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Rensselaer Catalog 2017-2018 [Archived Catalog]
Courses
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COMM 2620 - Color Theory
Color — the most relative of all visual attributes — is explored in this studio course through a series of exercises and graphic design problems. Investigations will include: recollection (i.e. visual memory), reading and contexture, relativity and subjectivity, color and light, color and communication, and “cultural” color. An emphasis on the work and theories of Joseph Albers will be examined.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: COMM 2610.
When Offered: Fall term odd-numbered years.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 2660 - Introduction to Graphics
This course introduces students to graphics with hands-on projects. For each project, students use a research approach that entails: defining the problem, understanding the user, developing the message, and designing and evaluating the graphic outcome. The course emphasizes strategic and critical thinking in the making of graphics for the purposes of professional communication and cross-cultural, sustainable, intersensory, and multimodal interaction.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 2940 - Communication Studies
Readings and projects adapted to the needs of individual students.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 2960 - Topics in Communication
Experimental courses tried out in one or two terms.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4180 - Studio Design in Human-Computer Interaction
In this course, students work on collaborative projects to design human-computer interactions (HCIs) aimed at transforming people’s everyday practices. Students work with activity analysis, object-oriented modeling, and UI prototyping. Additional assignments required for students at the 6000 level.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: COMM 4420, COMM 4710, or COMM 4770.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 6810; students cannot obtain credit for both courses.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4210 - Designing Interactive Characters for Digital Games
This course takes a multi-disciplinary approach to teaching the design of interactive characters for games. Students learn and apply principles from psychology, traditional media, and best practices from the games industry to the crafting of engaging characters. Students develop critical analysis and design skills, as well as team-based project skills. The course includes industry guest speakers, and culminates with the creation of concept prototypes.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: COGS 2520 or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4230 - Psychological and Social Effects of Games
This course will address issues related to the psychological and social effects of games. How video games can change personal experience and catalyze social change will be discussed from a broad, critical perspective. The course will draw upon comparative historical, psychological, and sociological domains of knowledge to evaluate existing game influences and consider future possibilities for impact. This course is communication-intensive.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: Any HASS undergraduate course or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4240 - Writing for Games I
This is the second course in the central track of the Writing concentration for GSAS students. In this project-intensive course, students will learn and practice basic, in-the-trenches writing and narrative development for games, including story outlines, cutscenes, scripted dialogue, systemic dialogue and mission writing and design, across multiple game types and narrative genres.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: GSAS 2520 ( Introduction to Game Storytelling), WRIT 2330 (Creative Writing: The Short Story), or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4250 - Writing for Games II
This is the third course in the central track of the Writing concentration for GSAS students. In this course, students gain exposure to elements of the bigger creative picture, including intellectual property (IP) development, world-building, and original character design. Students also continue to refine their competency in game writing essentials while exploring complex game narrative challenges such as branching, open-world, and other non-linear structures.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: COMM 4240.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4300 - Communication Internship
This course is designed for COMM, EMAC, and GSAS majors who wish to incorporate field experience in their educational programs. Students work with local business, industrial, civic, or educational organizations in positions where they can observe communication processes and apply written, interpersonal, and public communication skills to the solution of real problems.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: Undergraduate major in COMM, EMAC, or GSAS with at least 16 credit hours completed in the major.
When Offered: Fall and spring terms annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 6300.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4310 - Sustainable Graphic Design
This course is designed to introduce students to ideas and practices of sustainability in visual communications. Sustainable graphic design is the consideration of environmental, cultural, and physical impacts of graphic design products throughout their lifecycle. Designers engaged in sustainable practice use techniques, processes and materials to reduce the detrimental environmental, social, and economic impacts of their designs. They raise awareness and act as exemplars of sustainable practice for their clients, their peers, and their community.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: COMM 2610 or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4320 - Visual Poetic and Narrative
This studio course explores new directions in art and design that include visual poetry (visual expression in which they shape an arrangement of text, images, symbols convey the message) and interactive narrative. Visual poetics and narrative appear in advertisement, music videos, and other forms of communication. Students will experiment with these forms of communication and learn how these concepts apply in artistic and commerical contexts. The class format includes lectures, discussions, and studio work.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: One of the following courses: ARTS 1020, COMM 1510, COMM 4460, or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Fall term, even-numbered years.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4340 - Creative Seminar I
This course is for senior for EMAC and EART majors and is the core creative forum for the development and presentation of the senior thesis. The course is the first part of a two-semester study provided in two seminar courses. The focus of the course is to develop a proposal for a written thesis and a creative project that students will execute in the second seminar and exhibit in an exhibition.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Senior EMAC and EART majors only.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4350 - Creative Seminar II
This course is for senior EMAC and EART majors. The goal of the Creative Seminar II is to develop and formulate ideas from Creative Seminar I into a unique project for the artist/communicator that will demonstrate his/her independent ideas, research, wiriting, and design skills. Students will develop a written thesis, creative project (e.g., art, graphic design, interaction design, music, performance), prepare and present their project in a public exhibition, and design the publicity for the show.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: COMM 4340 - Creative Seminar I; Senior EMAC and EART majors only.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4380 - Writing and Response
This course explores effective strategies for talking with others about oral presentations and written texts. Practice in consulting is grounded in theory and research in composition studies, reader-response, and tutoring. Students also study their own writing and reading processes through reflection and discussion. Those who complete the course with a grade of A- or A may apply to work as writing consultants in the Center for Communication Practices. This is a communication-intensive course.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 6380. Students cannot receive credit for both courses.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4400 - Cross-Cultural Design: Analysis and Application
