The proposal was unanimously approved.
MOTION
"That Senate approve and recommend to the Board of Governors the proposal for a
MA program in the School for Interactive Arts and Technology."
MOTION
"That Senate approve and recommend to the Board of Governors the proposal for a
MSc program in the School for Interactive Arts and Technology."
MOTION
"That Senate approve and recommend to the Board of Governors the proposal for a
PhD program in the School for Interactive Arts and Technology"
Attach.
• ?
C:
J. Driver
R. Woodbury
G. Nicholls
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
?
DEAN OF GRADUATE STUDIES
?
MEMORANDUM
TO:
?
SCUP
FROM: ?
Jonathan Driver, Dean of Graduate Studies
SUBJECT: SlAT Graduate Programs
DATE: ?
70'
December 2004
cc: ?
R. Woodbury, SlAT
At its
6th
December 2004 meeting Senate Graduate Studies Committee unanimously
approved the enclosed proposal for MA, MSc and PhD programs in the School for
Interactive Arts and Technology. I am therefore forwarding this to SCUP, with the
recommendation that it be approved. In addition to the full proposal and course outlines,
I also enclose copies of relevant correspondence and external reviews of the program.
.
I.
GS 2004.38
PROPOSAL FOR GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN
?
INTERACTIVE ARTS & TECHNOLOGY
9 April ?
2003 Approved "in-principle" by Senate Committee on
University Priorities
9 December 2003 Approved by Faculty of Applied Sciences
23 January
?
2004 Received by Dean of Graduate Studies
10 March
?
2004 Reviewed by Assessment Committee for New
Graduate Programs
27 April
?
2004 Received revised program proposal from School of
Interactive Arts & Technology
7 July ?
2004 Sent proposal to four external reviewers by Dean of
Graduate Studies
3 August ?
2004 Received external reviewers' reports by Dean of
Graduate Studies
10 September 2004 Sent external reviewers' reports to School of
Interactive Arts & Technology by Dean of Graduate
Studies
4 October
?
2004 Received School of Interactive Arts &
Technology's response to external reviewers'
reports
14 October
?
2004 Reviewed and approved by Assessment Committee
for New Graduate Programs, pending acceptable
course proposals
LI
22 November 2004 Received revised program and course proposals,
and submitted to Senate Graduate Studies
Committee
06 December 2004 Reviewed and approved by SGSC
ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE FOR NEW GRADUATE PROGRAMMES
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
?
COV-SIAT
12/07/04
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
DEAN
OF GRADUATE STUDIES
MEMORANDUM
To: ?
Jon Driver, SGSC
?
FROM: ?
Trude Heift, ACNGP
SUBJECT:
Graduate Programs (MA,
?
DATE: ?
November 22, 2004
MSc, PhD) in Interactive Arts
and Technology
At the ACNGP meeting of 14th October 2004 the committee unanimously
recommended that the proposed graduate programs in Interactive Arts & Technology
(MA, MSc, PhD) be forwarded to SGSC, with the recommendation that they be
approved, pending the following revisions:
1)
Explanation of the number of required courses for the Masters degrees
2)
Revised course proposals for IAT 800 and IAT 813 and elimination of the elective
.
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courses, IAT 841 and TAT 843
These changes have now been made and the concerns raised by ACNGP have been
addressed.
TJ c\1n
tH
Ic
11
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
GRADUATE PROGRAM
IN
COMPUTING ARTS
AND
DESIGN SCIENCES
2400 CENTRAL CITY
_____
____
10153 KING GEORGE HIGHWAY
SURREY,BC V3T2WI
,
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TEL. (604) 268 7501
FAX. (604)268 7488
22 November 2004
Dr Trude Heift
Associate Dean of Graduate Studies
SFU
Dear Dr Heift
Re: Graduate Program in Interactive Arts and Technology
I am pleased to respond to the issues raised by the ACNGP and communicated in your note of 15
October 2004 regarding our proposed graduate program.
The issues raised by Dr. Murray have been addressed in our response letter to the external reviews. An
amended version is attached.
We have amended the course outlines for IAT 800 and IAT 813 in response to concerns expressed at the
ACNGP and by Dr Norm Badler. The program proposal itself has been accordingly amended.
The two courses IAT 841 and IAT 843 have been removed from the proposal. We understand that the
sole grounds for this deletion is the uncertainty involved in our faculty hiring process - it is unclear that we
would have appropriate faculty to teach these particular courses in the future. They do, however, occupy
an important structural place in our curriculum as MSc electives. Once the process of faculty hiring has
concluded we will prepare new course proposals to replace these two courses in our curriculum. These
new proposals will be brought forward separate from the current program approval process, likely in the
fall of 2005.
Yours sincerely
Rob Woodbury
Professor
Graduate Program Chair
T: (604) 268 7501
?
E: rw@sfu.ca
.
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FT
EXTERNAL REVIEW FOR GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN INTERACTIVE
?
ARTS
&
TECHNOLOGY
Response of the School of Interactive Arts & Technology
.
EXT-COV3.DOC 10/06/04
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
?
.
GRADUATE PROGRAM
IN
COMPUTING ARTS
AND
DESIGN SCIENCES
2400 CENTRAL CITY
10153 KING GEORGE HIGHWAY
SURREY, BC V3T 2W1-
TEL. (604) 268 7501
FAX. (604) 268 7488
14
October 2004
Dr Trude Heift
Associate Dean of Graduate Studies
SFU
Dear Dr Heift
Re: Graduate Program in Interactive Arts and Technology
I am pleased to respond to the issues raised by the external reviewers for our proposed graduate
program.
First of all we were delighted to have reviews by four such well-known and respected colleagues. Kellogg
Booth (UBC), Norm Badler (UPenn), Janet Murray (Georgia Tech) and Henry Jenkins (MIT) collectively
cover our program's scope with authority. We were also delighted with the reviews themselves. We read
them all as highly positive, and welcome the specific questions and criticisms they proffer.
I will address the issues reviewer-by-reviewer, in the order in which they are raised.
Badler. Articulation between MA and MSc.
Students will be admitted to one program. Those choosing
to articulate must fulfil the requirements of the program into which they will move. The MSc requirements
include a specific subset of the program requirements, and a record of substantial prior university
coursework in scientific and/or technological areas. Students wishing to articulate in either direction (MA
to MSc or MSc to MA) will do so with the approval of the program's Graduate Studies Committee. The
proposal has been amended (Curriculum.Program Requirements, page 6) to provide a structure for
articulation.
Badler. Foundations of Computation in Computing Arts and Design Sciences course.
Professor
Badler raises substantial concerns about the structure and content of this course. We share many of his
concerns. This semester (Fall 2004) Professors Vive Kumar and Rob Woodbury are offering this course
for the first time under our current Cohort Special Arrangements Program and have revised the syllabus
on several points that align with Professor Badler's concerns. We have updated the course outline and
proposal accordingly.
Badler. Lab scheduling.
The proposed program has adequate lab facilities for its present needs.
Students are not experiencing the problems that Professor Badler anticipates. The upcoming (Sept 2005)
move to new lab space will only improve the situation. With good management (and development) we do
not expect lab scheduling to be a significant issue.
Badler. Students' ability
to cope with accelerated exposure to computational technology.
This
issue pertains to the MA and PhD programs. It is partly addressed by student self-selection and by our
admission of students likely to succeed in our program. In our admissions process we are increasingly
seeing applicants with high levels of prior interest, education and skill in computation. If our Fall 2004
admissions cohort is any indication, our tasks will be two. First we must place students' considerable prior
(and largely practical) knowledge on the firm footings of basic computational theory and programming
practice, embedded within our research areas. Our primary course here is IAT 800 Foundations of
Computation in Computing Arts and Design Sciences. Second, we must assist students in using
technology appropriately in their thesis work. Other program coursework and the thesis work per se are
the devices here. Our faculty and student population has too much diversity to prescribe a single course
of study leading to technological competence. Instead we rely on the quality of faculty advice to students
6.
on coursework and thesis study. There is an analogy to research methods work here. We have a single
course introducing research methods, but place on students the expectation of further research methods
study, both through coursework and thesis work. With respect to technological competence, we have a
single foundations course, requirements in all core courses for use of technological systems (including
programming in several courses) and a faculty group whose research requires technological
sophistication. Our experience to date is that the large majority of graduate students in the program are
developing the requisite technological competence as they progress through the program.
Badler. Demand for graduates.
Professor Badler is concerned that the program may only weakly
enhance graduate employment opportunities. He is right, this is a matter of program perception in the
larger community. Such takes time to develop and the program itself has only the indirect device of the
quality of student work to influence community opinion. We have put forward what we argue is a program
that provides students with access to coursework and faculty of high quality. Our degrees, whether MA,
MSc or PhD, aim at both the breadth necessary to be effective in the complex world of people and
technology and ample opportunity and requirement for the depth needed to do state-of-the-art work. We
note Professor Badler's endorsement of the co-op program and hope to use that in building links within
the industrial community.
Badler. Academic hiring prospects. Again, Professor Badler is right. Some faculty are skittish about
people from 'impure' backgrounds. Such is life. We note that, through the evidence of its recent hiring
processes, SFU's School of Computing Science appears to be immune to this particular disease. We can
only hope that other schools are moving in the same direction. We do note that there is considerable
worldwide growth in academic programs in the areas that our program will serve.
Booth. Renewal of lab equipment.
Professor Booth is completely correct It will take sustained faculty
effort to keep our lab infrastructure at the leading edge. This is a continuing item that is and will be a
strategic focus for our faculty. We note that we have had some success in the last year in bringing in
additional infrastructure funds.
• ?
Booth. Dedicated research space.
We have barely sufficient space now. The plans for new facilities at
SFU Surrey include adequate space for our research and graduate programs. All faculty have been
involved in this planning process. Our administrative structure includes directors for each of our four labs.
Every faculty member has developed an association with one or more labs. Lab directors are responsible
for accommodation within their laboratories.
Booth. Curricula Vitae. We acknowledge the omission of previous employment in the curricula vitae
submitted with this proposal. Our remedy demands some background explanation. SlAT presently has
seven tenurable faculty and one Professor Emeritus. This academic year we are conducting a search for
nine additional tenurable faculty. This will be followed by another search for a similar number. We have
updated the curricula vitae of the present tenurable and emeritus faculty only.
Booth. Academically refereed works. We agree that we need a better collegial understanding of this
important category. As SlAT develops so will this important item.
Booth. Balance of funding for student support.
SlAT stable of active research is growing. Faculty both
want to increase their research effort and are encouraged to do so. At the same time it has a large
demand for teaching assistants. The balance will land where it will, but the trend is towards a greater
proportion of research assistantships.
Jenkins. Flexibility.
We could not agree more with Professor Jenkins when he advocates to "...maintain
a high degree of flexibility to adjust to technological, cultural and economic shifts impacting this area and
to respond to the needs of specific students who often come with very distinctive career goals." Such
flexibility is one of the main design goals for our program. We believe we have achieved flexibility in our
curriculum structure, in which we commit to specific coursework (computation and research methods) for
common needs, a small set of core courses that form the signature of our program and a larger set of
electives. It is our hope that our program will provide a minimal robust structure in which many intellectual
directions can be pursued. Our special topics and directed readings courses we envision partly as
devices with which to maintain healthy change within our program.
Murray.
Revision to
curriculum. Professor Murray points to the likelihood of future revision of our
• ?
program. We completely agree and, again, point to our minimal curriculum structure as a device to enable
such revision. We note that the five specific courses proposed as the core' courses in our program were
7.
collegially designed explicitly as a reflection of the research agenda of the program. Each has aspects of
the "unusual" which Professor Murray ascribes to the proposed Al course. This is intentional - the
courses fit what we do. That said, we expect to revise our courses as the program develops. The rapid
change in the field and the relative youth of our faculty both argue for the need to sustain change. We
note that we have developed for each of the core courses a set of central readings - the anthologies to
which Professor Murray refers.
Murray. Credit comparison with MIT and Georgia Tech programs.
The Georgia Tech MS in
Information Design and Technology requires 10 three-credit courses and a six-credit project or thesis.
Five of the courses are electives and may be taken across a range of disciplines. The MIT Media Arts and
Sciences program 1 requires eight courses, taken two a semester, plus a concurrent thesis. Both of these
programs are consistent with what might be called a
project-based Master's,
in which coursework
predominates over a relatively small project. This is one of two generally accepted designs for a research-
based Master's degree. Ours is simply based on the other design. Our proposal is for a single foundation
course, five courses and a major thesis work. We adopted this design deliberately and for three reasons.
First, we believe that students are better served in future career prospects, particularly in academia, by
having done a major work at the Master's level. Second, both our students and faculty in our cohort
program expressed a desire for a larger capstone work in the program. Third, we perceived that a rough
balance between coursework and thesis seems to be a significant SFU norm.
Murray. Examples of subject areas and reading
lists
for PhD program.
While we would be happy to
provide information from specific PhD students currently in the program (and from our sole graduate to
date), we do not believe that such would add materially to the discussion at this point. The data are few,
and represent diverse research directions.
Murray. Appointment of new senior faculty.
Professor Murray is concerned with the need to acquire
many new senior faculty in a short period of time. Her view is not completely accurate. As of 1 September
2004, SlAT has a complement of seven senior faculty, all appointed through a competitive search, and
one Professor Emeritus. Our current hiring round may include a small number of senior appointments, but
the bulk will be at the Assistant Professor level.
Murray. Non-traditional academics.
Simon Fraser University's policy on tenure and promotion requires
units to define local criteria for tenure consistent with the university's general criteria. A SlAT committee is
presently charged to complete this task by December 2004. Thus it is inevitable that SlAT will soon have
the "...clear procedures for advancement of non-traditional academics" called for by Professor Murray - in
addition to the general criteria put forth by the university.
Murray. Need for a repository of digital artefacts.
We have a repository of approximately 100 digital
games and 350 films in the SFU Surrey Library. The Bennett Library has 3500 films. SFU has access to
the film collections at all BC universities. Such collections are an active concern for our program and one
for which the SFU Library has been supportive. I understand that the SFU Surrey library intends to double
its game and film collection over the next year.
Murray. Problems of the pioneer.
We have experienced all of the problems (and more!) to which
Professor Murray refers. We are happy that Professor Murray sees ample evidence that we are
addressing and solving these issues in our own terms.
Murray. Funding of graduate students.
We refer to the note sent to the ACNGP outlining our positive
funding situation. Also, Professor Murray's question about Canadian students being less pressed that
those in the USA can be answered in the affirmative.
Murray. Faculty availability.
The proposed graduate program is that of the School of Interactive Arts
and Technology. While we welcome appropriate faculty from other to participate, we do not currently have
the problem of program faculty with homes in other units to which Professor Murray refers. Our graduate
program does enjoy significant provincial funding and this is reflected in the teaching load assignments to
the graduate program and in the supervision loads that our faculty undertake.
'This is likely the program to which Dr. Murray refers. We are not aware of an MIT program in Computational Media,
nor could we find one on MIT's website. Courses with similar titles do exist in the MIT Media Lab, the home of the
Media Arts and Sciences program. ?
9
F.
I hope I have addressed the issues raised by the external reviewers. The reviewers certainly addressed
our aspirations in their summaries:
" ...my
overall enthusiasm for the program." - Badler; My overall
assessment of the proposed graduate program is very positive." -
Booth; 'l look forward to having
another sibling program in the area." - Jenkins; "I judge it to be well worthy of approval." - Murray.
Yours sincerely
Rob Woodbury
Professor
Graduate Program Chair
T: (604) 268 7501 ?
E: rw@sfu.ca
LI,
0
q,
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
DEAN
OF
GRADUATE STUDIES
?
MEMORANDUM
COPY'
.
To: ?
Dr. Rob Woodbury
?
FROM:
?
Trude Heift, ACNGP
SUBJECT:
Program Proposal in
?
DATE: ?
October 15, 2004
Interactive Arts & Technology
Dear Dr. Woodbury:
Thank you for your presentation at the ACNGP meeting on October 14. The committee
recommends the following modifications of the graduate program proposal in
Interactive Arts & Technology for it to go forward to SGSC:
1)
In your response letter to the issues raised by the external reviewers, please address
the following comment by Dr. Murray:
"The number of courses required for the Masters degrees is considerably less than for
our MS in Information Design and Technology, and is also less than MIT's
Computational Media Degree."
2)
To address the concerns expressed by Dr. Badler and committee members of
ACNGP, please revise the two course outlines, TAT 800 and TAT 813, accordingly and
eliminate the two elective courses, TAT 841 and TAT 843.
Please send us a copy of the revised documents and I will forward the recommendation
to SGSC.
Best regards,
/0
?
.
.....
?
. . . . .
N G P2004-7
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
• ?
DEAN OF GRADUATE STUDIES
MEMORANDUM
TO: ?
ROB WOODBURY
SCHOOL OF INTERACT WE ARTS & TECHNOLOGY
FROM:
TRUDE HEIFT, ASSOCIATE DEAN
SUBJECT:
GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN INTERACTIVE ARTS & TECHNOLOGY
DATE:
?
SEPTEMBER 10, 2004
CC: ?
ACNGP MEMBERS
You will find enclosed reports of four external reviewers on the proposal for the
Graduate
programs in Interactive Arts
&
Technology.
Prior to meeting with the Assessment
Committee for New Graduate Programs, I would appreciate a written response to issues
•
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raised by the external reviewers, if possible by Monday, October 4, 2004.
For your information, the reviewers were asked to respond to the following points:
• The academic merit and structural integrity of the proposed program
• The adequacy of the faculty and other resources available to the proposed program for
achieving its intended goals
• The demand for the proposed program among prospective students
• The demand for graduates of the proposed program
A meeting will be scheduled for further discussion of the Graduate programs in Interactive
Arts & Technology proposal. I will ask you or a representative of your School of Interactive
Arts & Technology to attend the meeting in order to answer any questions which the
committee may have.
TH:vb
Enc.
0
Ml
EXTERNAL REVIEW FOR GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN INTERACTIVE
ARTS & TECHNOLOGY
?
0
Dr. Norman I. Badler
?
School of Engineering & Applied Science
?
University of Pennsylvania
?
220
South
33rd
Street, Towne 111?
Philadelphia,
PA 19104-6391 U. S. A.
.
.
EXT-CO
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09/10/04
Penn
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Enghieering
June 28, 2004
UJLEL
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JUL 0 5 ?T- "
1,
DEAN OF GRADUATE
?
STUDIES OFFICE
Jonathan Driver
Dean of Graduate Studies
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, Canada V5A 1 S6
Dear Dean Driver:
I am herewith pleased to provide you with my review of the proposed Graduate Program in
Interactive Arts and Technology. I have organized my response to mirror the evaluation
points in your letter of June 17, 2004.
Academic merit and structural integrity:
The program is generaiiy well thought out and covers appropriate material. Spthng the
program into two Masters tracks seems wise, since the scope of the faculty and their
collective interests appear to serve both an art/communication emphasis and a
science/technology emphasis. Had only one Masters degree been proposed, it would
probably have the resulted in a dilution of the depth experience for the students. A minor
. ?
administrative point that will undoubtedly appear soon after you admit students is that some
will want to switch tracks (MSc to MA sounds very likely, from my experience). You might as
well plan for that.
The program has an appropriate and significant technology requirement in the proposed
course IAT-800-3 - Foundations of Computation in Computing in the Arts and Design
Sciences. There are some discrepancies in descriptions of the course, however. It is billed
as a course in computing, yet the catalogue listing mentions nothing explicitly about
programming. In perusing the actual topic list, however, programming does re-appear. The
content seems rather more appropriate than the description, as I presume that the intent of
the course is to make it possible for students to program
something,
whether it be in modem
computer languages or in the frequent macro or scripting languages offered in many
multimedia and graphics software tools and systems. My own preference would be to
concentrate on object-oriented programming skills and skip the logic programming, discrete
math, Al, machine learning, etc., for introduction in later courses on an as-needed basis. I
think students should know about these topics, and good readings are available (as well as
the subsequent courses), but the contents of IAT-800-3 sound so broad that the exposure
must necessarily be extremely shallow, especially given the expressed backgrounds of the
applicants. The reading list for this course approaches on the bizarre; where are the
computational methods and programming resources? Also, on page 8 is the assertion that
"... computational work requires proofs and formal languages." While true in some sense, it
is also a "classical" Computer Science view and one no longer necessary for some aspects
of computational science. For the particulars of this proposed program, one could probably
argue more strongly for an understanding of numerical methods, physically-based models, or
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web-based interactive software tools and concepts. At the risk of being divisive, this course
looks as if the MA faculty wrote the textual description while the MSc faculty developed the
/3.