What role does culture play in the design of images for communication? This course surveys perspectives from interdiscplinary discourse on what consititutes culture and its impact on meaning. Through readings on theory and criticism and analyses of media and research-generated data students learn what constitutes cultural difference and communicate that knowledge through a codex they write and design.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: any graphics course.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 6400. Students cannot obtain credit for both courses.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4420 - Foundations of HCI Usability
In this course, students will consider methods of gathering users’ requirements for product functions and information, ways to test products and information for usability and suitability, and procedures for incorporating the results learned through testing. Students will design and conduct usability tests on products, documents, and interfaces of interest.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: One HASS course.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 6420; an additional assignment is required for COMM 6420. Students cannot obtain credit for both courses.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4430 - Design for Global Society
How do images communicate meaning in global society? In this course, students use a social semiotic approach to interpret images that permeate cultural boundaries and impact the way people think and behave. Visual and verbal assignments enforce students’ ability to communicate how images either instill or enforce values and propagate ideas; a user-research project allows students to gather data to test their own image hypotheses. Special emphasis will be placed on developing students’ cross-cultural awareness of images.
When Offered: Spring term odd-numbered years.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 6430; students cannot obtain credit for both courses.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4460 - Visual Design: Theory and Application
This course introduces students to the theoretical and practical use of graphics as a form of visual communication. Discussions include topics such as the psychology of visual perception, design theory, creative process, formatted text, and graphics. Students have an opportunity to put theory into practice using computer graphics.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: COMM 2610 or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 6560. Students cannot obtain credit for both courses.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4470 - Information Design
This course examines methods of graphic representation of data. Course work requires graphing of information derived from researched databases. Visual presentations of historic data will be examined to determine the most efficient way to represent complex information without distorting the data within. Information designers clarify these displays and enrich the understanding of the modern world.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: COMM 2610.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4520 - Information Architecture
This course examines theoretical and empirical issues in the field of Information Architecture, aiming to identify and utilize principles of information organization, collect and interpret empirical data on human information behavior, and develop and apply methods of information design all in the service of creating usable architectures of information. Focus is on developing experience for professional information architecture projects.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: Any 4000-level COMM course or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 6620. Students may not obtain credit for both courses.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4530 - Reality TV and Post-Factual Media
This course considers the sociopolitical and ethical dimensions of reality television and post-factual media content. An analysis of a variety of “reality” and news formats allows students to understand the evolution, economics and, above all, the cultural and political significance of modern media. Topics include: simulation; social representation; commercialization; social media; surveillance; nationalism; and globalization.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Any COMM or LITR course or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Fall or spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4540 - Visual Culture
Humans inhabit a culture of visual images. Images bombard them on television, the Internet and in films; they surround everyone as architecture and fashion; they provide essential resource data in science, engineering, and business. This course will help students better understand how images communicate information, arouse emotions, and shape values. Students will primarily do readings in cultural history/theory with some viewing of films.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: One 2000-level HASS undergraduate course of permission of instructor.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4550 - Religion in the Media
How are religious fundamentalists using new media? Can religious conversion take place in a theme park? How are religious “crossover” films transforming political and popular cultural landscapes? This course maps the complex intersections of religion, culture, and media in the global transformations of religious traditions and explores, through a media frame, “the return of religion” within the secular consensus of modernity.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: COMM 1510 or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4560 - Media and Popular Culture
A survey of the historical origins and cultural impact of several mass media, including television, film, radio, the Internet, and print media. The course aims to increase media literacy through analysis of specific media products as well as discussion of broad topics such as: advertising and commercialization; politics and censorship; gender, race, and social identity.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: Any COMM or LITR course, graduate standing, or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4580 - Advertising and Culture
An examination of the cultural impact of advertising in various media: TV, radio, print, and the Web. How does advertising inform human experience and identity? How has it shaped the culture? Who pays for it and why? Note: This is not a How-To course. The focus is critical analysis, not acquiring skills for producing advertising. This is a communication-intensive course.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: Any COMM or LITR course or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4610 - Rhetorical Analysis
A study of the persuasive use of language. Some basic theories of argument and style are explored as a means of improving the students’ ability to both analyze and create rhetorical discourse.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: WRIT 2110 or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Upon availability of instructor.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4620 - Language and Culture
This course examines the role that language plays in the production of social identities and cultural assumptions about the world. Course topics include: language and worldview; linguistic contact and change, language ideology and nationalism, religious language, “politically correct” speech, and the key role that language plays in structuring race, gender and class-based systems of social inequality. Guest lectures from the Languages faculty. This is a communication-intensive course.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: COMM 1510 or Language Minor, or permission from instructor.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4650 - Marketing Communication Design
This course examines communication design for marketing purposes. It evaluates the effectiveness of designs for information, persuasion, education, and administration. Discussions on denotation and connotation, gestalt theory, and semiotics aim to investigate how theory influences design and the political, social, and cultural dimensions of visual language. In a term-long project, students analyze how design from an entrepreneurial perspective can provide marketable solutions to communication problems.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: COMM 2610.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4670 - Advanced Typography
This advanced design studio course will explore individual approaches to typographic problems in both print and digital mediums. Projects will investigate typographic metaphor and illustration, designing typography for texts, and typography in motion. Emphasis will be on communication and typographic hierarchy while encouraging experimentation to create your own typographic voice. This is an advanced course and students will be expected to work independently.
When Offered: Fall term even-numbered years.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4680 - Electronic Portfolio Development
This course is designed to introduce students to the research, design, production, and distribution of an electronic portfolio of their own work. Through reading, class discussions, and class projects focusing on use of Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver and Flash, the course will explore concepts and techniques in the design and publication of networked digital material. The course will help students develop the ability to create and present a networked portfolio of their work.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: COMM 2610 or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4690 - Interface Design: Hypermedia Theory and Application
This course focuses on the design theory and research behind effective interface design for hypermedia programs (multimedia computer programs with interactive inks). These interactive programs are the standard form of communication on the WWW, CDs, and DVDs. Students apply theory and research by designing and developing an interactive multimedia program (for WWW or CD).
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: 1) an introductory course in communication or another social science course or permission of the instructor; and 2) knowledge of authoring software for multimedia or Web development.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4710 - Communication Design for the WWW
In this course, students will examine the design and use of Web sites from initial gathering of user requirement, through design, development, and evaluation of a site’s graphic and textual content and the assessment of customer satisfaction with the site.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 6750. Students cannot obtain credit for both courses.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4730 - Graphic Design for Corporate Identity
This course examines historical and modern visual communication symbols in relationship to a company’s overall industry and marketplace identity. The course focuses on design processes relative to the dissemination of consistent visual information. Projects will include an identity program for a fictitious company. The course study is structured as a design studio and is aimed at exploring unique methodologies of ever-changing media marketing tools. This is a communication-intensive course.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: COMM 2610 or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4770 - User-Experience Design
Designing an effective and enjoyable user experience involves more than just responding to specification requirements; it requires designers to understand user needs and expectations, the work that users do, and the environment in which they do their work. Students will learn and practice how to design a user experience and evaluate how effective they have been.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: COMM 4420 or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 6770; students taking COMM 6770 will be assigned an additional project. Students cannot obtain credit for both courses.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4780 - Interactive Narrative
This course introduces students to narrative theory and interactive narratives in a variety of genres such as oral story-telling, literature, poetry, film, artists’ books, historical narrative, hypertext fiction, Net Art, social media narratives, and computer games. Students will have the opportunity to design and develop an original interactive narrative.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: COMM 2610, COMM 4460, LITR 2110, or WRIT 2330, or permission of the instructor.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 6780. Students may not receive credit for both courses. Extra assignments are required in the graduate course.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4790 - Social Impact of Electronic Media
An exploration of the effects of electronic media such as the Internet, multimedia, computers, pop music, and television. The effects examined include changes in social and work relationships, time displacement, audience aggression, child socialization, education, and consumer behavior.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: any communication course or permission of the instructor.
When Offered: Upon availability of instructor.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4800 - Media and Memory
Most memories of the past are stories that circulate in the present through a variety of media. To probe the rhetorical mechanism of collective memory, this course combines exploration of several visual media with case studies that interpret the rhetorical potential of specific photographs, films, museums, and monuments.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: COMM 2610 or WRIT 1110.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 6800. Students cannot obtain credit for both courses.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4820 - Usability Testing
In this course, students will examine and practice several methods of formal usability testing. Classes will consist of classroom discussion of scenario-based testing methods and statistical analysis of data collected and of laboratory sessions in which students develop, conduct, record, and analyze usability tests.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: COMM 4420, COMM 4770, or ITWS 2210.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 6820. For COMM 6820, additional statistical analysis and a literature-based paper on a usability topic are required. Students cannot receive credit for both this course and COMM 6820.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4830 - Organizational Communication
Focuses on the central role of communication in organizations by exploring the way that communication is used in exercising authority, power, and control. Organizations with hierarchical and nontraditional structures are considered. The course also examines the role of communication in the social construction of organizational life.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: an introductory course in the social sciences or management or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4880 - Interactive Data Visualization
The course covers interactive, multimedia interface design (for Web sites and apps) for data visualization or other forms of interactive information design. Innovative designs that explore new directions in interactive data design are highlighted. Topics include multisensory information design using graphics, sound, touch, and large-scale data projection. Interface design topics include user-centered design, information architecture, rapid prototyping, cross-cultural design, and intellectual property. Students may choose the applications they want to design for the class project.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: CSCI 1010 or CSCI 1100 or permission of the instructor.