University of Pennsylvania • School of Enaicering and Applied Science • Ill
FOWIiC
Buildin g • 220 South 33rd St. • Philadelphia. PA 19104-6391
Tel: 2 1
15.898.5862 • Fax: 21 5.573.55770 F-mail: badler:seas.ucnn.edu • llomcpaxe: hup://ww%%.cis.upcnn.edu/—badler
• Page 2
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June 28, 2004
content. I would suggest a substantial "hands-on" technology course f you want to have both
MA and MSc students in it, otherwise the MSc students may be poorly prepared while the
MA students may be computationally disadvantaged in their subsequent courses.
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0
Adequacy of the faculty and resources available:
In general, the faculty seems highly qualified and motivated to teach the courses in this
program. I have the highest regard for Tom Calvert, having known him for probably about 25
years as we share some common research interests. I believe Tom has sufficient experience
and vision to make this program a success. He will have an interesting time hiring new
tenure track faculty - certainly there are good people available as many of the larger
universities have slowed down hiring rates in computer science, anyway - but a significant
teaching load will have to be balanced against research publication expectations at tenure
time.
It is more difficult to judge resources from the material provided. While suitable labs exist, the
actual load on them when the program is fully operational can be significant. The weak links
(in terms of availability) are often the specialized labs; one has to be careful to schedule them
so the students get a fair chance to utilize and debug programs in them, and it seems that
some of them may have research use obligations that must be factored in as well.
Demand for the program among prospective students:
I agree with the proposal's assessment that student demand is likely to be significant and
sufficient to populate the program. The major question that programs like this face is whether
the students can cope with the accelerated exposure to the computational technology (i.e., by
actually programming stuff). One must also be cognizant of the likely employment
opportunities for these graduates (see below). I obviously believe there is demand since we
are starting just this Fall term a one year Masters degree in
Computer Graphics and Game
Technology
here at the University of Pennsylvania, but it is heavily weighted toward
technological courses and hand-on experiences so applicants are expected to essentially
have an undergraduate computer science (major or minor) education, otherwise they are
admitted instead to a one year concentrated
Masters in Computer and Information
Technology
program first. Suitable applicants have even found us without having advertising
or a web presence until this month'
Demand for graduates of the program:
If the program is perceived as an Arts or Communication MA degree, its benefit to the student
may be to focus a liberal arts unde
rgraduate
degree, but it might not greatly enhance
employment options in the major entertainment or communications industries. I am unable to
judge the value of that degree relative to the North American economy. On the other hand, if
it is a weak MSc degree, it could improve the student's employment options but again, not
necessarily in the most technologically demanding fields such as movie special effects or
computer game programming. On that basis I would urge as much technical depth in the
MSc as time and student skill allows. The optional co-op component may be an attractive
mechanism for focusing students on employable trajectories, but it does then tend to limit
students to more or less local options.
A PhD is a PhD, but one should be clear that turf lines that are easily crossed at SFU might
present issues for a PhD applying to teach in a "classical" department. We encountered just
such resistance here in trying to hire an excellent computer graphics faculty candidate last
N.
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June 28, 2004
year with a MIT (Media Lab) PhD in Media Arts and Technology: unfortunately he didn't have
a "pure" Computer Science (or Computer Engineering) PhD and some of our faculty were
skittish about that. One should carefully consider whether a PhD in "Interactive Arts and
Technologies" would be treated with similar prejudice - or whether the post-secondary
employment options and patterns in Canada (and the US) would provide rewarding academic
positions for these people. (Industry won't care so much about the title.) Justine Cassell just
moved to Northwestern University from the MIT Media Lab, and is setting up a roughly similar
PhD program to yours, but as it will have a similar "non-standard" name she is having some
trouble attracting highly technically-oriented students. That may not be bad; it's just a factor
to consider. In this regard the University of Toronto's
Knowledge Media Design
program may
have the slight advantage of retaining the admitting department's PhD name. Mind you, I
have no objection to the SlAT degree name and I don't feel that insularity is best for the future
development of forward-looking (computer science) departments, but one needs to be sure
potential hiring departments understand what they are and what they aren't getting from your
graduates.
In conclusion, I have tried to be quite forthright, but that should not obscure my overall
enthusiasm for the program. It is timely, the faculty is strong, they appear to be solidly behind
it, the students will love it, and if all goes well, there will be a strong economy and real
industries to employ them all. Good luck!
Sincerely,
Norman I. Badler
Associate Dean, SEAS
Professor, Computer and Information Science
Director, Center for Human Modeling and Simulation
Director, Digital Media Design Program
0
EXTERNAL REVIEW FOR GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN INTERACTIVE
0
?
ARTS & TECHNOLOGY
Dr. Kellogg Booth?
Department of Computer Science
?
University of British Columbia?
2366 Main Mall?
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4
.
EXT-COV 09/10/04
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Depart en ?
0
2366
N11a n Mall
Tel: (604) 822-3061
Fax:
(604) 822-5485
ICE ?
1
August 30, 2004
Dr. Jonathan C. Driver
Dean of Graduate Studies
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby BC V5A 1S5
Dear Dean Driver,
Attached is my review of the proposed
Graduate program in Interactive Arts
&
Technology that you requested.
Please contact me if any additional information is required.
Sincerely,
Kellogg S. Both
Professor of Computer Science
Biographical information
Dr. Kellogg S. Booth is Professor of Computer Science and was the founding Director of the Media and
Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre at the University of British Columbia. He has worked in the fields of
computer graphics and human-computer interaction since 1968. Prior to UBC, he was a faculty member in
the Department of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo (1977-1990), and a staff member at
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (1968-1976). He received his B.S. in mathematics in 1968 from
Caltech, and his M.A. in 1970 and doctorate in 1975 from U.C. Berkeley, both in computer science under
the supervision of Dr. Richard Karp. Research interests include computer graphics, human-computer
interaction, visualization, user interface design and analysis of algorithms. He has been involved in a
number of interdisciplinary research projects at UBC. Simon Fraser University, and the New Media
Innovation Centre of British Columbia, where he was an adjunct scientist while on sabbatical leave from
UBC during the 2001-2002 academic year. He is a former chair of ACM SIGGRAPH (1985-89), and
served as conference co-chair for SIGGRAPH '83 and past chair of the organization from 1989 to 1993. He
has served on numerous conference program and selection committees including ACM CHI 2002 and
2004, ACM 13D 2001, ACM UIST 2000,2002 and 2003, ACM SIGGRAPH '98 and '99, and various of the
Canadian Graphics Interface conferences including Graphics Interface '98 for which he co-chaired the
program committee. He is a fellow of the B.C. Advanced Systems Institute.
I
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S
Review
of
proposed graduate programs in Interactive Arts & Technology
?
Submitted to the Dean of Graduate Studies, Simon Fraser University
This review is based on the binder of documents that was sent on July 7, 2004, with
the letter requesting a review of the proposed graduate programs. The documents were
the following:
• three cover letters dated 26 April 2004, one summarizing the documents and
providing a few short notes, one describing the transition process, and one
addressing issues related to graduate student support;
the document "Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive
Arts and Technology (SlAT)";
a collection of graduate course outlines;
and
• curricula vitae of the current faculty members.
S
The copy of the proposal that I received was missing page 29 (of 62). A replacement
copy was sent to me by FAX.
I have provided comments in the following sections on the four general issues raised
in the letter of July 7, 2004, and on the specific issue of support for graduate students.
My overall assessment of the proposed graduate program is very positive. The
proposal consolidates a number of innovative ideas developed at the former Technical
University of British Columbia into a framework that complements existing strengths of
programs at Simon Fraser's other campuses. It is evident that a lot of thought has gone
into the proposal and that a good balance between traditional and alternate approaches to
graduate education in art and technology has been achieved. It is also clear that
implementation of these programs is already underway.
Academic merit and structural integrity of the proposed program
The stated goals of the program, taken from the first page of the proposal, are two-
fold:
• To explore, understand and critically evaluate the interplay between technology
and society in the broadest terms, and in particular, between technology and our
social and cultural environments.
S
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To foster the development and design of new technologies to benefit society in
existing and future contexts.
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These goals will be achieved by establishing research-based master's and doctoral
programs emphasizing an interdisciplinary approach. There is a strong sense of "learning
by doing" in the curriculum, and also of experiencing first-hand the interactions between
art and technology that forms the intellectual basis for the program. Opportunities to
participate in co-op placements enhance the more traditional academic components of the
program.
The curriculum has been designed with due concern for pedagogical issues, as
described in pages
5-6
of the proposal, which provide a "design rationale" for the
program. The admission and program requirements, anticipated completion times,
assessment criteria, and the various milestones that students are expected to achieve in
their programs including the stages through which master's and doctoral students
progress as they complete their theses and dissertations are all in line with well accepted
practice and represent realistic expectations for academic programs.
There is a sensible plan in place to retire courses in the legacy programs that were
associated with Technical University of BC. Keeping the directed readings courses for
the near future will allow students in the CADS program to complete their degrees in a
timely manner.
The distinction between the MA and MSc degrees is clearly articulated and in line
with my understanding of common practice in most Canadian universities. A broad-
ranging program such as STAT cannot expect all students to meet the combined
requirements of both an arts degree and a science/engineering degree. The foundations
course is clearly designed to ensure that all graduate students have adequate background
to embark on the rest of their coursework. The core courses that follow, which all
students take, provide common ground that will unify the program, while the two tracks
in the master's program allow enough diversity to attract the types of students who will
most benefit from the program. I would not be surprised to find that some students will
manage to satisfy both sets of requirements, but this will be the exception rather than the
rule. Most will need to gain depth in their chosen focus, which the requirements
encourage through a series of electives after completing the core requirements.
The course on Research Methods and Strategies is one of the cornerstones of the
proposed program. The importance of instilling research skills early in the program, and
also an appreciation for the range of methodologies and standards of assessment within
different fields cannot be overestimated. The STAT proposal addresses this well by
providing a core course (TAT 801-3) and then a required second specialized course
appropriate to a student's disciplinary focus.
At the doctoral level new students start by taking a program similar to that of the
master's students, but those who already have adequate preparation (such as, one
assumes, students who have completed a master's degree within STAT) proceed more
rapidly to advanced work. I would expect that there may be some changes to this
philosophy after a few years of experience with the system, but it is a sensible approach
for now given the need to bootstrap into a steady-state where there is a shared
understanding of the objectives, goals, and approaches characteristic of the program.
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Adequacy of the faculty and other resources
The faculty team that has been assembled is an interesting mix drawn from a number
of disciplines. I understand that a substantial amount of additional entry-level tenure-
track hiring is expected to take place during the coming year (or two). This will have an
influence on the directions that the program takes, but the current complement of faculty
members includes some accomplished senior faculty, some mid-career faculty, and some
faculty just beginning their academic careers. Not all of the senior and mid-career faculty
have traditional academic backgrounds (see later in this section for comments on the lack
of complete employment histories). This is to be expected for a program such as this,
where experience as a practitioner either within the artistic community or within industry
is both appropriate and necessary in order to have the full range of talents needed for a
program like SlAT.
The ratio of 3-to-i for graduate students to research faculty is a sensible goal.
Although some programs have much higher ratios, on average, the nature of the graduate
program in SlAT is such that I would expect to see a greater need for contact time
between faculty and graduate students. Over time, this ratio might increase as additional
resources are acquired, such as administrative and technical support staff well versed in
the needs of the program. For now, I would expect that many of the faculty members will
be called upon to play these roles.
•
?
?
Library facilities seem adequate based on the information provided by the SFU
Library.
Equipment for teaching and research, which is essential for a program like this,
appears to be in place. CFI funding has played a major role in establishing the research
infrastructure. It will be important to have an on-going plan to renew the infrastructure on
a regular basis. The nature of the program requires state-of-the-art equipment (hardware
and software), not all of which is computer-oriented. A significant investment in other
types of equipment to meet the wide-range of activity characteristic of new media is
necessary. Some of the infrastructure will have a very short time to obsolescence due to
rapid advances in technology.
It is difficult to comment knowledgeably on whether appropriate space has been made
available for the teaching, research, and administrative functions associated with the
proposed programs. I draw particular attention to the need for dedicated research space
where faculty and graduate students can conduct highly specialized studies that may not
be accommodated in the spaces assigned for teaching or for more general research
activity. At most institutions this is an issue that is always a hot topic for discussion. It is
important that STAT be aware of this and that there be a well-defined mechanism for
assigning research space to the faculty members who require it.
I have addressed the issue of support for graduate students separately below.
•
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?
I close this section with two comments on the curricula vitae. The first is that none of
the faculty list their previous academic or professional employment, only their education
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(in some cases dates were not provided for degrees). Normal practice for curricula vitae
is to list all previous employment. I believe that all of the Canadian granting agencies
require this information on the personal data forms that accompany grant applications. In
some cases it is possible to guess where the senior faculty have worked previously given
their list of publications and other information contained with the main body of the
proposal, but it would have been much easier to assess the strengths of the faculty as a
whole had there been more information about previous employment.
There is a lot of variation in the interpretation of "Academically Refereed Works"
across the curricula vitae of the faculty in SlAT. Some of this is normal, representing
differences between disciplines regarding what constitutes peer review, but I would have
expected to see more uniformity in a proposal that has been put forward by a group of
faculty members who have spent considerable time addressing the challenges of
mounting a multidisciplinary program.
Demand for the proposed program
I am aware of a significant latent demand within the Lower Mainland for a program
similar to that proposed for SlAT. No doubt this extends to other parts of British
Columbia and beyond. As noted in the proposal, there are no comparable programs in
Canada and few in the rest of the world (see below for comparisons to some other
programs). I feel confident in stating that there are and will continue to be well qualified
students eager to enroll in this program.
I have often been approached by students who have appropriate backgrounds but who
have been unable to find suitable programs that will allow them to continue their
education by pursuing a combination of interests in art and technology. In many cases
they have already examined the alternatives, both within the public colleges and
universities in British Columbia and the many private organizations that offer training
leading to careers in art and technology. Of these people, I count at least half a dozen
who are already listed as students in the existing program inherited from the Technical
University of British Columbia. Clearly they have identified with the philosophy
espoused by current faculty members in SlAT and are making progress toward their
career goals.
The Media Lab at MIT is the universal example cited for programs like SlAT. With
almost twenty years of experience and a substantial international reputation, the Media
Lab sets the standard by which other programs are measured. Nevertheless, the Media
Lab has not managed to successfully resolve all of the issues that arise when combining
art and technology. There have been notable shortfalls in some areas, and many agree that
there has been a persistent imbalance of too much science and engineering and too little
reflective artistic, cultural, and social commentary. The program in SlAT has an
opportunity to redress this imbalance, which is one of the strengths of the approach that
has been proposed.
More recent examples of successful academic collaborations between art and
?
technolo
Zn
g
y exist in Europe, Japan, and elsewhere. I am mostly familiar with North
?I.
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America, which I think is the appropriate comparison to make. Georgia Institute of
Technology has programs in arts that have a strong technology component and programs
in technology that have a strong artistic component, with ties between the two. A more
traditional program exists at the Rhode Island School of Design, in art and design, where
the focus is on design with a strong technology component. There is a collection of
programs at the University of Southern California that focus on specific aspects of art and
technology related to the film, television, and game industries. None of these programs
are as integrated as the SlAT proposal, although each of them does build on strong
interdisciplinary ties. In this sense the program in SlAT represents an ambitious
undertaking with its fully integrated approach.
Within Canada, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design is perhaps one of the closest
comparable programs to SlAT, along with the Ontario College of Art and Design,
Sheridan College, and NSCAD University (the former Nova Scotia College of Art and
Design), but all of these take a more mainstream approach by emphasizing the
relationship of technology to art and design while still having a primary focus on art and
design. Largely missing is the commitment to critical analysis of the interplay between
art and technology within society, perhaps in part because none offer doctoral programs.
Demand for graduates of the program
Forecasting demand within industry is never easy. Right now many sectors of the
. ?
high technology and entertainment industries within British Columbia have not fully
recovered from the effects of the "dot corn bust" (for the high technology firms) and the
rise of the Canadian dollar (for the entertainment industry, especially the film-related
entertainment industry). Despite this, there are positive prospects for students who
successfully graduate from the SlAT program. As the economy picks up, and as more and
more people with training like what SlAT will provide take positions in industry and in
academia, demand will increase.
Classic "chicken and egg" issues are at work here. Twenty years ago, when the
computer animation industry in Canada was just starting to take off, similar questions
were asked about whether there was any demand for programs in computer graphics and
animation. A few Canadian schools rose to the challenge (Sheridan College in Oakville
and Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver being two of them). This meant
that there was a supply of talented computer animators when the demand came from
industry. Companies such as Electronic Arts Canada (Burnaby) relied heavily on these
two schools when they began production of computer games in earnest in the late 1980s
and early 1990s, as did a number of animation companies from south of the border
including Disney and other mainstream Hollywood production houses.
I have no doubt that a similar phenomenon will play out on a larger scale as we
continue to see the economic intertwining of art and technology. Following after the
industrial demand we can expect a wave of new academic programs from universities
•
?
down to colleges and eventually into secondary schools, all of which will need people
trained in not only the practical aspects of art and technology but also able to put together
the necessary educational programs ranging from basic training to scholarly research on
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Review of
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the social and cultural impact of what is still rightfully referred to as "new media" despite
its having been around for more than a few decades already.
Support for graduate students
The issue that was addressed in one of the letters of 26 April 2004, that of support for
graduate students, is something that I feel should be commented on because it is an
important aspect of any graduate program that aspires to being highly regarded within the
academic community.
SlAT is a new program, with some new junior faculty members who do not have high
levels of research funding. Some of the senior faculty are quite experienced, but have
transferred into the Canadian granting system and thus do not have the levels of funding
that colleagues with comparable experience might have in other departments. It will take
time to build up full research funding. The short-term plan presented in the letter of 26
April 2004 is a sensible one. Over time I would expect externally funded research to
increase to the point where there are at least as many research assistantships as there are
teaching assistantships. A roughly equal balance between these two is typical in most
universities where research and undergraduate teaching are equally valued. Most strong
PhD programs have a higher percentage of their students funded as research assistants, so
the final mix depends in part on the balance between the master's and PhD programs.
A potentially difficult issue, which is inherent in this type of program, is the disparity
in funding between science and engineering, on the one hand, and the arts, social
sciences, and humanities on the other. The latter group historically receives measurably
less funding and this is almost always reflected in support for graduate students. SlAT
will not be able to change this situation, but will need to deal with it. It appears from the
documents that I reviewed that there is a sensible plan in place to pursue a combination of
sources for funding and this is to be distributed fairly equitably amongst the students,
subject only (I assume) to rules imposed by the granting agencies related to eligibility of
students for support. I would expect to see, over the long term, an on-going imbalance
between those parts of the program that are more oriented to science and engineering
over those that are not, despite the best efforts to the contrary by the faculty members in
SlAT. This should not be viewed as a shortcoming, but rather as recognition of the
availability of funding. Should funding priorities within Canada shift to a more balanced
perspective, SlAT ought to be poised to take advantage of the opportunity, having
already put in place a program that brings the various disciplines together.
It is worth noting that the infrastructure funding from CFI is perhaps higher than
might be expected for such a program, indicating that the current faculty members have
been successful in their applications, which are peer-reviewed. This will have a positive
effect on graduate students, to some extent compensating for what may be a modest
shortfall in funding for direct support.
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EXTERNAL REVIEW FOR GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN INTERACTIVE
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ARTS
&
TECHNOLOGY
Dr. Henry Jenkins
?
Comparative Media Studies 14N - 207
?
Massachusetts Institute of Technology?
Cambridge,
MA 02139-4307 U. S. A.
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EXT-CO y 09/10/04
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6172585133
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MIT CMS
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Comparative Media Studies
Room 14N
.
707
Cambridge MA
02139 ?
Telephone: 617.253-3599 ?
Fax: 617.258-5133
August
2,
2004
Jonathon C. Driver
Dean of Graduate Students
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia
Canada, V5A 1S6
Dear Dean Driver,
PAGE 82
1 -n
If
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I have been asked to write a letter assessing the proposed new graduate program within
the school of interactive arts and technology. I am delighted to share my thoughts which
are based both on reading the submitted materials and on the basis of having visited the
program's faculty and students earlier this summer. I must say that I am very impressed
by what this faculty has achieved so far and by the directions they are proposing for
future growth and development.