When Offered: Summer term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 4940 - Communication Studies
Readings and projects adapted to the needs of individual students.
Credit Hours: 1 to 6
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COMM 4960 - Topics in Communication
Experimental courses tried out in one or two terms.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 6260 - Rhetoric, Culture, and Communication Technology
This is a graduate seminar designed to introduce Ph.D. students to the history of rhetorical theory and its intersections with culture and technology. The course will consider how theoretical reflection about language and other forms of communication is entwined with changes in technology of communication as well as cultural paradigm shifts. Rather than trace a linear evolution of rhetorical theory from Classical Antiquity to the present, the course will focus on competing conceptualizations of rhetoric and rhetorical power in different historical periods.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6270 - Digital Rhetoric
A study of digital rhetoric and digital media, including rhetoric and media theory, the new materialism, place theory, affect theory, text theory, narrative theory, procedural and software rhetorics, with applications to the Internet of Things, Location-Based Services, social media, multimodal composition, and technical communication. A reading of selected theories and the development of individual projects in the design and/or analysis of digital-media artifacts and applications, with discussions, oral presentations, and written research reports.
When Offered: Fall term odd-numbered years.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6280 - Rhetorical Analysis
The application of rhetorical concepts in the analysis and appraisal of discourse. Students pursue projects under the direction of the instructor; weekly seminar meetings are devoted principally to discussions of ongoing projects.
When Offered: Upon availability of instructor.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6300 - Communication Internship
This course is designed for COMM, EMAC and GSAS majors who wish to incorporate field experience in their educational programs. Students work with local business, industrial, civic, or educational organizations in positions where they can observe communication processes and apply written, interpersonal, and public communication skills to the solution of real problems.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: graduate status.
When Offered: Fall and spring terms annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 4300.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6320 - Visual Poetics and Narrative
This studio course explores new directions in art and design that include visual poetry (visual expression in which the shape and arrangement of text, images, and symbols covey the message) and interactive narrative. Visual poetics and narrative appear in advertisement, music videos, and other forms of communication. Students will experiment with these forms of communication and learn how these concepts apply in artistic and commercial contexts. The class format includes lectures, discussions, and studio work.
When Offered: Fall term odd-numbered years.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6380 - Writing and Response
This course explores effective strategies for talking with others about oral presentations and written texts. Practice in consulting is grounded in theory and research in composition studies, reader-response, and tutoring. Students also study their own writing and reading processes through reflection and discussion. Those who complete the course with a grade of A- or A may apply to work as writing consultants in the Center for Communication Practices.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 4380. Students cannot take both courses for credit.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6390 - Semiotics and Fieldwork
This course examines how semiotics (i.e. the study of signs and sign systems) applies to the changing roles of images in today’s media-immersed society. Students will analyze meaning making in multicultural social contexts, comparing both hyper-local and globally pervasive renditions of image-based media. A fieldwork assignment takes students through the steps of visual semiotics fieldwork, including hypothesis generation, site selection and access, data gathering and analysis leading to findings that potentially can contribute generalizable knowledge.
When Offered: Spring term even-numbered years.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6410 - Ethnography and Cultural Analysis
This course focuses on theories, perspectives, and methods of ethnography, and on their applications to the various disciplines in which graduate students are working. Emphasis is given to foundational activities: defining a problem, research design, proposal writing, field methods, and protection of human subjects. Students will undertake original field research involving interviews, multi-sited fieldwork, participant-observation, situated ethnography, archival work, focus groups, and audio/videotaping.
When Offered: Fall term odd-numbered years.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6420 - Foundations of Human-Computer Interaction Usability
This course will consider methods for gathering users’ requirements for product functions and information, ways to test products and information for usability and suitability, and procedures for incorporating the results learned through testing. Students will design and conduct usability tests on products, documents, and interfaces of interest.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 4420. Students cannot obtain credit for both courses.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6430 - Design for Global Society
How do images communicate meaning in global society? In this course, students use a social semiotic approach to interpret images that permeate cultural boundaries and impact the way people think and behave. Visual and verbal assignments enforce students’ ability to communicate how images either instill or enforce values and propagate ideas; a user-research project allows students to gather data to test their own image hypotheses. Special emphasis will be placed on developing students’ cross-cultural awareness of images.
When Offered: Spring term odd-numbered years.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 4430; students cannot obtain credit for both courses.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6480 - Theory and Research in Technical Communication and Human-Computer Interaction
This seminar course examines theories that have shaped, and continue to drive, the fields of technical communication and human-computer interaction with an emphasis upon the ways each field makes new knowledge. Connections between theoretical findings, research results, and the evolution of both fields as they are practiced in industry, government, and academia are important themes. Course work includes lectures, discussions, student presentations, and written projects.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: COMM 1510 or equivalent.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6510 - Communication Theory
Introduces students to a range of theories from across the humanities and social sciences: theories of meaning, discourse, persuasion, interpersonal communication, and mass communication. Also introduces students to how theories are constructed and how knowledge is generated in communication studies.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6530 - Media Communication Research
This course is designed to give training in field and experimental research methods, especially in scientific and technological communication. The student designs and conducts preliminary research projects as time permits.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6540 - Communication Research II
This course is designed to give training in field and experimental research methods, especially in scientific and technological communication. The student designs and conducts preliminary research projects as time permits.
When Offered: A fall-spring sequence annually.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6560 - Visual Design: Theory and Application
This course introduces students to the theoretical and practical use of graphics as a form of visual communication. Discussions include such topics as visual perception, design theory, formatted text, and graphics. Students have an opportunity to put theory into practice using computer graphics software.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 4460. Students cannot obtain credit for both courses. For graduate students, one additional assignment will be required and their work will be evaluated at a higher level.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6600 - Research Design and Analysis for New Media
A practicum in research focusing on methodology for assessing Web usage and computer-mediated behavior. Topics include research design issues, data gathering, sample frames, recruitment and treatment of subjects, and quantitative analysis of online surveys, server bits, and other forms of direct and unobtrusive data.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: at least one previous 4000-level research course; one course in statistics is advisable.
When Offered: Upon availability of instructor.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6620 - Information Architecture
This course examines theoretical and empirical issues in the field of Information Architecture, aiming to identify and utilize principles of information organization, collect and interpret empirical data on human information behavior, and develop and apply methods of information design all in the service of creating usable architectures of information. Focus is on developing experience for professional information architecture projects. Requires basic knowledge of Web design.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6700 - Rhetoric of the Photograph
Photography is the first modern visual technology that is reproducible yet still has an aura of “objectivity,” and its study addresses issues that are central to all forms of contemporary image-making, from art and architecture to politics, social media, and game design. Using the rhetorical triad of producer, photograph, and audience, the course introduces stuents across HASS to various methodologies of visual analysis through semiotics, phenomenology, neuropsychology, and psychodynmics of affect.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: graduate standing or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Odd-numbered years.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6730 - Computer-Mediated Communication
This seminar examines the social uses and impacts of computer-mediated communication in contexts such as education, industry, and informal social interaction. Students may examine traditionally important variables such as self-disclosure, rules, status, power, message sequencing, etc., as well as processes such as reality construction, learning, decision making, and group development. The course introduces analytic procedures that are as useful for spoken or written discourse as for computer-mediated discourse.
When Offered: Upon availability of instructor.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6740 - Hypermedia Design and Development
This seminar course will investigate issues in hypermedia design and development. Class discussions will include topics such as designing the structure of a hypermedia program and designing the user interface. Students will have an opportunity to put theory into practice by designing and developing an interactive program.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: COMM 4460, COMM 6400, COMM 6560, or permission of the instructor.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6750 - Communication Design for the World Wide Web
This course introduces hypermedia interface design and communication issues involved in designing interactive programs for the World Wide Web. Students will design and develop an interactive Web site or experience and explore related rhetorical, social, cultural, and legal issues.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: 1) completion of Web development or hypermedia development course and 2) knowledge of basics of Web or hypermedia development, or 3) permission of the instructor.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6770 - User-Experience Design
Designing an effective and enjoyable user experience involves more than just responding to specification requirements; it requires designers to understand user needs and expectations, the work that users do, and the environment in which they do their work. Students will learn and practice how to design a user experience and evaluate how effective they have been.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: COMM 4420, COMM 6420 or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 4770; students taking COMM 6770 will be assigned an additional project. Students cannot obtain credit for both courses.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6780 - Interactive Narrative
This course introduces students to narrative theory and interactive narratives in a variety of genres such as oral story-telling, literature, poetry, film, artists’ books, historical narrative, hypertext fiction, Net Art, social media narratives, and computer games. Students will have the opportunity to design and develop an original interactive narrative.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 4780. Students may not receive credit for both courses.
Credit Hours: 4
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COMM 6790 - Media Studies
This course is a graduate seminar examining major theories and approaches to studying the media from a cultural studies perspective, with a particular focus on the medium of television. Topics will include: the politics of representation; commercialization; celebrity; media institutions; fictional and factual programming; gender, race, and class.