The explosion of new media technologies in the past few decades has required many
universities to rethink their coverage of media studies and has led to a significant
reconfiguration of the field. I have overseen the development of the Comparative Media
Studies program here at MIT, one of the programs cited in this proposal as a potential
model for the developments being proposed. Most universities have come to the
conclusion that only an interdisciplinary approach can generate research and prepare
students for work in these emerging fields. Each university has come up with its own
interdisciplinary mix of faculty and subjects, building on their existing strengths and
competencies, and relying on students to help forge the most vital, links between faculty
prepared in more traditional disciplines. Our own experience at MIT suggests that such
an approach works best if you are able to maintain a high degree of flexibility to adjust to
technological, cultural, and economic shifts impacting this area and to respond to the
needs of specific students who often come with very distinctive career goals. This
flexibilit
y
can sometimes be difficult to negotiate in relation to established university
bureaucracies, but it is vital for the success of the kind of program being described here.
My sense is that this proposal gets it right - as far as Simon Frasier is concerned -
offering a distinctive mixture of subjects which bring together technical and cultural
expertise and should enable students to enter a range of different fields all related to the
growth of electronic media. What is being described in this proposal is a rich laboratory
environment which allows for intellectual exploration, aesthetic expression, and
technological innovation and which will allow for dialogue and collaboration between
faculty and students coming from diverse backgrounds. This is very much what I felt
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PAGE
03
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when I visited the program. The faculty were committed and excited at
the
prospects of
what lay ahead; the students were engaged and
reflected
interesting perspectives and
backgrounds. The caliber of my conversation with these students was quite high and the
facilities available for their work were impressive. This was a place where good work
was and will be done.
My own experience with the Comparative Media Studies Program suggests that there is
an enormous untapped demand from students around the world for the mix of courses
being described in this proposal. There are more students interested in moving in these
directions than can be accommodated by existing programs and the best students want
something few existing programs offer - that mix of disciplinary backgrounds, that
fusion between theory and practice - which are outlined in this proposal. Some of the
students are coming through traditional undergraduate majors but have hit a set of walls
in their thinking which can only be shattered by entering a new kind of intellectual
environment. Some of them have worked in the private sector and discovered that they
want to understand the big picture of media change and want to understand the social and
aesthetic possibilities of the new media environment. The proposed program is ideally
situated to meet their needs.
The courses as outlined are on the cutting edge of thinking about new media. They map a
range of different methodological approaches and theoretical perspectives within the field
- diverse yet complimentary, inclusive yet with a strong sense of direction. It is clear to
see some of the strengths of this proposed curriculum - the things I wish I could offer my
students at MIT and they include solid work in artificial intelligence, performance,
• ?
design, cognition, and pedagogy, which can inform the production practices of students
working in this area. It is clear as well that the strengths of this innovative and well-
structured curriculum are well matched by the qualifications of your accomplished
faculty. And perhaps what is most important, there seems to be a spirit of collaboration
and mutual respect between the various parties who will need to work together to
accomplish what is proposed here.
Your questions asked me to consider job prospects for graduates of the proposed
program. Again, I would see Simon Frasier as well situated. Vancouver is one of the new
digital cities - a center for media production of all kinds and seemingly in a position to
grow and expand its influence in the coming decade. One should not be thrown by the
dotcom bust into thinking the expansion of digital industries has slowed or stopped. All
signs are that there will be continued growth in the future, especially in those spaces
where old and new media meet - the games industry, for example.
Having said all of that, I return to my point about flexibility. It would seem that the
Simon Frasier faculty have the right approach, the right faculty, and the right location to
emerge as a leading new program in this area. I think they will live up to their potential.
But, it is very unlikely that they have got it all right the first time or that the right mix
today will be the right mix tomorrow. What
must be avoided at
all cost is rigidification.
There must be room for everyone - faculty, students, administrators, and research
collaborators - to explore and to grow. Even a center for innovation like the MIT Media
.
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PAGE 84
Lab can occasionally run, aground when it does not allow younger faculty the chance to
help redefine the core
vision
and mission.
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9
I am looking forward to having another sibling program in this area. I hope we can find
opportunities to collaborate. We are already discussing ways of leveraging our mutual
interests in games and education.
Yours,
Henry Jenki
Director, Comparative Media Studies Program
MIT
27.
EXTERNAL REVIEW FOR GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN INTERACTIVE
0
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ARTS
&
TECHNOLOGY
Dr.
Janet H. Murray?
School of Literature, Communication & Culture ?
Georgia Institute of Technology ?
686 Cherry Street, Skiles 335B
?
Atlanta, GA 30332-0165 U. S. A.
EXT-COV 09/10/04
c.
Prof. Jonathan C. Driver
Dean of Graduate Studies
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby BC
Canada V5A 1S6
Georgia
Back to top
Tech
July 1, 2004
U\7Dfl UU®Bfl
School of Literature, Communication, and Culture
Dear Professor Driver:
I have reviewed the materials you sent to me on June 17 relating to the Proposal for a Graduate
Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology, including cover letters, the
proposal itself, graduate course outlines, and cvs of the Research Faculty. As the Director of
Graduate Studies for Georgia Tech's School of Literature, Communication, and Culture, which
offers an MS in Information Design and Technology (since 1993), an MS in Human Computer
Interaction (since 1997) and a PhD in Digital Media (starting Fall 2004), I am quite familiar with
the area and with the process of proposing new programs. I have therefore read your materials
with much interest. I have grouped my responses under headings responding to your own specific
requests.
Academic merit and structural integrity of the Program
The program is inherently interdisciplinary and it is in the process of establishing a core of senior
faculty. In addition it is one of the first in an emerging field. Given these facts, it is likely that the
current curriculum will be revised over the coming years. As it stands this curriculum is as a fine
first cut, particularly strong in the computational area. The general research methods course will
perhaps prove challenging to teach, but it should be useful in reinforcing the ties among the
faculty. The core computation course is a key component, and will provide an advantage for your
students over programs that do not require computational proficiency of all their students. The
choice of Al as a "core" subject is unusual but promising, and will presumably feed the research
agenda of the program. The emphasis on cognition and knowledge representation is a good idea.
The titles of the two humanities-oriented core courses are much more general, and the course
content very likely varies with individual instructors. The reading lists reflect a sophisticated
knowledge of the field. It might be a good idea to establish one or two solid anthologies as the
focus of these courses, and then let individual instructors diverge from a common base. The
elective courses hit many key areas for applications and research in this growing field. The areas
of laboratory research are also very impressive.
The computational and writing entrance requirement should help to keep standards high, and the
flexibility of two MS degrees, one in Arts and one in Sciences, should ensure that you get a good
mix of students for the team-centered learning that you are encouraging. In our graduate program
0
we find that considerable learning takes place at the peer-to-peer level.
Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0165 U.S.A.
PHONE 404•8942730
FAX 404•894•1287
o2 ct.
A Unit of the University System of Georgia
?
An Equal Education and Employment Opportunity Institution
The number of courses required for the Masters degrees is considerably less than for our MS in
Information Design and Technology, and is also less than MIT's Computational Media Degree.
However, you may be requiring more research work, and you seem to be expecting the students
to take two years to finish, so the amount of study may be the same. The masters thesis
requirement is very appropriate and should allow students to pull together the perhaps disparate
threads of their coursework. It should also allow Masters students to leave with appropriate
portfolio pieces.
The PhD program is already large and is no doubt rooted in the extensive funded research you
refer to. It is described somewhat generally: it would be good to see some examples of subject
areas and reading lists.
The detailing of administrative structure for the program is very sound, with appropriate
explicitness in the procedures for meeting degree requirements. Having visited the TechBC
campus before the merger, I am happy to see that promising program absorbed into Simon
Fraser's solid and mature structure.
Adequacy of faculty and other resources for achieving program goals
The existence of four funded research lab and a graduate student lab is a very positive sign, as are
the references to faculty research projects. The need to acquire many new senior faculty members
in a short period of time is somewhat worrisome, but given the growth of this area and core
strengths of the University you should be able to attract the right faculty. The current faculty
Is
includes many without PhDs, and they may be among the most accomplished and appropriate
members of the group. It may be necessary to establish clear procedures for advancement of non-
traditional academics. The resources of the university at large, including the library and wider
choice of courses, provide important support for the program. It will be important to keep up the
labs with regular renewal of equipment and software and to establish an active acquisition
program for the library. It would be useful to have a repository of digital artifacts (such as games)
as well, and access to a film library.
Demand for the program among prospective students
The program is already larger than established programs at CMU, MIT, and Georgia Tech, and
the demand is growing by your own account. I would expect it to continue to grow because of the
growth in the games industry, in digital media in general, and the location and growing reputation
of the program. We have had steady demand for our MS program, and very heavy demand for our
barely-announced PhD. We have just announced a new BS program in Computational Media and
we expect that to be very popular as well. Clearly this is a need that will grow and that other
institutions are not as well situated to meet.
Demand for graduates of the proposed program
Given the growth in digital media which pervades all fields of communication, commerce,
service, production, and research graduates of these programs will continue to be in demand. PhD
graduates are particularly needed to staff the growing undergraduate and graduate programs in the
field. Our own research indicated that English departments, Film, and Communication
. ?
departments among others have all been advertising for openings in this field, many of them
citing overenrolled new undergraduate programs. Industry is also in need of researchers who can
combine knowledge of media traditions with computational sophistication.
Potential Problems
?
0
The main problems the program may face are the standard problems of the pioneer: how to
establish a stable curriculum; how to attract faculty in a field that almost no one has yet been
grduated in; how to integrate the disciplinary strengths of a diverse faculty. In addition there are
pitfalls specific to this new field: how to distinguish between applications development and
research; how to educate students in the underlying principles while still keeping them up to date
on specific technologies; how to achieve gender balance; how to encourage technical, artistic, and
analytical excellence without letting one develop at the expense of the others; how to integrate
theory and practice within particular courses and across the curriculum. These are the challenges
of a new field, which also brings with it the promise and excitement of bringing new
technological power to bear on human aspirations and human needs. The proposal gives ample
evidence that your faculty are already grappling with these issues and finding their own solutions.
The proposal does not explicitly address the funding of graduate students. Does the research
program generate enough stipends? Are students expected to teach? Perhaps Canadian students
are less pressed for support than those in the U.S.
The proposal also does not address the question of faculty availability. Will it be a problem to get
enough teaching and supervision time from faculty who have their home in other units?
Interdisciplinary programs can be difficult to administer because of the overburdening of faculty.
Is this not addressed because it is not an issue at Simon Fraser?
Other
In general
Comments
I find this
?
to be a promising proposal in a crucial area of education and research. I
0
judge it to be well worthy of approval, I wish you the best of luck with it, and I look forward to
working together to advance the emerging field of interactive digital media.
Sincerely,
danZe
Murray
t
ofessor and Director of Graduate Studies
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3/.
Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
IProposal for a Graduate Program
within the
School of Interactive Arts and Technology
?
Proposed to Simon Fraser University
?
by the graduate program faculty of the
?
School of Interactive Arts and Technology
Approved Internally by SFU/Surrey faculty on 13 December 2002
?
Edited in response to comments from SCUP (Feb 2002)
?
Reconfirmed by SlAT graduate program faculty on 1 October 2003
?
Edited in response to comments from SCUP (Oct 2003)
?
Reconfirmed by the Graduate Program Committee of SlAT on 21 November 2003
?
Approved by the FAS Graduate Chairs Committee on 9 December 2003
?
Reconfirmed by the Graduate Program Committee of SlAT on 9 January 2004
?
Edited to add optional Co-operative Education component in response to student needs
?
on 26 April 2004.?
Edited in response to the ACNGP External Review on 29 September 2004.
?
Reconfirmed by the Graduate Program Committee of SlAT on 1 October 2004
?
Approved by the ACNGP on
14
October 2004
?
Edited in response to the ACNGP on 27 October 2004.
?
Reconfirmed by the Graduate Program Committee of SlAT on 28 October 2004
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This document follows from the approvals granted the preliminary proposal for a
permanent graduate program in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon
Fraser University. We describe here the strength of human and material resources
necessary to sustain high quality Master's and doctoral programs in the School of
Interactive Arts and Technology, the advantages of this addition to Simon Fraser
University and the regional need for its graduates.
Presently, the school operates a graduate Master's program and has a limited group of
PhD students, a structure that has carried over from our institution's former life as The
Technical University of British Columbia. The program's size currently stands at 65
Master's students and 15 PhD students. In our design below, we have substantially
revised this model to fit the opportunities, needs and facilities of a comprehensive
university.
The proposed program has two goals. The first is to explore, understand and critically
evaluate the interplay between technology and society in the broadest terms, and in
L
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Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
particular, between technology and our social and cultural environments. The second is
to foster the development and design of new technologies to benefit society in existing
and future contexts.
The program is explicitly interdisciplinary; it brings together faculty and students from a
variety of disciplines to the study of technology. In so doing, we have several objectives:
first, research in technology and its contexts of use, particularly the computational
technologies that drive much current innovation; second, development and use of
research methodologies for interdisciplinary collaboration and the development of new
technologies; third, research into the acts of inventing, designing, making, managing and
learning about technology; and fourth, application of new technologies in society and
industry.
The program is research-based with a dominant thesis or dissertation component.
Students' theses research will be supported by four new CFI funded labs with a total
capital funding of about 4 million dollars and a graduate student lab funded internally to
the program. The labs' research includes information and networking, computer graphics
and animation, computational design, immersive collaborative environments (CAVE),
interactivity, human computer interaction, visualization, learning and technology
evaluation. All labs are supported by interdisciplinary groups of faculty ready to provide
students with cross-disciplinary perspectives. Many faculty bring considerable research
funding, signal of their expertise and national recognition. Ties with regional high
technology industries, and existing SFU units offer additional synergies for graduate-
level development.
The proposed program develops both Master's and doctoral level work as these were
anticipated in the structure and staffing of TechBC and are essential to retain the quality
of faculty and research the new school has attained to date. Available resources such as
specialized labs, faculty skill and experience, key collateral programs at SFU-Burnaby
and SFU-Harbour Centre, library holdings and high societal demand for graduates argue
in favour of this proposal.
A hallmark of the program is its emphasis on interdisciplinarity, team endeavour,
combining of concept and practice, and use of technologies as a vital instructional base.
All graduate students take a mandatory course in Research Methods and Strategies,
which critically evaluates research philosophies and techniques for collaboration among
disciplinary experts. Students learn in an environment that employs traditional
coursework, one-on-one mentoring, teamwork, and technology-enhanced learning. In
short, students are immersed in an environment that is both technology rich and
structured for interdisciplinary cooperation.
The graduate course offerings outlined provide a core of five courses spanning the
school's disciplinary facets (information technology, the arts, social science, design and
pedagogy). An initial offering of ten electives gives greater depth in specialties such as
the sociology of networked communities, spatial computing and games. A hallmark of
each is that a traditional disciplinary specialty is eschewed in favour of productive
synergies from related disciplines, such as technologies for enhancing theatrical
performance. Special topics courses and directed readings provide for introduction of
new material and constructive pressure to "retire" offerings that are no longer serving the
program's needs. We believe many of these courses - particularly the elective offerings
- will be of considerable interest to other programs and departments at SFU.
.
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33.
Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
Of the approximately 40 faculty members total in the School of Interactive Arts and
Technology, seven hold tenurable positions, one is an Emeritus Professor and some 16
hold positions as limited-term faculty at the rank of Assistant Professor and above and
are thus eligible to supervise graduate students. The School is currently in the process
of hiring a comparable number of tenurable faculty members, through open competition.
By Fall 2005, plans are that, in addition to the eight senior faculty members, an
additional 10 members holding tenurable positions (Associate Professors and
Professors) will be in place. Additional hiring will occur after this group has been
appointed.
All current faculty have been carefully chosen for their interdisciplinary strengths, the
inventiveness of their research interests, their skills and the experience they bring to our
collective work. Eighteen hold earned doctorates in their specialties from internationally
recognized institutions. Two are advanced candidates in doctoral programs. All but
newly granted doctorates have accumulated strong research records based in peer-
reviewed publication, international fora and judged exhibitions. Several have
distinguished international and national academic leadership profiles. They have as a
common denominator interdisciplinary work in technology, design and computer-based
media.
The program is unique in Canadian higher education. While most universities have
depth in computer science, social science, communication, education and the arts, very
few host the mix being built in the new school. At the same time, such combinations are
widely sought by students and regional employers. TechBC's original design was to
provide cross disciplinary scholarship built on regional development needs. This design
•
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has been redefined here to reflect the significant advantages afforded by SFU. Parallels
might be found in elements of the MIT Media Lab and the broad interests of New York
University's program in Communication Arts or the comprehensive communications
programs at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School. There are few
parallels north of the US boundary and none in Western Canada.
The union with Simon Fraser provided solutions to many of the problems faced by the
nascent TechBC: an adequate research library; supporting and distinguished
complementary programs in the liberal arts and applied sciences; and an adequate
physical plant. SFU allows our expansion as a program to remain fully based in its
specialization - without having to provide all the antecedent and support courses that
would have been needed with solo operation as TechBC.
We are confident that this plan provides a program of strength and excellence that builds
upon the solid institutional base afforded by Simon Fraser University. We believe it fits
well as a partner with many standing programs on campus, offering a synergy and
interdisciplinarity that has few, if any, equals in Canada.
.
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Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVESUMMARY
......................................................................................
1
TABLEOF CONTENTS
.......................................................................................
4
CURRICULUM......................................................................................................
5
LEARNING METHODOLOGIES
........................................................................
17
FACULTY
...........................................................................................................
17
PROGRAM CONSULTATIONS AND EVALUATION
.........................................
19
ADMISSION
.......................................................................................................
23
OTHER
RATIONALEAND
PROGRAM
DEMAND
INFORMATION................................................................................................................................................
27
26
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0
APPENDIX A - INCLUSIVE LIST OF RELATED PROGRAMS IN CANADA .... 31
?
APPENDIX B: PHD COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATIONS
................................
34
?
*
APPENDIX C: COURSE PROPOSALS AND OUTLINES
.................................
37
?
APPENDIX D: CALENDAR ENTRY
...................................................................
38
?
APPENDIX E: LIBRARY ASSESSMENT
...........................................................
52
*
APPENDIX F: GRADUATE PROGRAM FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF
INTERACTIVE ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY
......................................................
60
*
APPENDIX G: CURRICULA VITAE OF SlAT FACULTY
..................................
64
* Details available for review by calling Bobbie Grant, Senate Assistant
6,04 291-3168 or email bgrant@sfu.ca
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3-.
Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
.
CURRICULUM
Learning Outcomes
The program will offer Master of Arts, Master of Science and PhD degrees and is
structured so that graduates will have the research knowledge and skill required to be
effective creators of new knowledge.
The curriculum has six components: (1)
Foundations of Computational Art and Design (1
required course), (2)
Research Methods and Strategies (1
required course), (3)
core
courses (2-3 courses of 5 required), (4)
elective courses
(2-3 courses to be taken), (5)
MA Thesis, MSc Thesis or PhD Dissertation (
the PhD also has a
comprehensive
examination and dissertation proposal)
and
(6) Research Colloquium.
In completing a degree, graduates will have developed depth in their chosen research
area, breadth in understanding technology in context, ability to work in interdisciplinary
teams and scholarly skills for sustained intellectual productivity. These are general
qualities of a research degree and each has special significance in the context of the
proposed program. Table
I
(below) summarizes the curriculum structure and identifies
components corresponding to each of these four main objectives.
Depth of
study. The proposed curriculum is dominated by its thesis/dissertation
component, which is the primary vehicle for developing depth in a particular topic. To
. ?
assist students in achieving depth the curriculum has both core and elective courses.
The core courses cover areas of broad concern in the program. The elective courses
provide in-depth and specialized study. They may be selected from within the program,
from other SFU graduate programs or elsewhere. The elective courses particularly are
intended to assist students in progressing towards their thesis or dissertation.
Breadth of knowledge.
The Foundations of Computational Art and Design course is
intended to assure that all students have knowledge of and skill in applying computation
appropriate for an advanced degree holder in our disciplinary areas. The Research
Methods and Strategies course introduces students not only to the intellectual structure
of research but also to the methods available for conducting research across the broad
areas with which the program is concerned. The core courses (of which Master's
students take two and PhD students take either two or three) aim to expose students to
research issues and results beyond any single topic area.