When Offered: Fall term even-numbered years.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6800 - Media and Memory
Most memories of the past are stories that circulate in the present through a variety of media. To probe the mechanism of collective memory, this course combines exploration of several visual media with case studies that interpret the rhetorical potential of specific photographs, films, museums, and monuments.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 4800. Students cannot obtain credit for both courses. Graduate students are required to complete additional assignments.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6810 - Studio Design in Human-Computer Interaction
In this course, students work on collaborative projects to design human-computer interactions (HCIs) aimed at transforming people’s everyday practices. Students work with activity analysis, object-oriented modeling, and UI prototyping. The course serves as the capstone in the HCI MS Certificate.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: COMM 6420, COMM 6750, or COMM 6770.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 4180; students cannot obtain credit for both courses. Additional assignments required for students at the 6000 level.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6820 - Usability Testing
In this course, students will examine and practice several methods of formal usability testing. Classes will consist of classroom discussion of scenario-based testing methods and statistical analysis of data collected and of laboratory sessions in which students develop, conduct, record, and analyze usability tests.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Cross Listed: Cross listed with COMM 4820. For COMM 6820, additional statistical analysis as part of each assignment and a literature-based paper on a usability topic are required.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6830 - Human-Media Interaction
Advanced survey course on psychological approaches to human media interaction. Key themes are 1) how minds have evolved to interact with media and computers in certain ways; 2) how media form and content influence the mind; 3) how minds socially respond to computers; 4) how media and computers create a sense of “being there” and/or “being together with someone”; and 5) how properties of human cognition are affected by the form, content, and use of media.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6880 - Interactive Data Visualization
This course covers interactive, multimedia interface design (for websites and apps) for data visualization or other forms of interactive information design. Innovative designs that explore new directions in interactive data design are highlighted. Topics include multisensory information design using graphics, sound, touch, and large-scale data projection. Interface design topics include user-centered design, information architecture, rapid prototyping, cross-cultural design, and intellectual property. Students may choose the applications they want to design for the class project.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Graduate standing.
When Offered: Summer term annually.
Cross Listed: COMM 4880.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6940 - Communication Studies
Readings and projects adapted to the needs of individual students.
Credit Hours: 1 to 6
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COMM 6960 - Topics in Communication
Experimental courses tried out in one or two terms.
Credit Hours: 3
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COMM 6990 - Master’s Thesis
Active participation in research, under the supervision of a faculty adviser, leading to a master’s thesis. Grades of S or U are assigned by the adviser each term to reflect the student’s research progress for the given semester. Once the thesis has been presentend, approved by the adviser, and accepted by the Office of Graduate Education, it will be archived in a standard format in the library.
Credit Hours: 1 to 6
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COMM 9990 - Dissertation
Active participation in research, under the supervision of a faculty adviser, leading to a doctoral dissertation. Grades of IP are assigned until the dissertation has been publicly defended, approved by the doctoral committee, and accepted by the Office of Graduate Education to be archived in a standard format in the library. Grades will then be listed as S.
Credit Hours: Variable
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CSCI 1010 - Introduction to Computer Programming
Computer programming is a way of thinking. A successful programmer needs to take a word problem, generate a pseudocode algorithm, and convert it to the syntax of a specific programming language. This course is an alternative to CSCI 1100 and is intended for students who want an introduction to this programming process but do not intend to do further course work in programming or computer science. Emphasis will be on the generation of the algorithms. Rather than using the complex syntax of a production language such as C or C++, this course will use Visual Basic. This allows concentration on the fundamentals and without becoming sidetracked by language complexity. It also affords students a tool for creating useful personal applications or prototypes in the future. Students cannot get credit for this course if they have already taken any other CSCI course.
When Offered: Fall and spring terms annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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CSCI 1100 - Computer Science I
An introduction to computer programming algorithm design and analysis. Additional topics include basic computer organization; internal representation of scalar and array data; use of top-down design and subprograms to tackle complex problems; abstract data types. Enrichment material as time allows. Interdisciplinary case studies, numerical and nonnumerical applications. Students who have passed CSCI 1200 cannot register for this course.
When Offered: Fall and spring terms annually.
Credit Hours: 4
Contact, Lecture or Lab Hours: 5
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CSCI 1190 - Beginning Programming for Engineers
This course teaches elementary programming concepts using the MATLAB environment for engineering students with little or no prior programming experience. Concepts include variables, looping, and function calls. Students cannot get credit for CSCI 1190 after earning credit for CSCI 1100 or any higher-level CSCI course.
When Offered: Half-term courses offered fall and spring terms annually.
Credit Hours: 1
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CSCI 1200 - Data Structures
Programming concepts: functions, parameter passing, pointers, arrays, strings, structs, classes, templates. Mathematical tools: sets, functions, and relations, order notation, complexity of algorithms, proof by induction. Data structures and their representations: data abstraction and internal representation, sequences, trees, binary search trees, associative structures. Algorithms: searching and sorting, generic algorithms, iterative and recursive algorithms. Methods of testing correctness and measuring performance.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: CSCI 1100 or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Fall and spring terms annually.
Credit Hours: 4
Contact, Lecture or Lab Hours: 6
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CSCI 2200 - Foundations of Computer Science
This course introduces important mathematical and theoretical tools for computer science, including topics from set theory, combinatorics, and probability theory, and then proceeds to automata theory, the Turing Machine model of computation, and notions of computational complexity. The course will emphasize formal reasoning and proof techniques.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: CSCI 1200 and Introduction to Calculus (MATH 1010 or MATH 1500); MATH 1020 is strongly recommended.
When Offered: Fall and spring terms annually.
Credit Hours: 4
Contact, Lecture or Lab Hours: 5
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CSCI 2300 - Introduction to Algorithms
Data structures and algorithms, and the mathematical techniques necessary to design and analyze them. Basic data structures: lists, associative structures, trees. Mathematical techniques for designing algorithms and analyzing worst-case and expected-case algorithm efficiency. Advanced data structures: balanced trees, tries, heaps, priority queues, graphs. Searching, sorting. Algorithm design techniques: dynamic programming, greedy algorithms, divide-and-conquer, backtracking. Example graph, string, geometric, and numeric algorithms.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: CSCI 1200, MATH 1010, and CSCI 2200.
When Offered: Fall and spring terms annually.
Credit Hours: 4
Contact, Lecture or Lab Hours: 6
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CSCI 2500 - Computer Organization
Introduction to computer organization, assembler language, and operating systems. Computer systems organization: processors, memory, I/O. Digital logic: gates, Boolean algebra, digital logic circuits, memory, buses. Microprogramming. Machine level: instruction formats, addressing modes, instruction types, flow of control. Operating systems: virtual memory, virtual I/O instructions, processes, interprocess communication. Numeric representation. Assembler language: the assembly process, macros, linking, loading. Advanced architectures: RISC architectures, parallel architectures.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: CSCI 1200.
When Offered: Fall and spring terms annually.
Credit Hours: 4
Contact, Lecture or Lab Hours: 6
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CSCI 2600 - Principles of Software
A study of important concepts in software design, implementation, and testing. Topics include specification, abstraction with classes, design principles and patterns, testing, refactoring, the software development process, GUI and event-driven programming, and cloud-based programming. The course also introduces implementation and testing tools, including IDEs, revision control systems, and other frameworks. The overarching goal of the course is for students to learn how to write correct and maintainable software.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: CSCI 1200 and CSCI 2200.
When Offered: Fall and spring terms annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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CSCI 4020 - Computer Algorithms
Basic algorithm design strategies such as greedy, dynamic programming, backtracking, and branch-and-bound; main approaches, including exact, probabilistic, approximate, and heuristic algorithms; sequential and parallel algorithms; algorithms for networks, string matching, matrix operations, and cryptography; learning algorithms.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: CSCI 2300.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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CSCI 4030 - Randomized Algorithms
State-of-the-art in contemporary algorithm design, randomized algorithms are algorithms that use randomness as part of their functioning. They are typically simple, often easy to analyze, and work well in practice. They have numerous applications in many fields of computer science and mathematics. Randomized algorithms represent an active and vibrant research area with many exciting new results contributed every year. Students cannot receive credit for both CSCI 4030 and CSCI 6220.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: CSCI 4020 or equivalent.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Cross Listed: CSCI 6220.
Credit Hours: 4
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CSCI 4040 - Approximation Algorithms
Algorithms with provable guarantees on the quality of their solutions are a powerful way of dealing with intractable problems. This course covers fundamental techniques for designing approximation algorithms. Possible topics include: semi-definite and linear programming, inapproximability and the PCP theorem, randomized rounding, metrics and cuts, primal-dual methods, and online algorithms. Students cannot receive credit for both CSCI 4040 and CSCI 6040.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: CSCI 4020 or permission of instructor.
When Offered: Fall term odd-numbered years.
Cross Listed: CSCI 6040.
Credit Hours: 4
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CSCI 4050 - Computability and Complexity
This course discusses concepts of languages defined by formal grammars, Turing machines and rewriting systems, computability, Church-Turing thesis, decidable and undecidable problems, computational complexity, polynomial reducibility, NP-completeness, and Cook’s theorem. Students cannot receive credit for both CSCI 4050 and CSCI 6050.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: CSCI 2300.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Cross Listed: CSCI 6050.