Interdisciplinarity.
The Foundations of Computational Art and Design course will draw
its examples from a wide range of specialties within the program. The Research
Methods and Strategies course has components on interdisciplinary work. In the core
courses students will work in groups whose members have differing disciplinary foci.
Scholarly skills.
The Research Methods and Strategies course has required
components on writing scholarly articles, on library research techniques and on scholarly
presentation. The core courses require that students meet standards of scholarly
production in assessable work. One elective course is required to be a research
methods course appropriate to a student's course of study (the particular course will be
approved by the student's supervisory committee and the graduate program committee).
1]
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Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
The PhD comprehensive examination has components that test for achievement of
scholarly skill sufficient for producing a successful dissertation.
Program Requirements
The degree requirements minimally are five (5) courses of at least three (3) credits each
(nominally 15 credit hours) of coursework for the Master of Arts and Master of Science
and six (6) courses of at least three (3) credits each (nominally 18 credit hours) of
coursework for the PhD. In addition there is a single course, Foundations of
Computational Art and Design, that offers necessary basic concepts and skills for further
study in the program and will not count towards the above coursework requirements. All
students will be required to take Foundations of Computational Art and Design or
demonstrate sufficient knowledge for it to be waived. We anticipate that students with
strong technical backgrounds will not need to take this course.
PhD students who have completed a Master's degree within the program will have an
option to apply to the program's Graduate Program Committee for a reduction in
coursework aimed at breadth and scholarly skill. Such reduction shall not reduce course
requirements below those specified in the PhD (from MA or MSc within the program)
option in the table below.
Master's students will be admitted to study for either the MA or MSc degree. Students
may articulate between the MA and MSc degrees by meeting the admission and
program requirements of the degree to which they articulate and with the approval of the
Graduate Program Committee. A student may make one application for articulation.
The degrees to be awarded
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9
Students who complete the Master's program will be awarded a Master of Arts or Master
of Science. The distinction between the two degrees will be based on the coursework
taken towards the degree (see the table on page 14). The decision as to degree
designation will be taken at the time of admission: Master's students will be admitted to
either the Master of Arts or Master of Science. Admission to a program will depend upon
prior academic preparation and intended focus of study (see admission requirements on
page 24).
Students who complete the doctoral program will be awarded a PhD.
Time required for the degree
Under normal circumstances, degree requirements for the MA or MSc should be
completed within six semesters and should not require longer than eight semesters.
Under normal circumstances, degree requirements for the PhD should be completed
within 12 semesters and should not require longer than 15 semesters.
Students, both Master's and PhD, will be encouraged to complete their thesis work in a
timely manner.
S
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Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
.
MA and MSc
PhD
*
PhD (from MA
or MSc with
the
program)
IAT 803-3 Foundations of
3
credits
3
credits
CU
Computational Art and
(possibly
(possibly
Design
It
waived)
waived)
0
LL
tAT 801-3 Research
3
credits
3
credits
Methods and Strategiest
Core
2 courses
2 or 3 courses*
1 course
6
credits
6
or 9 credits
3
credits
Electives
r
2 courses
2 or 3
courses*
3 courses
6
credits
6
or 9 credits
9 credits
Special Topics
Directed Readings
Total
Coursework
5
courses
6 courses
4 courses
15
credits
18 credits
12
credits
Co-operative Education
Optional
Optional
Research Seminar
Attendance
Attendance requirement +
requirement +
2 presentations
I presentation
Master's Thesis
required
PhD Comprehensive
required
required
Examination
PhD Proposal
required
required
PhD Dissertations
required
required
Table
1:
Curriculum Structure. Both courses and credits are listed. For determining
degree requirements in core, elective, special topics and directed readings
categories the number of courses of at least three credits each shall be used.
#phD students are required to take at least two (2) core courses and at least
two (2) courses from electives, special topics or directed readings. PhD
students must complete six (6) courses (18 credits) of coursework in addition to
Foundations of Computational Art and Design.
§
Depth of study -
primarily through the thesis/dissertation and electives.
Breadth of knowledge -
Foundations of Computational Art and Design
course, Research Methods course and core courses.
t
Interdisciplinarity -
Mandatory parts of the program provide a range of
perspectives, tools for working with other areas, and practice in communicating
in an interdisciplinary cohort.
*
Scholarly skills
are developed and assessed in the Research Methods
course, and core courses. One elective must be an appropriate research
methods course. The PhD comprehensive examination tests for scholarly skill.
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Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
IAT 800-3
Foundations of Computational Art and Design
is an introduction to
computing as a research and professional tool in art and design. Its intended audience
includes those who have not had substantial experience in the computational aspects of
art and design. This is a mandatory course for all students in the program, but may be
waived for those students having had sufficient formal educational background in art and
design computation.
IAT 801-3
Research Methods and Strategies
is an introduction to the research
enterprise. It covers structures of research that are prevalent across fields, introduces
research methodologies and tools, teaches methods for interdisciplinary work and
fosters a critical discourse around the fundamental differences among research in
different areas. This is a mandatory course for all students in the program.
There will be five
core courses,
each offering the bases for research in an area in which
a large group of faculty is involved. These courses will be team-designed and taught by
the faculty in the particular areas. MA and MSc students will be required to take two core
courses. PhD students will be required to take either two or three core courses.
MA and MSc students will be required to take two courses from the pool of
electives,
special topics
and
directed readings.
PhD students will be required to take either two
or three courses from this pool. Subject to Supervisory Committee approval and
Graduate Program Committee approval, students in the program may fulfill part of these
requirements through other appropriate graduate courses at SFU or elsewhere (the
latter subject to SFU rules on external courses). Normally, all students must take at least
one course towards these requirements as either an elective or special topics offered
within the program. One elective is required to have a focus on research methods
appropriate to the student's thesis/dissertation topic. In this interdisciplinary program
appropriate research methodologies will vary widely. For example, quantitative empirical
work requires a background in statistics; process-based social research requires
qualitative methods; and computational work may require proofs and formal languages.
There will be ten
electives,
with five offered alternately each year. These courses will
provide in-depth coverage of areas or concepts particularly relevant to the program and
based on faculty expertise. Courses have been selected and developed based upon four
criteria: the contribution to the program internally; for some courses, their focus on
research methods; their appeal to other programs at SFU; and their provision of a
unique offering at SFU.
The
special topics
courses serve several agendas. They provide the needed flexibility
to quickly adapt to new contexts and to serve the curiosity-driven inquiry that is essential
to our research and graduate program. They will be an incubator for new electives and
are the normal way that new elective courses are proposed and refined before they are
formally considered for addition to the program. They also provide the program with a
means to take best instructional advantage of visiting faculty with skills new to our
program.
Directed readings
will play the normal function of such courses at SFU. They will be
seminar or tutorial experiences that develop special research interests in depth and with
faculty supervision. Students should not expect to take a directed readings course where
there is a substantively comparable course offered at SFU. Directed readings should be
distinct from the work to be undertaken towards the MA Thesis, MSc Thesis or PhD
Dissertation. Normally, directed readings should not be taken under the supervision of a
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Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
student's Senior Supervisor. We anticipate that we will use directed readings sparingly
but strategically in the program. Normally MA and MSc students may take at most one
directed readings course for credit towards the degree. Normally PhD students may take
at most two directed readings courses for credit towards the degree. Students may take
at most one directed readings course with a given professor.
On an optional basis and with approval of the Graduate Program Committee, MA, MSc
and PhD students may participate in
co-operative education
by placement in a
government or private research agency to gain practical experience in their thesis or
dissertation area. The co-operative education option is separate from coursework in the
program and serves as an adjunct to the thesis/dissertation process.
The PhD degree will require a
comprehensive examination
aimed at testing for
achievement in interdisciplinarity, breadth of knowledge, depth of knowledge, topic focus
and scholarly skill.
The PhD degree will require a
dissertation proposal
aimed at collegial review of the
proposed work, development of research formulation and presentation skills and
approval of the dissertation work by the Supervisory Committee and the Graduate
Program Chair. The approval of the Graduate Program Chair is largely for oversight
issues, for example, required ethics clearances. The dissertation proposal has two
components: a research prospectus and a public event with timely notification given to
the campus community.
The MA
Thesis, MSc Thesis
and
PhD Dissertation
will be the formal vehicles by which
students make the contribution to knowledge that is the hallmark of a research degree.
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The
Research Colloquium
is an important part of the scholarly life of the program.
During their studies PhD students are required to present their research work in at least
two seminars as part of this series. MA and MSc students are required to present in one
seminar. There is an expectation of continuous participation. All students are expected
to attend two-thirds of the seminars in the series while they are taking coursework in the
program.
Course proposals
The program structure has been described in Table I above. This section provides brief
details of the courses to be offered.
Course descriptions and outlines are included in
Appendix B.
Foundation
IAT 800-3 Foundations of Computational Art and Design (3 credits)
This course aims at a robust understanding of models for art and design and
representations of these models as symbol systems. It meets these aims through a set
of case studies that demonstrate how computational thinking can affect professional
and research outcomes. Its outcomes are preparedness for further relevant study and
skill development in using computers to support research and professional work in art
and design.
.
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Research Methods
IAT 801-3 Research Methods and Strategies (3 credits)
This course maps key methods and strategies of building reliable knowledge across
diverse specializations within the graduate program. It is meant not so much to build
specific expertise in a given set of techniques as to recognize issues underlying most
all research and to appraise critically methods of observation, test and organization of
findings.
The course provides a common basis for discussion and criticism of research. The
goal is a broad reading literacy across a spectrum of research, an essential step to knit
collaboration and scholarly community.
Core Courses
IAT 810-3 New Media (3 credits)
This course examines theory, history and current research in the field of new media.
Its methods are the interweaving of design, social/cultural, learning and aesthetic
theories. Historical views of the field are provided through an analysis of the histories
of technology, moments of media emergence, social and cultural movements, design
and aesthetics. The outcomes for the course are exploration, analysis and
development of applied methods in order to better understand, design, create and
assess new media and future "newer media" developments.
1A
811-3 Computational Poetics (3 credits)
This course provides students the opportunity to engage in critical, creative thinking
and practice in the discovery of the emergent overlying principles and concepts that
enable one to describe, analyze, evaluate and design interactive multi-mediated
experience. The structure of the course will centre on art in the age of information,
virtuality, compositional design and practice.
IAT 812-3 Cognition, Learning and Collaboration (3 credits)
The aim of this course is to address what it means to know something, how people
gain and use knowledge and complex skills, how to determine what an individual
knows, how humans learn, how humans solve complex problems, how knowledge is
created within a social and group context, and how to model human capabilities and
performance. We will select and study theoretical perspectives that inform the design
of computer-based mediated environments, products and experiences.
JA
813-3 Artificial intelligence in Computational Art and Design (3 credits)
Working through a set of motivating examples from domains such as generative
design, dance simulation, social interaction, adaptive user interface design and
knowledge sharing in e-learning the course provides insights on how Al techniques
can be used to address important problems in art and design. The topics are
presented in a comparative manner to clearly highlight advantages and disadvantages
of each method providing students with ability to weight benefits of a particular
approach when facing a concrete problem in their research area.
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Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
IAT 814-3 Knowledge Visualization and Communication (3 credits)
The course provides a cognitive and computational framework for understanding and
designing graphical and visual representations. We investigate several psychological
and computational models of diagram processing, and explore diverse interactive
graphical systems.
Elective Courses
IA T 830-3 Learning Design and Media (3 credits)
Students will gain an understanding of instructional design as an evolving set of
theories and practices based on learning research. They will develop detailed
knowledge of design strategies for interactive learning media and will be able to
explain how they relate to cognitive theories of learning. As an overarching goal,
students will develop the knowledge and skills to conduct basic research projects
relating to the design of learning media.
1A
831-3 Encoding Media Practice (3 credits)
This course undertakes a study of conceptual, aesthetic, and computational issues
and techniques involved in the encoding of interactive media objects. It includes study
of theoretical and poetical backgrounds in computer-human interaction (Bush, Dinkla,
De Landa, Grosz, Deleuze, Manovich, Murray, Laske, Harriman, Ascott, Penny, Kahn),
basic tenets of programming for the arts (media representations, practical machine
perception, algorithmic processes, database strategies, display techniques), and
practical exercises in programming interactive computer art that may include
S
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interactive cinema, audio and narrative.
IA T 832-3 Exploring Interactivity (3 credits)
Over the past few years technological innovation has created a host of exciting new
opportunities in the field of interaction design. As the outgrowths of smaller faster
wireless computing reshape our human experience, new questions need to be asked
about how we analyse, design and prototype more effective and more appropriate
products and systems to support interactivity. The socio-cultural and technical
considerations that stem from the research questions are complicated by the fact that
we have few precedents. In particular, the socio-cultural implications are not well
understood. This course will examine these issues through an iterative modeling
process.
IA T 833-3 Embodiment and Electronic Performance (3 credits)
This course is a combination of theoretical and practical explorations of physicality and
live performance in technologically mediated environments. It offers an introduction to
phenomenology as a methodology for analyzing and elaborating new physical and
technological hybrids. Students are asked to devise a performance experiment, while
simultaneously exploring critical discourses around embodiment, virtuality, gender, and
communication. This course is designated as a research methods course.
IA T 840-3 Models of Networked Practice (3 credits)
The course examines several social frameworks for describing mutual activity in work
and learning particularly in computer supported networked environments. The
frameworks are used to describe, analyse and design the tools and approaches for
.
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Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
new communities of practice. This course is designated as a research methods
course.
IAT 842-3 Theoiy and Design of Games (3 credits)
Thanks to the success of computer games, games have become a major part of our
culture, rivalling the popularity of movies. Drawing on a wide variety of examples and
disciplines, this course examines theories and techniques for the analysis of existing
games and the design of new ones. It studies game design, and will provide students
with the conceptual and technical tools necessary to critique and design games of all
kinds.
IA T 844-3 Spatial Computing (3 credits)
This course covers the concepts, algorithms and design principles underlying modern
3D computer animation and visualization from a user interface perspective. Research
topics include 3D user interface constructs; information, data and knowledge
visualization; 3D graphics and animation; spatial perception; and virtual and immersive
environments.
1A
845-3 Methods for Research into Technological Systems (3 credits)
Key models of research into technological systems are analysed and compared.
Together, they frame diverse methodologies for art, social science, business,
engineering and information technology. Focus will vary by instructor and disciplinary
combination being examined. In contrast to the Research Methods and Strategies
Course, this offering considers specialized, discipline specific research tools taken in
combination. These may be qualitative, quantitative, laboratory-based, field based (as
in survey research), actively experimental or based on secondary analysis of archival
data. This course is designated as a research methods course.
Special Topics
By its very nature the content of a special topics course will vary. Eight such courses
are proposed, so that course numbers will recur only every two years. Thus students
are unlikely to register for a single special topics course more than once. Special
topics courses offered in the program will be approved by the Graduate Program
Committee to essentially the same criteria required for approval of a new elective. At
the time of approval, each special topics course will be evaluated for suitability for
study towards the MSc degree and the results of such evaluation will be noted in the
course approval and course outline. At the time of approval, each special topics course
will be evaluated for suitability for fulfilling the program's research methods
requirement and the results of such evaluation will be noted in the course approval and
course outline.
.
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Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
1A
881-3 Special Topics 1(3 credits)
IA T 882-3 Special Topics II (3 credits)
IA T 883-3 Special Topics III (3 credits)
IA 884-3 Special Topics IV (3 credits)
IA T 885-3 Special Topics V (3 credits)
IA T 886-3 Special Topics VI (3 credits)
IA T 887-3 Special Topics VII (3 credits)
IA T 888-3 Special Topics VIII (3 credits)
Directed Readings
Normally a student would take at most one (MA or MSc) or two (PhD) directed
readings course during their degree. We have included three such courses: this should
accommodate almost all registrarial circumstances. Directed readings offered within
the program will be approved by the Graduate Program Committee to essentially the
same criteria required for approval of a new elective. As the time of approval, a
directed readings course may be approved for study towards the MSc degree. At the
time of approval, a directed readings course may be approved as fulfilling the
program's research methods requirement.
IAT 871-3 Directed Reading 1(3 credits)
1A 872-3 Directed Reading 11(3 credits)
IAT 873-3 Directed Reading III (3 credits)
Co-operative Education
Co-operative education is intended to provide opportunities for MA, MSc and PhD
students to gain practical research experience in settings external to the program.
Enrolment in co-operative education requires successful completion of at least two
courses within the program, good academic standing, no deferred grades and
approval of the Graduate Program Committee.
The co-operative education option is separate from coursework in the program and
serves as an adjunct to the thesis/dissertation process. Students wishing to participate
in this program are responsible for making all arrangements external to the program.
Students participating in co-operative education will be eligible for the
co-op
registration fee
as listed in the Graduate Fee Schedule of the Graduate Regulations.
1]
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S
1A 861-0 Practicum 1(0 credits)
1A 862-0 Practicum 11(0 credits)
MA Thesis, MSc Thesis and PhD Dissertation
1AT897-6MA Thesis
Students
who are working on their Master of Arts thesis register in this course. This
course will not count towards the coursework requirements.
IA T 898-6 MSc Thesis
Students who are working on their Master of Science thesis register in this course.
This course will not count towards the coursework requirements.
IAT 899-6 PhD Dissertation
Students who are working on their PhD dissertation register in this course. This course
will not count towards the coursework requirements. PhD candidate status is neither
required for nor implied by registration in this course.
MSc Requirements
The MSc is distinguished from the MA by additional constraints on coursework
requirements. In addition to the program requirements in Table 1 above, MSc students
must fulfill coursework by taking courses from those specified in Table 2 below.
Core Courses
Electives, Special Topics and Directed Readings
The two required Core
At least one course shall be taken from the following
Courses shall be selected
pool.
from the following pool.
IAT 840-3 Models of Networked Practice
1A
Visualization
814-3 Knowledge
and
IAT 842-3 Theory and Design of Games
Communication
IAT 844-3 Spatial Computing
IA
?
812-3 Cognition,
1A 845-3 Methods for Research into Technological
Learning and Collaboration
Systems
1A 813-3 Artificial
A
special topics
course approved by the Graduate
Intelligence in
Program Committee for study towards the MSc degree.
Computational Art and
A
directed readings
course approved by the Graduate
Design
Program Committee for study towards the MSc degree.
A graduate course in a Faculty of Applied Sciences
graduate program approved by the Graduate Program
Committee for study towards the MSc degree. Such
course approval will be on a case-by-case basis.
Table
2: MSc coursework requirements
is
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0
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Supervision
Student supervision will comply with
Section 1.6 Supervision of
the Graduate General
Regulations. Students entering the program will be assigned an interim advisor. In some
cases a senior supervisor may be decided upon admission. The interim advisor has two
main tasks: advising the student on issues related to study within the program and
assisting the student in identifying and approaching potential senior supervisors. There
is no requirement that the interim advisor has a role in supervision once the senior
supervisor is approved.
The normal size of MA and MSc supervisory committees is two. The normal size of a
PhD supervisory committee is two or three.
Comprehensive Examination
We attach as
Appendix B
our policy document governing the PhD Comprehensive
Examination, of which the following is a summary.
The PhD degree will require a comprehensive examination aimed at testing for
achievement in four areas: breadth of knowledge, depth of knowledge, topic focus and
scholarly skill. We must ensure that our doctoral graduates will be prepared for careers
of university teaching and research, in addition to a range of other work available in
industry, government and NGOs. Part of this qualification is a mastery of disciplinary
work to a high professional calibre. The comprehensive examination in the
interdisciplinary milieu of the School of Interactive Arts and Technology must of
• ?
necessity adapt in form to students' skills and topics, but have a common evaluative
baseline in terms of sufficient mastery shown.
With the consent of their supervisory committees and the Graduate Program Chair,
doctoral students may elect to take the comprehensive examination following completion
of course work, but normally within 18 months of starting the program and no later than
the beginning of the third semester of the second year of full-time study (or equivalent).
Upon passing, the student will be admitted to full degree candidacy. The comprehensive
examination may be retaken once and a second failure will require that that student
withdraw from the program.
The Graduate Program Committee is responsible for oversight and administration of the
comprehensive examination. It will ensure that the examination tests for each of the four
criteria; that the examinations in a given year are fair in comparison; and that each
examination is appropriate for the student being tested. The committee thus seeks a
balance between examination content that is common across students and that which is
specific to a student's course of study. With the wide disciplinary range found among our
program's students and faculty, it will be normal for each student's Supervisory
Committee to have a significant role in designing the examination for a given individual.
The Graduate Program Chair is charged with assuring that the test meets high
institutional standards for comprehensiveness and of evaluation. The test will have
written or recorded qualities that allow its prompt review in case of contested outcomes.
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The MA Thesis, MSc Thesis and PhD Dissertation
The
MA thesis, MSc thesis and PhD dissertation are
the key means through which
students make their contribution to knowledge, the hallmark of an advanced research
degree.
Doctoral candidates complete and defend a dissertation by showing an original
contribution to their field. The standard of work expected is that of peer-reviewed work
by accomplished scholars in their specialization. Candidates are encouraged to consider
the professional and career implications of this major scholarly work.
The standards of scholarship - quality of work - set for the MA and MSc are no less
than those for the doctorate, except the scale, scope and originality of the thesis may be
less. Commonly, the Master's thesis shows refinement of a developed scholarly
specialization, a useful replication of established note and in some cases a pre-testing or
prototype of supporting ideas for eventual PhD research.
Research Expectations and Implications
All degrees (MA, MSc and PhD) are research degrees. As part of degree requirements
students will write a thesis or dissertation that presents a contribution to the field of
study.
All degrees, MA, MSc and PhD, shall entail work the program is able to support through
its faculty. The program will be supported by its laboratories, funded faculty research, the
SFU library system and other research resources at SFU or related institutions.
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.
LEARNING METHODOLOGIES
The pedagogy of the School of Interactive Arts and Technology reflects the goals of the
program. We blend the innovative with the traditional, trusting that appropriate use of
technology for learning in advanced degree work can work effectively and serve as a
valuable extension of SlAT's instructional expertise in undergraduate curricula. We
combine some of the former TechBC's methods of instructional delivery in balance with
teaching methods of several established SFU schools, providing a vigorous hybrid of
convention and innovation. The program's instructional methods show several
distinguishing characteristics:
Experiential learning.
The involvement of students swiftly into the activity of on-going
research teams and purpose-built labs makes for a distinct combination of the
conceptual and applied.
Distributed learning.
The foundation work in the graduate program is - where
appropriate - taught by computer mediation. A hallmark of the program though is its
residential character - the major portion of advanced degree work will normally be taken
on campus, both for the vitality of our academic culture and the immediacy and
inspiration of face-to-face interaction. Use of other electronic means of connection
between instructor and student, for example, through teleconferencing, team discussion
and email, expand our ability to teach, advise and mentor, both locally and at distance.
Interdisciplinary structure.
As mentioned previously, the program finds its strengths in
• the synergies among established disciplines in the arts, social, sciences and applied
sciences. This intention pervades our selection of students, the research facilities we
control and our core courses.
Practical focus.
Our graduate courses demand considerable conceptual and theoretical
skills, but we also seek practical, workable outcomes to research. We have a practical
focus directed towards social, computational, pedagogical and aesthetic issues. We
believe that a tight linkage of concept to practice better equips our graduates for
employment and future distinction.
FACULTY
A crucial feature of our program is that every faculty member is accomplished in a
discipline "external" to the school. For example, our current faculty comprises computer
scientists, design scientists, learning scientists, engineers, social scientists, cognitive
psychologists, educational psychologists, a philosopher, business theorists, cultural
theorists, dancers, academic artists, and designers. What unites faculty is their focus on
technology in its diverse contexts. In this way, the program inverts the usual pattern of
small groups of technologically-oriented faculty each housed in a "home" department.
The record shows that such small, isolated groups often cannot address the wider
concerns that technology implies. The program presents Simon Fraser University with a
novel way to address the issues raised by technology and its rapid change.
Following is a list of the current tenurable and emeritus faculty in the program. Listed
with each faculty member are the areas in which he or she conducts research.
Appendix F
contains a list of all members of the SlAT graduate program faculty at the
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time the proposal was written. For the record, this is the group that originated the
program proposal.
SlAT is presently in the process of hiring its tenurable faculty. The planned hiring pattern
is consistent with the proposed program.
John Bowes (Professor & SlAT Director) AB (Hamilton College), MSc (Syr), PhD (Mich
State) -
• Digital media and telecommunications policy
• Computer mediated communication and online commerce
• Technology transfer
• Minorities and media
• History of technology
Jim Budd MVA (Alta) (Associate Professor) -
• Collaborative product development
• Interface design & navigation
• Interactive products
• Visualization: virtual & physical
• ?
Digital literacy
• Electronic conferencing
Tom Calvert (Emeritus Professor) BSc(Eng) (Lond), MSEE (Wayne), PhD (Carnegie
Tech), PEng -
• Computer systems for the animation and choreography of human figures
• Networked multimedia systems for learning
• The design and evaluation of human-computer interfaces for complex systems
• Computer graphics
Brian Fisher (Associate Professor)
• Cognitive science
• Interactive systems design
• Entrepreneurship and innovation
Susan Kozel (Associate Professor) BComm (McG), MA, PhD (Essex) -
• Live performance in mediated environments
• Philosophies of embodiment
• Motion capture and motion tracking systems
• Artificial life: discourses and practices
• Wearables: performance and design
• Interactive installation
Thecla Schiphorst (Associate Professor) BGS, MA (S Fraser) -
• Authoring methodologies
• Human computer interaction
• Wearable technology
• Multi-modal interaction
Ron Wakkary (Associate Professor) BFA (Nova Scotia Art & Des), MFA (NY State) -
• Interaction design - multi-user interaction
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• Design methods in interaction and games
• Collaborative authorship
• Digital culture & online content
• Online learning
Rob Woodbury (Professor & Graduate Chair) BArch (Car), MS, PhD (Carnegie Mellon) -
• Design space exploration
• Ontological systems
• Online interpretations: repositories and galleries
• Parametric design
• Play in learning and practice
PROGRAM CONSULTATIONS AND EVALUATION
External
The programs at the former TechBC underwent formal approval by the Degree Program
Review Committee of the Ministry of Advanced Education. As part of that approval
several forms of consultation and evaluation occurred.
• Program Advisory Committees comprising a majority of external members met
monthly during the early stages of the TechBC graduate programs.
• The TechBC Academic Programs Working Committee collected and evaluated
• ?
considerable information on external programs as part of the program
development process.
• During the Fall of 1998, a number of individuals from other institutions were
invited to visit TechBC to review and to provide input to the program
development process.
• During TechBC's existence, course evaluations were conducted on a regular
basis for all graduate courses.
The program has held discussions with related non-university institutions such as the BC
Advanced Systems Institute and the New Media Innovation Centre.
Internal to SFU
The proposed program has a number of natural links to existing SFU departments and
programs. Our course offerings have affinities with Contemporary Arts, Computing
Science, Engineering Science, Communication, Education and Business Administration.
Current graduate students enrolled in the cohort program are taking electives in
Contemporary Arts, Communication, Engineering Science and Computing Science. Co-
supervision and supervisory committee membership arrangements are growing and
currently include Contemporary Arts, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Education,
Communication, English, Computing Science and Engineering Science.
Faculty members have established research collaborations with research centres
including the GRUVI Lab, the MBB program, the Centre for Experimental and
Constructive Mathematics, and service units such as the eLearning Innovation Centre.
.
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Given the particular research interests of our faculty, we foresee research collaborations
possible with computing science, engineering science, communication, education,
business, mathematics, cognitive science, biology, sociology and philosophy.
Cognate Programs Elsewhere
There are several organizational patterns that have some parallels to our proposal. The
first is comprehensive and interdisciplinary, marked by a merging of technical or
engineering interests with those in art, education and the social sciences. The MIT
Media Lab (www.media.mit.edu
) established the first major related program with its
Master's and Doctoral programs in Media Arts and Sciences (MSc, MSc in Media Arts
and Sciences, MSc in Media Technology, PhD). It perhaps is closest in concept to our
proposal and past practice as TechBC but has historically had a more relentless focus
on digital media itself. A close second is the recently established CMU Center for
Entertainment Technology (http:!/www.etc.cmu.edu/curriculum.html)
(Master of
Entertainment Technology) with applied interests in the art and engineering of new
technology from games to film. Similarly, work of the National Film Board of Canada
(www.nfb.ca ) has for decades merged art and information science in pursuit of inventive
media expression. It remains an icon of interdisciplinary work in film and video
technology, but it is not a degree program or school as such.
The Comparative Media Studies program at MIT
(http:/Imit.edu/cmsl)
(MSc) examines
media technologies for their cultural, social, aesthetic, political, ethical, legal, and
economic implications. The CMS Program is situated in the Faculty of Humanities, and
leads to a Master of Science degree. While this program involves a broad range of the
humanities and social sciences, it does not host hands-on development and testing of
technologies
per Se.
Taken together, the MIT Media Lab
and
Comparative Media
Studies nearly duplicate the range of the School of Interactive Arts and Technology,
though it does not do so as a comprehensive degree program. Nevertheless, this duality
is our closest cognate.
Second, Toronto offers a collaborative graduate program through the Knowledge Media
Design Institute. The program offers "...a specialization for graduate students from a
variety of academic backgrounds to engage in the design, prototyping, evaluation, and
use of media intended to support and enhance the ability of individuals and groups to
think, communicate, learn, and create knowledge."
(www.kmdi.org ). Students are
admitted to graduate study in a home department (Architecture, Landscape, and Design;
Computer Science; Information Studies; Mechanical and Industrial Engineering; and
Sociology - degree designations vary by home department). Students must meet all the
requirements of their home department plus those of the KMDI program. The program
undertakes to work with supervisory committees to tailor individual student courses of
study. Overall the Toronto program seems to combine elements of our proposed
program with an organizational structure that is a hybrid between regular and special
arrangement studies. The program accepted its first students in the Fall of 2002 and
currently has 21 students (Master's and PhD) and 7 informally associated students. Over
50% of the current students are enrolled in Information Studies.
Third, there are existing programs in art or communications with newly expanded
mandates. Most currently, The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) has announced
formation of a graduate Department of Digital Media to offer a Master's degree (MFA)
(http://www.risd.edu/digital
media.cfm). It is unclear whether this is a research or
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professional program, or of its involvement of related interests from business, media and
modern culture, literature and the humanities either from RISD or adjacent Brown
University. RISD has traditionally focused on specializations within art, not on broad
interdisciplinary ventures.
Fourth, there are schools of library science who have enlarged their scope from training
librarians to more interdisciplinary work at the graduate level. The University of
Michigan's School of Information
(http://www.si.umich.edu )
offers Master's and PhD
degrees (MSc in Information, PhD) in information systems and human-computer
interaction. While broadly inclusive of human considerations in information systems it
lacks the cultural focus of the proposed program. A similar focus exists at Syracuse
University and is also an outgrowth of the library sciences (http://istweb.syr.edu
) (MSc in
Library and Information Sciences, MSc in Telcommunications and Network
Management, MSc in Information Management, PhD in Information Transfer).
Similarly, the University of Washington rechristened its library school 7 years ago as The
Information School (http://www.ischool.washington.edu ) (Master of Library and
Information Science (MLIS), MLIS in Law Librarianship, Distance MLIS, MSc in
Information Management, PhD in Information Science). Despite the name change and
an enlarged concern with the social and legal consequences of an information economy,
the program lacks strong participation by the arts and social sciences. These broad
concerns are presently spread among 6 other programs as diverse as technology and
management (the business school) to medical informatics and telemedicine. Each of
these specializations is located in a separate department, often in a different college and
campus.
S ?
Fifth, communications programs, such as Simon Fraser's own justly well-regarded
program, offers some parallel interest to ours, as do those in other major Canadian
schools such as Concordia (http://artsandscience.concordia .ca/comm/masters
. html) (MA
in Media Studies). Much of their curriculum centres upon traditional media and its
industrial, cultural and training needs. Some other regional universities offer training in
journalism. The University of British Columbia and University of Victoria both offer this
training to undergraduates, but do not offer much crossover to technology, design and
art, particularly at the graduate level.
New York University's program in Cinema Studies (http://www.nyu.edu/tisch/cinema/)
(MA in Cinema Studies, MA in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation, PhD in
Cinema Studies) offers both distinction in certain specialties like film and a breadth of
programs in other media, media policy and criticism. It, with the Annenberg Schools at
USC and the University of Pennsylvania (http://ascweb.usc.edu/home.Ph
p ) (MA in
Communication, MA in Communication Management, MA in Global Communication,
PhD in Communication); (http://www.asc.upenn.edu/asc/)
(PhD), is considered among
the top such schools, continentally. The Annenberg Schools each have strong media
criticism, policy and social science emphases, both at the graduate and undergraduate
levels. Other programs are small and exclusive: journalism training at University of
California - Berkeley, Stanford, Columbia and Northwestern provides prestigious post-
baccalaureate training in media and journalism, but do not tie strongly to engineering or
information technologies,
per
Se. Michigan State University, University of Georgia,
University of Texas, Universities of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Oregon and others offer a
breadth of instruction in Colleges of Communications Arts, with specialized departments
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spanning undergraduate training in journalism, broadcast, film, commercial art and the
social effects of media, but again have scant direct focus on technologies.
Finally, we know of notable programs more distant from these shores with
characteristics at some variance from North American offerings. In Sweden, new
programs have begun at the University of Malmo and the Chalmers University of
Technology (http://www.design.chal
mers.se/arttech/)
(Master in Art and Technology). In
Australia, Sydney University's Faculty of Architecture offers a Master's degree in Design
Science and a PhD (http://www.arch.su.edu.au/nwfa/research/index.html)
. Its ambitions
are broad but its scope is necessarily limited by its home in an architecture faculty (the
disciplinary walls between units are generally high in Australia). The Spatial Information
Architecture Laboratory at RMIT University in Melbourne Australia offers Master's and
PhD degrees (http://www.sial.rmit.edu.au
) (Master of Architecture by Research, PhD by
Research) through its hosting department (Architecture and Design). In comparison to
SFU, RMIT is a much more practically focused institution with fewer graduate-level
offerings. England's Open University's Design and Innovation Department
(http://technology.open.ac.uk/design/index.htmi)
affords some parallels as well, though
its graduate offerings are slim. Sheffield Polytechnic Institution offers strength in political
economy and critical studies of media as do many other U.K. institutions. Ireland's
Dublin City University has an extensive communications program
(http://www.comms.dcu.ie/),
with multiple graduate degrees (MA in Political
Communication, MS in Communication and Cultural Studies, MA in Film and Television
Studies, MA in Journalism, MSc in Multimedia, MSc in Science Communication). The
Interaction Design Institute in lvrea Italy offers a two year thesis-based Master's degree
in interaction design (Master in Interaction Design)
(http://www.
interaction-ivrea.it/en/).
The National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan has aggressively expanded its digital
design and media offerings through its graduate school of architecture
(http://www.arch.nctu.edu.tw/)
offering both Master's and PhD degrees. The program
there offers a blend of applied design, computational design and human-computer
interaction research. It is only one of several noteworthy rapidly growing programs in
Asia.
In this brief review, there are several clear distinctions between possible parallel
programs and what we propose. First, few place equal weight on technology in
distinction to social sciences and the arts. Most communication programs centre in the
applied social sciences or vocational training for media work. Second, programs we
reviewed exist largely at the undergraduate level. There are several prestigious
journalism programs at the graduate level, but most are designed to prepare talented
post-BA students for media careers. There are many programs - including SFU's own
communication program - with well-regarded Master's and doctoral degrees, but whose
focus is with the social, legal and aesthetic consequences of established media
industries. Third, very few competing programs consider centrally new or developing
media forms from the more established internet to dawning forms of wireless, wearable
or immersive media. Finally, few programs have as their common denominator
computation and design, a balance of art, technology and application to everyday life.
Together, these characteristics frame a unique and synergistic program that invites
participation from a wide spectrum of related programs within SFU. In comparison to
programs outside of SFU, our proposal has no direct regional competition and there is
very little internationally that approaches our unique configuration.
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Pull Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
We have included a comprehensive and inclusive list of related Canadian programs in
Appendix A.
ADMISSION
There will be annual admission into the program with the possibility of early or out-of-
cycle admissions in special cases. The annual deadline for applications is 15 January
with the possibility of late applications. By the end of April, the Graduate Studies
Committee will announce its decisions to applicants who have met the above deadline.
The minimum standards will be those of SFU, as described in the graduate general
regulations. The following guidelines will be applied to new admissions.
It is our aim to admit groups of students with diverse backgrounds, across the broad
areas in which our faculty have disciplinary expertise. The following admission
requirements are designed to encourage such diversity while setting minimum standards
for acceptance into the program.
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Minimum Standard Entrance Requirements for MA and MSc Programs
?
0
1.
An undergraduate degree in a field related to the proposed program of study. For
example:
o
BSc Computer Science, BASc Engineering (Electrical, Communications, Computer
Engineering) BA or BSc in Education, Management, Economics or Communications,
BFA in Art, Design or Performing Arts, BA in Art, Art History, Architecture,
Linguistics, Psychology or Philosophy, BArch, BLArch, BID).
Or
o
An undergraduate degree in another, related discipline. Applicants under this
category are required to make the case for (1)the relationship between the discipline
in which they hold their previous degree or degrees and this program; and (2) how
they would benefit from this program.
2.
For applicants to the MSc, a record of substantial university coursework in scientific
and/or technological areas.
3.
Demonstrated ability in computing. Students not meeting this criterion may be
admitted conditionally subject to SFU regulations and successful completion of a
foundational course in computing (this course
will not
count towards graduation
requirements).
4.
Demonstrated ability in academic writing. Students not meeting this criterion may be
admitted conditionally subject to SFU regulations and successful completion of selected
writing intensive courses within the program (such courses
will
count towards
graduation requirements). Applicants are to submit one sample of written work done as
part of their undergraduate studies.
5.
A minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better at a Canadian university, or equivalent,
for the undergraduate degree.
6.
A suitable letter of intent explaining the applicant's motivation for selecting this degree
program; summarizing relevant skills, training and experience; describing proposed
research directions within the program and indicating how the course of study would
contribute to future intellectual or professional growth. All of the above four points should
be explicitly addressed in the letter of intent.
7.
Three reference letters each from a suitably qualified person.
.
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Minimum Standard Entrance Requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy
Program:
1,
A graduate degree in a field related to the proposed program of study. For example:
o
MSc Computer Science, MASc Engineering (Electrical, Communications, Computer
Engineering) MA or MSc in Education, Management, or Economics,
Communications, MFA in Art, Design or Performing Arts, MA in Art, Art History,
Architecture, Linguistics, Psychology or Philosophy, MArch, MLArch).
Or
o
A graduate degree in another, related discipline. Applicants under this category are
required to make the case for
(1)
the relationship between the discipline in which
they hold their previous degree or degrees and this program; and (2) how they would
benefit from this program.
Or
o
An undergraduate degree in one of the two categories above. Applicants under this
category are required to demonstrate both high academic standing (GPA of 3.5 or
better at a Canadian university, or equivalent), for the undergraduate degree, and
evidence of research aptitude and accomplishment.
2.
A record of accomplishment in computing. Students not meeting this criterion may be
admitted conditionally subject to SFU regulations and successful completion of a
•
?
foundational course in computing (this course
will not
count towards graduation
requirements).
3.
A record of accomplishment in academic writing. Students not meeting this criterion
may be admitted conditionally subject to SFU regulations and successful completion of
selected writing intensive courses within the program (such courses will count towards
graduation requirements). Applicants should submit two samples of their scholarly
written work.
4.
A minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better at a Canadian university, or equivalent,
for the Master's degree.
5.
A suitable letter of intent explaining the applicant's motivation for selecting this degree
program; summarizing relevant skills, training and experience; describing and critically
supporting proposed research directions within the program and indicating how the
course of study would contribute to future intellectual or professional growth. All of the
above four points should be explicitly addressed in the letter of intent.
6.
Three reference letters each from a suitably qualified person.
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Additional Requirements for both Programs:
1.
Demonstrated proficiency in the English language through one of the following means:
• A previous undergraduate or graduate degree completed at a university where
English is the applicant's primary language of instruction
• A minimum score of 570 on the paper-based TOEFL test with a minimum TWE score
of 5
• A minimum score of 230 on the computer-based TOEFL test with a minimum TWE
score of 5
2. Portfolio/Interview:
Candidates who are being considered for admission may be required to submit a
portfolio of their work and/or be required to attend a personal or telephone interview
during the latter stages of the admissions process.
OTHER PROGRAM INFORMATION
Tuition
Students will pay tuition fees based on SFU's standard fees for students in "per-
semester" research-oriented graduate programs.
All SFU regulations concerning tuition fees will apply. Refer to the SFU Calendar for
details of these regulations.
Administrative structure
The program will be housed in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SlAT) in
the Faculty of Applied Sciences. A Graduate Program Committee will be created,
consisting of faculty members from SlAT, and reporting to the Director of SlAT. The
committee members will undertake the normal tasks of a graduate program committee,
as outlined in SFU graduate general regulations.
The program committee, which will be known as the Graduate Program Committee, will
be chaired by one of its members, who will fulfill all the normal duties of a graduate
program chair, and will sit on the Faculty of Applied Sciences Graduate Studies
Committee.
Presently SlAT has seven tenurable and one emeritus faculty members at the Assistant
Professor level or above. SlAT is currently in a staged process of hiring its tenure-track
faculty, starting with a cohort of nine positions being filled in Fall 2004. Additional hiring
will occur after this group has been appointed. All newly-appointed faculty would be
expected to participate in the proposed program.
Equipment resources include our four CFI-funded labs (these are devoted respectively
to computing technology, interaction, virtual environments and usability), a computer
suite devoted solely to the graduate program, specialized media editing facilities, and
availability of the undergraduate labs in the program. The faculty currently have
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significant funded research that would support research assistantships in the program.
The SFU library system has considerable relevant literature through its collections
relevant to Computer Science, Engineering Science, Contemporary Arts, Business,
Communication, Education, Mathematics and the Arts. During its brief existence the
former TechBC developed a small but significant collection of material relevant to the
program.
Linked to its Double the Opportunity Program, the Provincial Government has made a
substantial commitment to increasing graduate student numbers in the program that
develops from the former Tech BC (40 FTE in 2003/4, 50 FTE in 2004/5 and 60 FTE in
2005/6).
Students from the current Cohort Special Arrangements Program in Computing Arts and
Design Sciences would, at their option and by meeting program requirements, transfer to
the new program and no new admissions would be made to the Cohort Program. We
expect that most, if not all, Cohort PhD students will choose to transfer and that Cohort
MASc students will make a choice between completion by project within the Cohort
Program or completion by thesis in the new program. Some may wish to complete under
the existing project option while other may wish to do the extra work required to
complete a degree by thesis.
Attached are the names and curricula vitae of the members of the SlAT faculty eligible to
supervise graduate students.
Once students are enrolled in the program, all program regulations will apply. However,
there will be no retroactive application of the new program regulations to those students
who remain in the Cohort Special Arrangements Program in Computing Arts and Design
Sciences except by written election by the student involved.
RATIONALE AND DEMAND
The program will be housed in SlAT and thus its administering faculty is the Faculty of
Applied Sciences.
The first priority of the Faculty of Applied Sciences in its current Strategic Plan is
"to
expand its existing programs and to design and develop new programs in areas of high
demand."
We argue that the events of SFU's expansion into Surrey and its choice to
retain and redevelop the programs of the former TechBC is a de facto realization of this
first priority. Demand for the proposed graduate program we demonstrate in the form of
our recent admissions process into the Cohort Special Arrangements Program in
Computing Arts and Design Sciences, and in the large number of potential applicant
inquiries that we currently receive with neither advertisement nor marketing. We argue
appropriateness to the strategic goals of the Faculty of Applied Science by noting that
the work of our research faculty would open new and needed areas for this Faculty and,
more broadly, in society. We are simultaneously concerned with how technologies are
used, designed and implemented. The technological areas we currently work within
include systems for interactive performance, authoring systems, industrial design,
computer-aided design, visualization, learning systems, software, computer games,
buildings and policy. All of these are important areas that are currently being
transformed by technology. There are many examples among the Schools and faculty of
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FAS that share these goals, but no group that synthesizes and articulates these goals
into a locus of study and research.
The Three-Year Plan of the Vice President, Academic notes that the societal context in
which universities operate is changing in several ways. Among these is the transition to
a knowledge-based society. The proposed program represents one approach to
enabling people to achieve the aim of life
long learning, innovation and discovery
implied
by a knowledge-based society. It does this by making inquiry to the process of learning,
innovation and discovery an integral part of its educational offerings.
The VPA plan notes an important force in society that we argue is partly a consequence
of being knowledge-based.
.within the larger society there is an increasing demand for applied and professional
programs. By responding to this demand some are concerned that the integrity and support
for the arts and sciences will be compromised. Comprehensive universities have always
sought to secure balance among potentially competing areas. We are committed to
preserving the fundamental foundation of the
arts
and sciences while simultaneously building
on our excellence and strength in applied and professional programming. We view our
programming breadth as an opportunity for partnership to draw together interdisciplinary
programming, greater breadth in the educational experience for our students, and enrichment
for the community in which the university operates.
The proposed program provides a novel structure with which to address
interdisciplinarity, programming breadth and the technology in its societal contexts.
Potential applicants for program
Based on four rounds of admission to TechBC and the current Computing Arts and
Design Sciences program, applicants for the proposed program will likely come from
three populations.
The first contains people holding an undergraduate degree in a discipline unrelated to
computing and who have pursued aspects of computing either as part of their degree or
informally. Such people realize that computation has become an essential, increasingly
important tool for their discipline, and are frustrated by the difficulty of developing
discipline-based computational knowledge within conventional departmental structures.
They are attracted to the new program by the prospect of working with like-minded
people from their discipline and others and by the promise of hybrid vigour that such
interdisciplinary work can provide. The current program has a large representation of
people from the art, design and management areas. We expect that these areas will
continue to be well-represented and note that our most recent admissions round saw a
considerable broadening of the applicant field (we were very encouraged to see several
applicants with online learning backgrounds and aspirations, but were constrained by
current degree offerings from accepting some of these people into the present program).
Graduates of the new program originating in this pool will enrich their former disciplinary
knowledge by understanding how computation informs and is informed by other
disciplines.
People in the second group have a strong technical foundation in computer science,
engineering or mathematics. They wish to apply their knowledge to one or more of the
domains represented in the program. Their motivation is both practical and curiosity-
driven. They wish to apply their knowledge, but also see that application provides new
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opportunities for learning about computation and technology. Graduates originating in
this pool will know their technical discipline and how to translate it into application in the
field.
The third group of applicants is a special case of the first, is small, but important. Such
people want to develop deep expertise in computing and technology, but continue to
develop in their former fields of study. Their aspirations are high - they wish to do the
difficult work of becoming expert in more than one area. The evidence from other
programs known to us (CMU, MIT) is that successful graduates from this pool are
spectacular performers in their subsequent careers. It takes both a program such as the
one proposed located in a university with a good computer science or engineering
school to foster such people.
Demand for the proposed program appears to be strong. We received over 100
applications this spring with almost no advertising and an extremely limited application
period. Presently we continue to receive a large number of unsolicited yet informed
application inquiries. We propose to set enrolment limits at the reasonable limit of the
ability of faculty to supervise students in a research-based program: a ratio of three
students per eligible faculty member. With growth to 30 research faculty members in the
new school, we would anticipate having about 90 students in the program at any one
time.
Achieving a balance across genders is important to us. Our current gender balance is
that of 80 grad students, we have 29 female and 51 male, which is better balanced than
other technical programs at SFU. It needs to be improved. We anticipate a large
complement of women in our applicant pool (and past admissions support this claim).
. ?
Emphasizing recruitment of women graduate students will be important to our overall
development strategy. Our program includes a significant contextual, artistic and critical-
analytical approach to technology, which women applicants tend to favour over more
narrowly focused technological approaches.
The proposed program is unique in British Columbia. There are other programs and
parts of other programs that share some of its elements, but none can claim the degree
of focus on computing and technology in its contexts or the explicit inquiry into
interdisciplinarity that are the hallmarks of what we propose here.
Potential job market
Nationally and provincially, there has been demand for Canadians with advanced skills
and research ability in computing, communications and their intersect with arts and
entertainment as key components of a "smart" economy. Further, it is important that
these individuals are equipped to work in cross-disciplinary ways, finding invention and
new applications of technology with non-traditional instruction. Through team projects
our students are prepared to work with others who may have different perspectives.
Many government efforts from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to BC's "Double
the Opportunity" signal this kind of new economy and advanced skill set.
Our graduates are equipped do the important tasks in industry and government of
making computing and technology work for people and organizations. Graduates from
the program must have knowledge of two key areas (computing/technology and another
area such as the arts), with an emphasis on one of these. For example, a student may
combine the micro technology of positional sensors with dance. Another may better
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conceptualise the aesthetic contribution or audience impacts of high resolution television
imaging. The portability and video capabilities of cellular telephones may form the basis
of novel text "conversation" software implemented through the mobile telephone
network. In all these cases, our students span from art and design to technology in
important ways. They are both agents of discovery and of creating useful applications for
everyday use.
We expect that many of our graduates will progress to either further graduate study, to
academic careers or positions of influence in governments and NGOs. Every field is
feeling the effects of computation and technology and most universities and
governments have realized that their faculty must reflect this important and continuing
trend. Our graduates will be specially prepared for such positions. Additionally, the
growing symbiosis of the university with "smart" industries suggest the importance of
graduates able to energise such relationships, moving with ease between the
commercial and academic worlds of research and invention. As the Canadian economy
moves from its traditional resource base dependent on powerful neighbours to a position
of invention and high value-added information industries, our program and its advanced
students should play an important part.
.
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L -
-I
APPENDIX A - INCLUSIVE LIST OF RELATED PROGRAMS IN CANADA
Alberta, University of
Similar research themes are spread across four different schools:
• Art and Design - MA, MFA: History of Art, Design and Visual Culture
• Communications and Technology - MA: electronic and social networks,
organizational communications, electronic commerce
• Computer Science: Al, Computer graphics, Database and Multimedia Systems,
etc.
• Educational Psychology: Instructional Technology
British Columbia, University of
A similar program of study could be created by a student enrolled in Interdisciplinary
studies. For example, such a student could take courses in Fine Arts and Computer
Science, or Communications and Computer Science.
Two programs with related themes are:
• Master of Educational Technology program - MET: a joint, online program with
Tec de Monterrey (Mexico).
• Master of Advanced Studies in Architecture - some research links with
• ?
engineering and fine arts.
Calgary, University of
Similar themes are found in the following programs:
• Fine Arts - MFA: Offers a minor in lntermedia Arts and Technology (boundaries
between digital and traditional media). (The MFA is generally a terminal Master's
degree.)
• Computer Science - MSc, PhD: some courses in Computer Graphics, Computer
Vision, and Human-Computer Interaction.
Carleton University
Four programs at Carleton feature similar though more narrow research:
• Computer Science: Intelligent Systems: Expert systems, knowledge acquisition
tools, knowledge based assistants, connectionism and neural networks, natural
language understanding, learning and adaptability, robotics, pattern recognition.
• Computer Science: Object-Oriented Systems: Visual programming, filing
systems, databases, user interfaces, simulation, animation, software
engineering, office automation.
• Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture: Offers a PhD in
Literary Studies, Visual Culture, Musical Culture, New Technologies
• School of Industrial Design: does not offer a graduate program, but does have
some courses available for graduate students enrolled in Engineering or
Architecture.
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Concordia University
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0
Three programs with some relationships to ours exist.
• Media Studies - MA: Cultural and social aspects of media and communication
• Educational Technology - MA, PhD: Focus of the program is on communication,
management theory and systems analysis.
• Open Media - MFA: This program includes art forms such as performance,
installation, and electronic art.
Guelph, University of
Computing and Information Science and Fine Arts have some cognate topics, however,
there are no specific programs listed with similar themes.
Manitoba, University of
Computer Science has some cognate topics, however, there are no specific programs
listed with similar themes.
McGill University
Art History and Communication Studies - MA, PhD: Focus is on interdisciplinary study of
art, culture and communications, and the technologies of information, image, and sound.
The program involves cultural and social aspects.
McMaster University
Computing and Software has some cognate topics, such as computational geometry.
However, there are no specific programs listed with similar themes.
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Computer Science has some similar themes and Sociology has one course focusing on
science and technology. There are no specific programs listed with similar themes.
Ryerson University
Communications and Culture - MA, PhD: Ryerson offers this joint program with York. It
focuses on contemporary issues and practices in communication and culture
Toronto, University of
Toronto offers a collaborative graduate program through the Knowledge Media Design
Institute. The program offers
"
.
.
.a specialization for graduate students from a variety of
academic backgrounds to engage in the design, prototyping, evaluation, and use of
media intended to support and enhance the ability of individuals and groups to think,
communicate, learn, and create knowledge." (www.kmdi.org
).
Students are admitted to
graduate study in a home department (Architecture, Landscape, and Design; Computer
Science; Information Studies; Mechanical and Industrial Engineering; and Sociology).
I—
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Students must meet all the requirements of their home department plus those of the
KMDI program.
Toronto offers a program in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology and
the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology. Topics include Communications in
History, Theory, Technology and Perspective and Design in the Twentieth Century. The
programs do not have an applied technology component.
Waterloo, University of
Somewhat surprisingly, Waterloo's offerings in this area remain spotty and dispersed.
• Fine Arts - MFA: Offers a concentration in computer imaging.
• School of Computer Science - Math, PhD: This department offers similar
research areas such as User Interfaces and Computer graphics.
Canadian Film Centre - Habitat Programme
(http://www.cd
nfilmcentre.com/trainin g
/newmedia.html)
is centred on the
exploration, development and production of the interactive experience. Its goal is to
provide educational programming that combines the intellectual rigour of post-graduate
university environment with the results-driven orientation of a production studio
environment. Though not a degree granting program, Habitat plays an important national
role in the development of highly qualified new media personnel.
The Banff Centre - New Media Institute (BNMI)
BNMI (http://www.banffcentre.ab.ca/bnmU)
offers a series of summits, workshops, co-
productions, co-developed programs and production. Through these vehicles, BNMI
supports collaborative research, dialogue and networking, a laboratory for the
prototyping and co-production and research of new media works, and a place for career
development and training. Though not a degree granting program, BNMI plays an
important national role in the development of highly qualified new media personnel.
r
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APPENDIX B: PHD COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATIONS
This document states the guidelines PhD Comprehensive Examinations in the graduate
program in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology. It embodies five aims:
• To demonstrate breadth and depth of knowledge appropriate for the holder of a
PhD
• To test for preparedness to conduct PhD thesis research
• To test for preparedness to produce the PhD thesis
• To test for comparable standards of preparedness across candidates taking the
exam, to the extent possible in a diverse, interdisciplinary program.
• To align with SFU policies and practices
The Comprehensive Examination
With the consent of their Supervisory Committee, students may sit the Comprehensive
Examination following completion of required course work. Upon passing, the student
will be admitted to full degree candidacy. The examination may be retaken once.
As part of preparation to undertake the Comprehensive Examination, the student shall
submit, to his or her Supervisory Committee, a comprehensive annotated bibliography of
readings used throughout course work and readings related to their proposed thesis
topic. The student's Senior Supervisor will inform the Graduate Program Committee of
the Supervisory Committee's consent for the student to sit the examination and will
provide a copy of the annotated bibliography.
Upon receipt of the consent and annotated bibliography from the Senior Supervisor, the
Graduate Program Committee will strike an Examination Committee as described below.
The examination shall have three sections. The first will test for breadth of knowledge
within the student's course of study. The second will test for knowledge of the proposed
thesis topic. The third will test for knowledge of and skill with pertinent research
methodology. At least two of the sections shall have a required archival component. The
examination shall have an oral component that shall test for all three sections.
The examining committee shall refer to the bibliography in preparing the examination.
The examination process should not exceed one term in duration from the date of
notification to the Graduate Program Committee of the consent to sit for the examination.
This time may be longer should a student be required to retake the examination.
Specific guidelines for these examinations are available from the graduate program
assistant.
Examination Committee
The examination committee shall consist of the student's Supervisory Committee, the
Graduate Program Chair or designate, and one other member of faculty in the School
eligible to act as a Senior Supervisor. This last selection may be nominated by the
student's Supervisory Committee and shall be approved by the Graduate Program
Committee. More than one individual may be nominated by the Supervisory Committee,
from which the Graduate Program Committee shall make the final choice or require
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additional nominations. The Graduate Program Chair or designate shall chair the
Examination Committee.
Examination
a)
Program Responsibilities
The Graduate Program Committee has responsibility to ensure that the comprehensive
examinations for a given cohort test for comparable standards of preparedness across
candidates taking the exam, to the extent possible in a diverse, interdisciplinary
program. Comparability, not equivalence, is the goal—a general test of preparedness,
difficulty and fairness should be met by comparison to other like instances, both within
the program and to other SFU PhD programs.
b)
Bibliography
As part of the applying to site the examination, the student shall prepare a
comprehensive annotated bibliography designed to demonstrate the topic areas that
they have covered in their course of study.
The purpose of the bibliography is to inform the process of the focus and substance of
the student's work to date and to facilitate the faculty's task of preparing the
Comprehensive Examination. As such, it may well include substantial interpretive
material, but should be concise, clear and complete.
c)
Preparation and Approval of the Examination
The Examination Committee shall use the bibliography to assist in preparing the exam
questions. The questions shall be approved by the Graduate Program Committee. The
Graduate Program Committee may require common questions across a cohort taking
the comprehensive examination or may otherwise advise on the proposed examination.
d)
Form of Examination
The examination shall have three components, of which at least two must be submitted
in an archival form, consonant with SFU policies and practices on submission of the
thesis to the library.
Section
1 -
Breadth:
This section shall test for breadth of knowledge within the
student's course of study and across the general area in which study has been focused.
The student will be expected to demonstrate interdisciplinary aspects of his or her study.
Section 2 - Thesis Topic.
This section shall test the student's understanding of the
research issues around the proposed thesis topic. It shall test
inter a/ia
for social
justification, conceptual justification, and current research problems and issues.
Section 3 - Methodology:
This section shall test for knowledge of methodologies
appropriate to the research area, for ability to choose and design methodologies for
particular research tasks and for ability to apply methodology to the proposed thesis
topic.
e)
Supplemental Material
If a section of the exam contains supplemental examples of the student's work, the
student must explain the example in the respective section. Supplemental examples
must be submitted in an archival form.
Supplemental material may describe, for example:
• video taped performance
• programming or design artifacts
.
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visual or written works
Decision of the Examination Committee
The Examination Committee shall make a recommendation of its findings to the
Graduate Program Committee. The Graduate Program Committee shall confirm the
recommendation upon satisfying itself that the examination has been conducted in
accordance with these guidelines.
On the first sitting of the examination the recommendation shall be one of the following:
• The student passes the examination.
• The student is required to retake the examination.
Should a second sitting of the examination be required due to the student not passing
the examination on the first sitting, the recommendation shall be one of the following:
The student passes the examination.
The student fails the examination and is required to withdraw from the program.
If a student is required to retake the examination, the Examining Committee may include
in its recommendation a set of required tasks for the student that may include additional
formal coursework.
A student may retake the comprehensive examination once. A second failure requires
withdrawal from the program.
The decision of the Examination Committee shall be by simple majority vote. The
Examination Committee Chair shall vote only in the case of a tied vote, and his or her
abstention from voting in this instance shall be taken as a vote to retake (first sitting) or
fail (second sitting) the examination.
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APPENDIX C: COURSE PROPOSALS AND OUTLINES
In the interests of saving trees, course proposals are not included here. Copies have
been provided to the Dean of Graduate Studies and these are available to all involved in
the review process.
No instructors are listed on the course proposals. Given that SlAT is in the midst of the
process of hiring its tenurable faculty (with seven tenurable and one emeritus currently
appointed), listing the faculty members who will normally teach is not practical at this
stage.
Each of the course proposals was prepared by a sub-group of the SlAT graduate
program faculty and approved by the entire SlAT graduate program faculty.
Detailed course proposal and outlines are available for review:
by calling Bobbie Grant, Senate Assistant, 604 291-3168 or
email bgrant@sfu.ca
.
.
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.
APPENDIX D:
CALENDAR ENTRY
SCHOOL OF INTERACTIVE ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY GRADUATE PROGRAM
Surrey Campus, 2400 Central City, 10153 King George Highway. (604) 586-5225, Fax
(604) 586-5237, http://www.iat.sfu.ca/grad
Director
J. Bowes
AB (Hamilton College), MSc (Syr), PhD (Mich State)
Graduate Program Chair
R. Woodbury
BArch (Carleton), MS (Carnegie Mellon), PhD (Carnegie Mellon)
Faculty and Areas of Research
John Bowes AB (Hamilton College), MSc (Syr), PhD (Mich State) - digital media and
telecommunications policy; computer mediated communication and online commerce;
technology transfer; minorities and media; history of technology
Jim Budd MVA (Alta) - collaborative product development; interface design &
navigation; interactive products; visualization: virtual & physical; digital literacy;
electronic conferencing
Tom Calvert (Emeritus) BSc(Eng) (Lond), MSEE (Wayne), PhD (Carnegie Tech), PEng
- computer systems for the animation and choreography of human figures; networked
multimedia systems for learning; the design and evaluation of human-computer
interfaces for complex systems; computer graphics
Brian Fisher BA (Hiram College), PhD (UC Santa Cruz) - human perceptual, enactive,
and distributed cognition; individual differences; development of expertise; perceptually
rich interfaces; visual analytics; collaboration systems; media arts; technology
commercialization; open-source distribution models
Susan Kozel BComm (McG), MA, PhD (Essex) - Live performance in mediated
environments; philosophies of embodiment; motion capture and motion tracking
systems; artificial life: discourses and practices; wearables: performance and design;
interactive installation
Thecla Schiphorst BA (Hampshire), MFA (Calif Inst Arts) - authoring methodologies;
human computer interaction; wearable technology; multi-modal interaction
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Ron Wakkary BFA (Nova Scotia Art & Des), MFA (NY State) - interaction design - multi-
user interaction; design methods in interaction and games; collaborative authorship;
digital culture & online content; online learning
Rob Woodbury (Chair) BArch (Car), MS, PhD (Carnegie Mellon) - design space
exploration; ontological systems; online interpretations: repositories and galleries;
parametric design; play in learning and practice
Program Goals
The program has two goals. The first is to explore, understand and critically evaluate the
interplay between technology and society in the broadest terms, and in particular,
between technology and our social and cultural environments. The second is to foster
the development and design of new technologies to benefit us in existing contexts and to
elaborate, expand and create contexts for beneficial technological application.
The program brings together faculty and students from a variety of disciplines to the
study of technology both in and across the participating disciplines. The program has the
quadruple objectives of, first, research in technology in its contexts, particularly the
computation that drives much current technological development; second, inquiry into
and use of research methodologies that enable interdisciplinary collaboration and the
development of new technologies; third, research into the acts of designing, making,
managing and learning about technology; and fourth, demonstration of new technologies
in their contexts.
A hallmark of the program is its emphasis on interdisciplinarity, team endeavour,
. ?
combining of concept and practice, and use of technologies as a vital instructional base.
All graduate students take a mandatory course in Research Methods and Strategies,
which critically evaluates research philosophies and techniques for collaboration among
disciplinary experts. Students learn in an environment that employs traditional
coursework, one-on-one mentoring, teamwork, and technology-enhanced learning. In
short, students are immersed in an environment that is both technology rich and
structured for interdisciplinary cooperation.
Degrees Offered
The program offers courses of study leading to the MA, MSc and PhD. It provides
graduate study in diverse areas related to people, technology and society, especially the
areas of art, design, games and knowledge management.
Research Facilities
The school operates five research labs, supporting work in the broad areas of
information technology, virtual environments, interactivity and usability. One lab
comprising computers, display and output devices is for general graduate program use.
The other four labs provide specialized research facilities.
Shared Virtual Environment Lab
The particular focus of the lab is shared virtual environments where technology is used
to provide sensory cues of physical presence. The lab supports research into shared
spaces, developed to provide an immersive virtual reality environment in which users
.
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can interact with others in similar spaces in Canada and around the world. Its facilities
include a two-walled cave, graphics servers, software and desktop computers.
lnfoNet Media Lab
The lnfoNet Media Lab houses a computer-based environment that allows for the
creation, usage, and sharing of multi-modal information to support such areas as: signal
Processing for multimedia applications, image and video processing, computer graphics
and animation, multi-modal muman-computer interaction, bloinformatics. The goal of
utilizing the Info Net Media Lab is to define, investigate, and integrate advanced
multimedia and creative technologies, in order to dramatically transform the way an
individual communicates, works, teaches, learns, and plays. Its facilities include
visualization displays, instrumentation and prototyping equipment, software, and desktop
and laptop computers.
Interactivity Lab
The Interactivity Lab aims to extend our current range of digital interfaces and
interactivity solutions. The research in the Interactivity Lab supports existing and in-
development tools and solutions and develops new forms of interactivity and authoring
tool methods, from small numeric-pad driven interfaces to full body, multi-sensory
interaction. It facilities include a range of input, sensing and display and output devices,
rapid prototyping equipment, servers, software, and desktop and laptop computers.
Electronic Commerce, Educational Technology and Community Informatics
Usability Lab
The Electronic Commerce, Educational Technology and Community lnformâtics
Usability Lab (EC3 Usability Lab) examines the areas where the virtual world interfaces
with the physical world. It supports research in the human and user component of
technology development. The lab develops and evaluates applications that merge the
virtual and physical world and provide a platform for research in user interface, user•
response, and user requirements in areas such as electronic eommerce, educational
technology, computational design and community informatics. Its facilities include head
and eye tracking equipment, usability evaluation hardware and software, collaboration
systems, servers, terabyte storage arrays, software, and desktop and laptop computers.
Admissions
There will be annual admission into the program with the possibility of early or out-of-
cycle admissions in special cases.
The minimum standards will be those of SFU, as described in the graduate general
regulations, augmented bythe following specific requirements.
It is our aim to admit groups of students with diverse backgrounds, across the broad
areas in which our faculty have disciplinary expertise. The following admission
requirements are designed to encourage such diversity while setting minimum standards
for acceptance into the program.
Master's students will be admitted to study for either the MA or MSc degree. Students
may articulate between the MA and MSc degrees by meeting the admission and
program requirements of the degree to which they articulate and with the approval of the
Graduate Program Committee. A student may make one application for articulation.
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Minimum Standard Entrance Requirements for MA and MSc Programs
1.
An undergraduate degree in a field related to the proposed program of study. For
example:
o
BSc Computer Science, BASc Engineering (Electrical, Communications, Computer
Engineering) BA or BSc in Education, Management, Economics or Communications,
BFA in Art, Design or Performing Arts, BA in Art, Art History, Architecture,
Linguistics, Psychology or Philosophy, BArch, BLArch, BID).
Or
o
An undergraduate degree in another, related discipline. Applicants under this
category are required to make the case for (1)the relationship between the discipline
in which they hold their previous degree or degrees and this program; and (2) how
they would benefit from this program.
2.
For applicants to the MSc, a record of substantial university coursework in scientific
and/or technological areas.
3.
Demonstrated ability in computing. Students not meeting this criterion may be
admitted conditionally subject to SFU regulations and successful completion of a
foundational course in computing (this course
will not
count towards graduation
requirements).
4.
Demonstrated ability in academic writing. Students not meeting this criterion may be
admitted conditionally subject to SFU regulations and successful completion of selected
writing intensive courses within the program (such courses
will
count towards
S ?
graduation requirements). Applicants are to submit one sample of written work done as
part of their undergraduate studies.
5.
A minimum cumulative CPA of 3.0 or better at a Canadian university, or equivalent,
for the undergraduate degree.
6.
A suitable letter of intent explaining the applicant's motivation for selecting this degree
program; summarizing relevant skills, training and experience; describing proposed
research directions within the program and indicating how the course of study would
contribute to future intellectual or professional growth. All of the above four points should
be explicitly addressed in the letter of intent.
7.
Three reference letters each from a suitably qualified person.
Minimum Standard Entrance Requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Program:
1,
A graduate degree in a field related to the proposed program of study. For example:
o
MSc Computer Science, MASc Engineering (Electrical, Communications, Computer
Engineering) MA or MSc in Education, Management, or Economics,
Communications, MFA in Art, Design or Performing Arts, MA in Art, Art History,
Architecture, Linguistics, Psychology or Philosophy, MArch, MI-Arch).
Or
o
A graduate degree in another, related discipline. Applicants under this category are
?
required to make the case for (1)the relationship between the discipline in which
.
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Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
they hold their previous degree or degrees and this program; and (2) how they would
benefit from this program.
Or
o
An undergraduate degree in one of the two categories above. Applicants under this
category are required to demonstrate both high academic standing (GPA of 3.5 or
better at a Canadian university, or equivalent), for the undergraduate degree, and
evidence of research aptitude and accomplishment.
2.
A record of accomplishment in computing. Students not meeting this criterion may be
admitted conditionally subject to SFU regulations and successful completion of a
foundational course in computing (this course
will not
count towards graduation
requirements).
3.
A record of accomplishment in academic writing. Students not meeting this criterion
may be admitted conditionally subject to SFU regulations and successful completion of
selected writing intensive courses within the program (such courses will count towards
graduation requirements). Applicants should submit two samples of their scholarly
written work.
4.
A minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better at a Canadian university, or equivalent,
for the Master's degree.
5.
A suitable letter of intent explaining the applicant's motivation for selecting this degree
program; summarizing relevant skills, training and experience; describing and critically
supporting proposed research directions within the program and indicating how the
course of study would contribute to future intellectual or professional growth. All of the
above four points should be explicitly addressed in the letter of intent.
6.
Three reference letters each from a suitably qualified person.
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Additional Admission Requirements for both Programs:
1.
Demonstrated proficiency in the English language through one of the following means:
• A previous undergraduate or graduate degree completed at a university where
English is the applicants primary language of instruction
• A minimum score of 570 on the paper-based TOEFL test with a minimum TWE score
of 5
o A minimum score of 230 on the computer-based TOEFL test with a minimum TWE
score of 5
2.
Portfolio/Interview:
Candidates who are being considered for admission may be required to submit a
portfolio of their work and/or be required to attend a personal or telephone interview
during the latter stages of the admissions process.
Advising and Supervision
Student supervision will comply with
Section 1.6 Supervision
of the Graduate General
Regulations. Students entering the program will be assigned an interim advisor. The
interim advisor has two main tasks: advising the student on issues related to study within
the program and assisting the student in identifying and approaching potential senior
supervisors. There is no requirement that the interim advisor has a role in supervision
S ?
once the Senior Supervisor is approved.
The normal size of MA and MSc Supervisory Committees is two. The normal size of a
PhD Supervisory Committee is two or three.
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.
Degree Requirements
Students fulfill the following requirements to complete their degree.
MA and MSc
PhD*
PhD (from
MAorMSc
with the
program)
IAT 800-3
3 credits
3 credits
CU
Foundations of
(possibly waived)
(possibly waived)
o
Computational Art and
Design
0
LL
IAT 801-3
3 credits
3 credits
Research Methods and
Strategies
-
Core
2 courses
2 or 3
courses*
I course
6 credits
6 or 9 credits
3 credits
0)
Electives
2 courses
2 or 3
courses*
3 courses
6 credits
6 or 9 credits
9 credits
Special Topics
0
Directed Readings
Total Coursework
5 courses
6 courses
4 courses
15 credits
18 credits.
12 credits
Co-operative Education Optional
Optional
Research Seminar
Attendance
Attendance requirement +
requirement + 1
2 presentations
presentation
Co
(D
'I)
Master's Thesis
required
PhD Comprehensive
required
required
Examination
PhD Proposal
required
required
PhD Dissertation
required
required
Table
1:
Curriculum Structure. Both courses and credits are listed. For determining
degree requirements in core, elective, special topics and directed readings
categories the number of courses of at least three credits each shall be used.
*PhD students are required to take at least two (2) core courses and at least
two (2) courses from electives, special topics or directed readings. PhD
students must complete six (6) courses (18 credits) of coursework in addition to
Foundations of Computational Art and Design..
§ At least one elective is required to be a research methods course appropriate
to the student's course of study.
.
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0
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Coursework Requirements for all students
[AT 800-3
Foundations of Computational Art and Design
is an introduction to
computing as a research and professional tool in art and design. Its intended audience
includes those who have not had substantial experience in the computational aspects of
art and design. This is a mandatory course for all students in the program, but may be
waived for those students having had sufficient formal educational background in art and
design computation.
IAT 801-3
Research Methods and Strategies
is an introduction to the research
enterprise. It covers structures of research that are prevalent across fields, introduces
research methodologies and tools, teaches methods for interdisciplinary work and
fosters a critical discourse around the fundamental differences among research in
different areas. This is a mandatory course for all students in the program.
There are five core courses, each offering the bases for research in an area in which a
large group of faculty is involved. These courses are team-designed and taught by the
faculty in the particular areas. MA and MSc students will be required to take two core
courses. PhD students will be required to take either two or three core courses.
MA and MSc students are required to take two courses from the pool of electives,
special topics and directed readings. PhD students will be required to take either two or
three courses from this pool. Subject to Supervisory Committee approval and Graduate
Program Committee approval, students in the program may fulfill part of these
requirements through other appropriate graduate courses at SFU or elsewhere (the
•
?
latter subject to SFU rules on external courses). Normally, all students must take at least
one course towards these requirements as either an elective or special topics offered
within the program.
The
Research Colloquium
is an important part of the scholarly life of the program.
During their studies PhD students are required to present their research work in at least
two seminars as part of this series. MA and MSc students are required to present in one
seminar. All students are expected to attend a large majority of the seminars in the
series.
Co-operative Education
On an optional basis and with approval of the Graduate Program Committee, MA, MSc
and PhD students may participate in
co-operative education
by placement in a
government or private research agency to gain practical experience in their thesis or
dissertation area. The co-operative education option is separate from coursework in the
program and serves as an adjunct to the thesis/dissertation process.
Master's requirements
MA and MSc produce and defend a thesis as part of degree requirements. All SFU
regulations on thesis form and examination process apply. The standards of scholarship
- quality of work - set for the MSc are no less than those for the doctorate, except the
scale, scope and originality of the thesis may be less. Commonly, the Master's thesis
shows refinement of a developed scholarly specialization, a useful replication of
established note and in some cases a pretesting or prototype of supporting ideas for
eventual Ph.D research.
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MSc requirements
The MSc is distinguished from the MA by additional constraints on coursework
requirements. In addition to the program requirements in Table
1
above, MSc students
must fulfill coursework by taking courses from those specified in Table 2 below.
Core Courses
Electives, Special Topics and Directed Readings
The two required Core
At least one course shall be taken from the following
Courses shall be selected
pool.
from the following pool.
IAT
840-3
Models of Networked Practice
IAT
Visualization
814-3
Knowledge
and
IAT 842-3
Theory and Design of Games
Communication
[AT 844-3
Spatial Computing
IAT 812-3
Cognition,
IAT 845-3
Methods for Research into Technological
Learning and Collaboration
Systems
IAT 813-3
Artificial
A
special topics
course approved by the Graduate
Intelligence in
Program Committee for study towards the MSc degree.
Computational Art and
A
directed readings
course approved by the Graduate
Design
Program Committee for study towards the MSc degree.
Table 2:
MSc coursework requirements
PhD requirements
The PhD degree requires a comprehensive examination aimed at testing for
achievement in interdisciplinarity, breadth of knowledge, depth of knowledge, topic focus
and scholarly skill.
The PhD degree requires a dissertation proposal aimed at collegial review of the
proposed work, development of research formulation and presentation skills and
approval of the dissertation work by the Supervisory Committee and the Graduate
Program Chair. The approval of the Graduate Program Chair is largely for oversight
issues, for example, required ethics clearances. The dissertation proposal has two
components: a research prospectus and a public event with timely notification given to
the campus community.
PhD students produce and defend a thesis as part of degree requirements. All SFU
regulations on thesis form and examination process apply.
Ph D Comprehensive Examination
With the consent of their Supervisory Committee, students may sit the comprehensive
examination following completion of required course work. Upon passing, the student will
be admitted to full degree candidacy. The examination may be retaken once.
As part of preparation to undertake the comprehensive examination, the student shall
submit, to his or her supervisory committee, a comprehensive annotated bibliography of
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Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
readings used throughout course work and readings related to their proposed thesis
topic. The student's senior supervisor will inform the Graduate Program Committee of
the supervisory committee's consent for the student to sit the examination and will
provide a copy of the annotated bibliography.
Upon receipt of the consent and annotated bibliography from the senior supervisor, the
Graduate Program Committee will strike an examination committee comprising the
student's Supervisory Committee, the Graduate Program Chair or designate, and one
other member of faculty in the School eligible to act as a Senior Supervisor. The
Graduate Program Chair or designate shall chair the Examination Committee.
The examination shall have three sections. The first will test for breadth of knowledge
within the student's course of study. The second will test for knowledge of the proposed
thesis topic. The third will test for knowledge of and skill with pertinent research
methodology. At least two of the sections shall have a required archival component. The
examination shall have an oral component that shall test for all three sections.
The examining committee shall refer to the bibliography in preparing the examination.
The examination process should not exceed one term in duration from the date of
notification to the Graduate Program Committee of the consent to sit for the examination.
This time may be longer should a student be required to retake the examination.
Specific guidelines for these examinations are available from the graduate program
assistant.
Graduate Courses
IAT 800-3 Foundations of Computational Art and Design (3 credits)
Aims at a robust understanding of models for art and design and representations of
these models as symbol systems. It meets these aims through a set of case studies
that demonstrate how computational thinking can affect professional and research
outcomes. Its outcomes are preparedness for further relevant study and skill
development in using computers to support research and professional work in art and
design.
IAT 801-3 Research Methods and Strategies (3 credits)
Maps key methods and strategies of building reliable knowledge across diverse
specializations within the graduate program. It is meant not so much to build specific
expertise in a given set of techniques as to recognize issues underlying most all
research and to appraise critically methods of observation, test and organization of
findings. The course provides a common basis for discussion and criticism of research.
The goal is a broad reading literacy across a spectrum of research, an essential step
to knit collaboration and scholarly community.
.
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Core Courses
?
.
IAT 810-3 New Media (3 credits)
Theory, history and current research in the field of new media. Its methods are the
interweaving of design, social/cultural, learning and aesthetic theories. Historical views
of the field are provided through an analysis of the histories of technology, moments of
media emergence, social and cultural movements, design and aesthetics. Outcomes
are exploration, analysis and development of applied methods in order to better
understand, design, create and assess new media and future "newer media"
developments.
IAT 811-3 Computational Poetics (3 credits)
Provides students the opportunity to engage in critical, creative thinking and practice in
the discovery of the emergent overlying principles and concepts that enable one to
describe, analyze, evaluate and design interactive multi-mediated experience. The
structure of the course will centre on art in the age of information, virtuality,
compositional design and practice.
IAT 812-3 Cognition, Learning and Collaboration (3 credits)
Addresses what it means to know something, how people gain and use knowledge
and complex skills, how to determine what an individual knows, how humans learn,
how humans solve complex problems, how knowledge is created within a social and
group context, and how to model human capabilities and performance. It selects and
studies theoretical perspectives that inform the design of computer-based mediated
environments, products and experiences.
IAT 813-3 Artificial Intelligence in Computational Art and Design (3 credits)
Working through a set of motivating examples from domains such as generative
design, dance simulation, social interaction, adaptive user interface design and
knowledge sharing in e-learning the course provides insights on how Al techniques
can be used to address important problems in art and design. The topics are
presented in a comparative manner to clearly highlight advantages and disadvantages
of each method providing students with ability to weight benefits of a particular
approach when facing a concrete problem in their research area.
IAT 814-3 Knowledge Visualization and Communication (3 credits)
Provides a cognitive and computational framework for understanding and designing
graphical and visual representations. Investigates several psychological and
computational models of diagram processing, and explore diverse interactive graphical
systems.
Elective Courses
IAT 830-3 Learning Design and Media (3 credits)
Students will gain an understanding of instructional design as an evolving set of
theories and practices based on learning research. They will develop detailed
knowledge of design strategies for interactive learning media and will be able to
explain how they relate to cognitive theories of learning. As an overarching goal,
students will develop the knowledge and skills to conduct basic research projects
relating to the design of learning media.
.
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IAT 831-3 Encoding Media Practice (3 credits)
Studies conceptual, aesthetic, and computational issues and techniques involved in
the encoding of interactive media objects. It includes study of theoretical and poetical
backgrounds in computer-human interaction (Bush, Dinkla, De Landa, Grosz, Deleuze,
Manovich, Murray, Laske, Hamman, Ascott, Penny, Kahn), basic tenets of
programming for the arts (media representations, practical machine perception,
algorithmic processes, database strategies, display techniques), and practical
exercises in programming interactive computer art that may include interactive cinema,
audio and narrative.
IAT 832-3 Exploring Interactivity (3 credits)
Analyses, designs and prototypes more effective and more appropriate products and
systems to support interactivity. This course will examine these issues through an
iterative modeling process.
IAT 833-3 Embodiment and Electronic Performance (3 credits)
Combines theoretical and practical explorations of physicality and live performance in
technologically mediated environments. It offers an introduction to phenomenology as
a methodology for analyzing and elaborating new physical and technological hybrids.
Students devise a performance experiment, while simultaneously exploring critical
discourses around embodiment, virtuality, gender, and communication. This course is
designated as a research methods course.
IAT 840-3 Models of Networked Practice (3 credits)
Examines several social frameworks for describing mutual activity in work and learning
• ?
particularly in computer supported networked environments. The frameworks are used
to describe, analyse and design the tools and approaches for new communities of
practice. This course is designated as a research methods course.
IAT 842-3 Theory and Design of Games (3 credits)
Games have become a major part of our culture, rivalling the popularity of movies.
Drawing on a wide variety of examples and disciplines, this course examines theories
and techniques for the analysis of existing games and the design of new ones. It
studies game design, and will provide students with the conceptual and technical tools
necessary to critique and design games of all kinds.
IAT 844-3 Spatial Computing (3 credits)
Covers the concepts, algorithms and design principles underlying modern 3D
computer animation and visualization from a user interface perspective. Research
topics include 3D user interface constructs; information, data and knowledge
visualization; 3D graphics and animation; spatial perception; and virtual and immersive
environments.
IAT 845-3 Methods for Research into Technological Systems (3 credits)
Key models of research into technological systems are analysed and compared.
Together, they frame diverse methodologies for art, social science, business,
engineering and information technology. Focus will vary by instructor and disciplinary
combination being examined. In contrast to the Research Methods and Strategies
Course, this offering considers specialized, discipline specific research tools taken in
combination. These may be qualitative, quantitative, laboratory-based, field based (as
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Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
in survey research), actively experimental or based on secondary analysis of archival
data. This course is designated as a research methods course.
Special Topics
By its very nature the content of a special topics course will vary. Eight such courses
are proposed, so that course numbers will recur only every two years. Thus students
are unlikely to register for a single special topics course more than once. Special
topics courses offered in the program will be approved by the Graduate Program
Committee to essentially the same criteria required for approval of a new elective. At
the time of approval, each special topics course will be evaluated for suitability for
study towards the MSc degree and the results of such evaluation will be noted in the
course approval and course outline. At the time of approval, each special topics course
will be evaluated for suitability for fulfilling the program's research methods
requirement and the results of such evaluation will be noted in the course approval and
course outline.
IAT 881-3 Special Topics 1(3 credits)
IAT 882-3 Special Topics II (3 credits)
IAT 883-3 Special Topics
III
(3
credits)
IAT 884-3 Special Topics IV
(3 credits)
IAT 885-3 Special Topics V (3 credits)
IAT 886-3 Special Topics VI
(3
credits)
IAT 887-3 Special Topics VII (3 credits)
IAT 888-3 Special Topics VIII
(3 credits)
Directed Readings
Normally a student would take at most one (MA or MSc) or two (PhD) directed
readings course during their degree. Directed readings offered within the program will
be approved by the Graduate Program Committee to essentially the same criteria
required for approval of a new elective. At the time of approval, a directed readings
course may be approved for study towards the MSc degree. At the time of approval, a
directed readings course may be approved as fulfilling the program's research
methods requirement.
tAT 871-3 Directed Reading 1(3 credits)
IAT 872-3 Directed Reading II
(3 credits)
IAT 873-3 Directed Reading III (3 credits)
Co-operative Education
Co-operative education is intended to provide opportunities for MA, MSc and PhD
students to gain practical research experience in settings external to the program.
Enrolment in co-operative education requires successful completion of at least two
courses within the program, good academic standing, no deferred grades and
approval of the Graduate Program Committee.
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The co-operative education option is separate from coursework in the program and
serves as an adjunct to the thesis/dissertation process. Students wishing to participate
in this program are responsible for making all arrangements external to the program.
Students participating in co-operative education will be eligible for the
co-op
registration fee as listed in the Graduate Fee Schedule of the Graduate Regulations.
IAT 861-0 Practicum 1(0 credits)
IAT 862-0 Practicum II (0 credits)
MA Thesis, MSc Thesis and PhD Dissertation
IAT 897-6 MA Thesis
Students who are working on their Master of Arts thesis register in this course. This
course will not count towards the coursework requirements.
IAT 898-6 MSc Thesis
Students who are working on their Master of Science thesis register in this course.
This course will not count towards the coursework requirements.
IAT 899-6 PhD Dissertation
Students who are working on their PhD dissertation register in this course. This course
will not count towards the coursework requirements. PhD candidate status is neither
required for nor implied by registration in this course.
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APPENDIX E: LIBRARY ASSESSMENT
U RL: http://www. Ii
b.sfu.ca/about/col
Iections/cou rseassessments/siatgrad. htm
Library Course and Program Assessment for
?
Proposal for a Graduate Program in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
Updated: November 28, 2003
Introduction
I
Required courses
I
Core courses
I
Elective courses
I
Other courses
I
Total libraiy costs
Introduction
This is the Library's assessment of collection needs to support the proposed graduate programs within the
School of Interactive Arts and Technology at the Surrey campus. The programs are being planned for a
steady state of 90 graduate students in the School at any given time.
The SFU Library collection now includes over 9000 electronic journals and the Library is committed to
moving more of its journal collection to electronic format in the coming years, in part to address the multi-
campus reality of the university. A core collection of journal titles relevant to the subject focus of the
proposed program already exists at SFU Surrey, in either print and/or electronic form. The journal
collection of Tech BC was pared down and de-duplicated from SFU holdings at the time of the transfer to
SFU, but when taken together with the overall electronic holdings of the SFU Library, is suitable as a core
collection to support the proposed courses. The adequacy of the collection is substantiated by the fact that
the vast majority of journal articles on course reading lists are available at the SFU Library, and most
online. With only a few exceptions, noted below, additional needs can be met by delivering articles from
the Bennett Library print journal collection as required.
Therefore, the primary focus of this assessment is the monograph collection at the Surrey campus. Where
substantial reading lists were included in the proposed course outline, the assessment focuses on ensuring
that these titles are held at Surrey. In some cases there are multiple copies in the Bennett Library collection
and one copy can be permanently transferred to Surrey without cost. Newer titles, and titles not held at the
SFU Library have been prioritized for purchase. Not all titles on each reading list have been listed for
purchase; where the reading lists were exhaustive, a core collection at Surrey can be adequately
supplemented by delivery from the Bennett Library.
For courses without substantial reading lists in the course outlines, the assessment is based on an evaluation
of the Surrey and SFU holdings on the relevant subjects, as well as any changes to our present collection
development activities required to continue building appropriate holdings at Surrey. The book approval
profile with our principal book wholesaler, Blackwell Books, is used as an indicator of current collecting
activities for Surrey. However, the Surrey collections budget is not adequate to allow the Library to order
all core new publications in the subject areas of this program. Therefore, a general assessment at the end of
the report addresses the need for deeper book collections. Few modifications to the profile will be needed,
but more finding to order the material identified by the profile is required.
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Required Courses
Foundations of Computational Art and Design
This is a graduate level introduction to concepts of and skills in computing. It was successfully offered as a
Special Topics course in September 2002, and covers discrete mathematics, computability, and applications
such as artificial intelligence and symbolic computation such as Lindenmayer systems.
There are two books listed on the course outline for this course, both of which are held at SFU Surrey.
LC Subject heading
Surrey
holdings
SFU holdings
Algorithms
1
301
Artificial intelligence
17
729
Combinatorial analysis
1
143
Computer algorithms
9
176
Computer programming
15
657
Computer science-Mathematics
10
98
Data structures-computer science
4
210
Functional programming-computer science
0
19
Graph theory
2
239
L systems
0
6
Logic programming
1
76
Logic-Symbolic and mathematical
3
519
Machine learning
1
112
Mathematics
13
669
Object oriented programming-computer science
23
416
Set theory
1
199
System analysis
14
670
TOTAL
115
5239
Headings covering the topics of this course are included on the Blackwell forms profile for Surrey.
Research Methods and Strategies
A graduate level course in research methodology. There are 17 books on the reading list for this course. All
but one are held in the SFU Library, but only 9 of them are at the Surrey campus. Those that are still in
print should be added to the Surrey collection.
Researching culture: qualitative method and cultural studies! P.
Alasuutari, 1995. Sage 0803978308 $93
Who owns history? : rethinking the past in a changing world! E.
Foner, 2002. Hill & Wang. 0809097044
$32
Design and analysis: a researchers handbook!
G. Keppel, 1991. Prentice Hall. 0132007754
$162
(also on
the list for Methods for Research into Technological Systems)
Reliable knowledge!
H. Larrabee, 1991. Houghton Mifflin. 0521406706 $32
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The ideological octopus /
J. Lewis, 1991. Routledge. 0415902878. $62
?
0
One of
the
four Bennett Libray copies of
Kreps investigating communication
should
be moved to the
Surrey collection. Two titles on the list are not in print.
One-time cost: $381
As evidenced by the lack of Surrey holdings, this subject is not covered in Surreys current collection
development activity. The Blackwell subject heading Social Science Research should be added to profile
and set to forms so that a small selection of new material on this topic can be added to the Surrey collection
each year. This heading will also bring in useful current material for one of the elective courses in the
program, Methods for Research into Technological Systems.
Core Courses
New Media
Of the 36 books on the reading list for this course, 21 are held at Surrey and an additional 14 are in the
Bennett Library. One title is forthcoming and will fall under Surreys current collecting activities. Copies of
the following recent books should be added to the Surrey collection.
Handbook of new media . social shaping and consequences ofICTs
/ Lievrouw & Livingstone, eds., 2002.
Sage. 0761965106. $187
The new media book!
D.Harries, ed., 2002 British Film Institute. 0851709249.
$110
One-time cost:
$297
Knowledge Visualization
&
Communication
Headings covering the topics of this course are included on the Blackwell forms profile for Surrey. In
addition, three books from the reading list should be added to the collection.
Diagrammatic reasoning: cognitive and computational perspectives
/ B .Chandrasekaran, ed., 1995.. AAAI
Pr!M I T Pr. 0262571129.
$89
The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception /
J.Gibson, 1979. Lawrence Erlbaum.
0-89859-959-8
$60
Vision!
D.Marr, 1983. W. H. Freeman 0-7167-1567-8
$56
One-time cost:
$205
Cognition, Learning and Collaboration
Of the 18 books on the course reading list, twelve are held at SFU, but only five at Surrey. Many are now
out of print and will be difficult to acquire, but the following should be added to the Surrey collection.
Adaptive learning environments: foundations and frontiers
/ ed. by M. Jones, ed. (NATO ASI Series.
Series F, v.85), 1992. NATO Scientific Aff. Div. 0387554599
$164
Computers as cognitive tools! S.
Lajoie, ed., 1993. Lawrence Erlbaum 0-8058-1082-X
$48
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Computers as cognitive tools, v.2. No more walls: theory change, paradigm shifts, and their influence on
the use
of
computers for instructional purposes IS. Lajoie, ed., 2000. Lawrence Eribaum. 080582930X
$153
Constructivism and the technology
of
instruction : a conversation I T. Duff', ed., 1992. Lawrence Erlbaum.
0805812725.$44
Learning and awareness / Marton & Booth, 1997. (Educational psychology series) Lawrence Erlbaum.
0805824545 $66
Mental models / D. Gentner, Dedre et al., 1983. Lawrence Erlbaum. 0-89859-242-9 $72
Mental models / P. Johnson-Laird, 1983. Harvard Univ. Press. 0-674-56881-8
$51
Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: theoreticalperspectives I edited by Zimmerman &
Schunk, eds., 2
d
ed. 2001. Lawrence Erlbaum. 0805835601 $106
One-time cost: $704
Artificial Intelligence in Computational Art and Design
The Blackwell subject heading Artificial Intelligence is in the Surrey profile. The Surrey collection
includes 17 books with the corresponding LC subject heading. The text for this course is in the Surrey
collection. In addition, the Library provides access to several online collections that will be useful for this
course: Lecture Notes in Computer Science; IEEE/lEE Electronic Library, including not only journals but
conference proceedings; and the A CM Digital Library.
Computational Poetics
Of the 24 books on the course reading list, only seven are held at Surrey, with an additional twelve titles in
the Bennett Library collection. The following titles should be added to the Surrey collection.
Art and technics / L.Mumford, 2000. (Bampton lectures in America) Columbia Univ. Press. 0231121059.
$20
Basic writings / M. Heidegger, 1993. Harpercollins. 0060637633. $24
Before and after the I-Bomb: An Artist in the Information Environment! T.Sherman et
al.,
2002. Banff
Centre Press.
0-920159-94-X $30
(also
on list for Encoding
Media Practice)
The Cambridge companion to John Cage / edited by D.Nicholls, ed., 2002. (Cambridge companions to
music) Cambridge Univ. Press. 0521783488. $103
Fluid concepts and creative analogies! D. Hofstadter, 1995. Basic Books 0465024750. $32
The poetics
of
space ! G. Bachelard, Gaston, 1994. Beacon Press. 0807064734 $20
The logic ofpracticelP.Bourdieu, 1990. Stanford Univ, Press 0804720118 $29
Metamagical themas : questing for the essence of mind and pattern / D.Hofstadter, 1985.
0465045669 $42
.
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Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive
Ails
and Technology
Multiple meaning: techno :an artistic and political laboratory
of
the
present! M.Gaillot, 1998. (Plastic
arts) Editions Dis Voir, FR/Dist Art Pub Consortium. 2906571768
$31
?
0
Olafur Eliasson : surroundings surrounded: essays on space and science / P.
Weibel, ed., 2001. Neue
Galerie/Z K M Ctr Art & Media/M I I Pr. 0262731487.
$50
Otto Las/ce: navigating new musical horizons /
J.Tabor, ed., 1999 (Contributions to the study of music &
dance, no.53) Greenwood Pr/Greenwood Pub] Grp Inc. 031330632X.
$86
A shock to thought: expression after Deleuze and Guattari
/ B.Massumi, ed., 2002. Routledge/ lIP
Services. 041523803X. $121 (also on list for Encoding Media Practice)
Snap to grid: a user's guide to digital arts, media, and cultures I
P.Lunenfeld. M I T Press. 026212226X.
$66 (also on list for Encoding Media Practice)
The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World/ D.
Abram, 1997.
Random House Canada. 0-679-77639-7 $23 (also on list for Embodiment and Electronic Performance)
One-time cost:
$677
The reading list for this course also indicates that an SFU Surrey faculty member has an article in press in
Computer Art Journal,
which is on the reading list for this course. The Library does not currently
subscribe, and will need to add this title to the collection.
Elective Courses
Learning Design and Media
Headings covering the topics of this course are included on the Blackwell forms profile for Surrey.
Models of Networked Practice
Headings covering the topics of this course are covered on the Blackwell forms profile for Surrey. The
majority of the titles on the course reading list are available at the SFU Library, and several are already in
the Surrey collection. However, four titles should be acquired for Surrey.
Perspectives on activity theory /
Y.Engestrom et al., eds., 1999. (Learning in doing : social, cognitive and
computational perspectives) Cambridge Univ.Press. 0521431271.
$165
Managing industrial knowledge : creation, transfer and utilization /
I.Nonaka & D.Teece, eds., 2001. Sage
Publs.. 0761954988. $132
Knowledge management foundations /
S.Fuller, 2002. Butterworth-Heinemann. 0750673656. $33
Social Structures: A Network Approach
/Wellman & Berkowitz, 1997. JAI Press/Elsevier. 0762302917.
1997$52
One-time cost: $382
Encoding Media Practice
All the in-print books on the reading list for this course are either already held at Surrey or on the list of
acquisitions for other courses. Headings covering the topics of this course are included on the Blackwell
forms profile for Surrey.
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October
2004 ?
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Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
Theory and Design of Games
Headings covering the topics of this course are included on the Blackwell forms profile for Surrey.
Exploring Interactivity
Headings covering the topics of this course are included on the Blackwell forms profile for Surrey, but two
additional titles should be acquired.
Bringing design to software!
T.Winograd, ed., 1996. ACM Press/Addison-Wesley. 0201854910.
$46
New Thinking in Design: Conversations on Theory and Practice!
C.Mitchell, 1996.
0471-286044
$105
One-time cost:
$151
Embodiment and Electronic Performance
Of the 24 books on the course reading list, eleven are held at the Surrey Library, with another nine
available at the Bennett or Belzberg libraries. The following titles should be acquired for Surrey.
Absent body!
D.Leder, 1990. Univ. of Chicago Press 0-226-46999-9
$61
Cybersexualities : a reader on feminist theory, cyborgs and cyberspace /
J.Wolmark, ed., 1999. Edinburgh
Univ. Press. 0748611185.
$110
. ?
Feminist theory and the body: a reader /
Price & Shildrick, eds. Routledge. 0415925665.
$44
Flesh and machines . how robots will change us /
R.Brooks, 2002. Pantheon/Random House. 0375420797.
$34
The Future of the body!
M. Murphy, 2002. Putnam
0-87477-730-5
$33
Instrumental Realism : Interface Between Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Technology!
D.Ihde,
1991. Indiana Univ. Press. 025320626X
$64
Naked to the bone: medical imaging in the twentieth century
/B.H.Kevles, 1997. (Sloan technology series)
Rutgers Univ. Press. 0813523583 $79
The Routledge reader in gender and performance!
edited by L.Goodman, ed., 1998. 0415165822.
$119
This sex which is not one
/ L.Irigaray, 1985. Cornell Univ. Press. 0801493315
$24
One-time cost:
$568
Spatial Computing
Headings covering the topics of this course are included on the Blackwell forms profile for Surrey, but two
titles from the course reading list should be added to the Surrey collection.
Curves and surfaces for computer-aided geometric design : a practical guide /
G.Farin, 4
th
ed., 1997.
(Computer science & scientific computing) Academic Press. 0122490541. 4th. (Book + CD)
$91
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Geometric concepts for geometric design /
W.Boehm, 1994. AK Peters. 1568810040. $78
?
0
One-time cost: $169
Methods for Research into Technological Systems
Many of the books on the course reading list are now out of print, or are older works, and the majority of
these are available in the Bennett Library. As the course reading list is meant to be suggestive only, the
addition of the Blackwell subject heading Social Science Research to the Surrey forms profile will bring in
new titles useful for this course as described under the Research Methods and Strategies course. One recent
title shoUld be acquired for the Surrey collection.
Cross-National Research Methods in the Social Sciences!
L.Hantrais, et al., 2000. Pinter Publishers 1-
85567-344-4
$165
One-time cost: $165
Other courses
There are no library costs associated with the remaining courses in the program:
• ?
Special Topics (12 courses)
• Directed Readings (3 courses)
• MA Thesis
• MSc Thesis
• PhD Candidacy
• PhD Dissertation
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Full Program Proposal for a Graduate Program within the School of Interactive Arts and Technology
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Total library costs
The sum of all one-time costs outlined above is $3968. The Library therefore assesses a one-time cost of
$4000 to acquire the items listed above.
Total one-time cost: $4000
The ongoing costs to support this program are calculated as follows:
Addition of Social Science Research heading to Blackwells profile, and selection of approximately 10 new
books per year: $1000
New journal acquisitions:
Computer Art Journal
$230 (print + online)
The one-time acquisitions outlined above will ensure that the majority of items on the course reading lists
will be available to students and faculty. However, more depth will be required to properly support a
graduate program. The size of the Surrey Libraxys acquisitions budget has meant that even recent imprints
(2000 and onward) central to graduate studies at SlAT have not been acquired in the year of their
publication. Without an additional allocation, the SFU Surrey Library will be unable to keep up even a core
collection of new publications in this field. An additional $8,000 per year will be required to allow the
Surrey library to collect deeply enough to acquire relevant new imprints in the subject areas of this program
at a level suitable for graduate studies.
• ?
The program proposal identifies the uniqueness of the research to be undertaken within the School.
Adequate library holdings will be essential to making this the world-class program it aspires to be.
Total ongoing costs: $9,230/year
Maintained by: Gwen Bird
Content last modified: 28/11/2003
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