Credit Hours: 4
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CSCI 4100 - Machine Learning from Data
Introduction to the theory, algorithms, and applications of machine learning (supervised, reinforcement, and unsupervised) from data: What is learning? Is learning feasible? How can we do it? How can we do it well? The course offers a mix of theory, technique, and application with additional selected topics chosen from Pattern Recognition, Decision Trees, Neural Networks, RBF’s, Bayesian Learning, PAC Learning, Support Vector Machines, Gaussian processes, and Hidden Markov Models. Students cannot receive credit for both CSCI 4100 and CSCI 6100.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: CSCI 2300; an advanced 4000-level algorithms-based CSCI or MATH course; familiarity with probability, linear algebra, and calculus.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Cross Listed: CSCI 6100.
Credit Hours: 4
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CSCI 4110 - Computational Social Processes
Introduction to the computational and algorithmic aspects of social processes. Topics covered will be selected to illustrate the diverse challenges in algorithmic social process analysis: social networks and their dynamics; information flow; hidden networks. Algorithms involving social and selfish agents, social choice theory, voting, and auctions. Ranking actors in networks, recommendation systems, peer-review, and aggregation of rankings/reviews. Students cannot receive credit for both CSCI 4110 and CSCI 6110.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: CSCI 2300 and an advanced 4000-level algorithms-based CSCI or MATH course.
When Offered: Fall term even-numbered years, upon availability of instructor.
Cross Listed: CSCI 6110.
Credit Hours: 4
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CSCI 4120 - Computational Finance
Introduction to the computational and mathematical techniques for practical financial applications. The course will emphasize the algorithmic side of finance. Topics will be selected from pricing (options and derivatives), trading, risk-evaluation, selfish agents, sequential decisions, and portfolio optimization. Examples of the mathematical and algorithmic techniques covered are martingale measures, risk-neutral pricing and Monte Carlo, dynamic programing, and stochastic processes. Students cannot receive credit for both CSCI 4120 and CSCI 6120.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: CSCI 2300; an advanced 4000-level algorithms-based CSCI or MATH course; familiarity with probability, linear algebra, and calculus.
When Offered: Fall term even-numbered years, upon availability of instructor.
Cross Listed: CSCI 6120.
Credit Hours: 4
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CSCI 4130 - Natural Language Processing
This course introduces state-of-the-art Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods, covering major popular research topics via the most-cited and up-to-date papers for each topic, as well as other resources. This course also covers machine learning methods for NLP. Students implement some of these methods and apply machine learning toolkits to solve a variety of problems. Assignments incorporate linguistics, mathematics, and careful thinking. Students cannot receive credit for both CSCI 4130 and CSCI 6130.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: CSCI 2300 and MATH 2010.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Cross Listed: CSCI 6130.
Credit Hours: 4
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CSCI 4150 - Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
Topics and techniques of artificial intelligence using the language LISP. Topics include search, knowledge representation, expert systems, theorem proving, natural language interfaces, learning, game playing, and computer vision. Techniques include pattern matching, data-driven programming, substitution rules, frames, heuristic search, transition networks, neural networks, and evolutionary computation. Development of programming proficiency in LISP is emphasized.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisite: CSCI 2300.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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CSCI 4210 - Operating Systems
Discussion of various aspects of computer operating systems design and implementation. Topics include I/O programming, concurrent processes and synchronization problems, process management and scheduling of processes, virtual memory management, device management, file systems, deadlock problems, system calls, and interprocess communication. Programming projects are required. Students cannot receive credit for both CSCI 4210 and CSCI 6140.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: CSCI 2300 and either CSCI 2500 or ECSE 2660.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Cross Listed: CSCI 6140.
Credit Hours: 4
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CSCI 4220 - Network Programming
Programming with an overview of the principles of computer networks, including a detailed look at the OSI reference model and various popular network protocol suites. Concentration on Unix interprocess communication (IPC), network programming using TCP and UDP, as well as client-side and mobile programming. Programming projects are required.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: CSCI 2300 and CSCI 2500.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Credit Hours: 4
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CSCI 4230 - Cryptography and Network Security I
A self-contained course that includes topics from number theory, basic cryptography, and protocol security. This is a hybrid course with sufficient depth in both theory and hands-on experience with network protocols. Topics include: Classical Cryptography, Block Ciphers (DES, AES), Information Theoretical Cryptography, Randomness, RNG and Stream Ciphers, Hash and MAC Algorithms, Public-Key Cryptography, Elliptic Curve Cryptography, Digital Signatures and Identification, Internet Attacks, Web Security, SSL and PGP. Students cannot receive credit for both CSCI 4230 and CSCI 6230.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: CSCI 2300; also desirable is CSCI 4210 and CSCI 4220.
When Offered: Fall term annually.
Cross Listed: CSCI 6230.
Credit Hours: 4
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CSCI 4240 - Cryptography and Network Security II
A course covering advanced security topics with depth both in theory and hands-on exercises. Topics include: Probabilistic Encryption, Deniable Cryptography, Hardcore Predicates, All-or-Nothing Encryption, Secret Sharing, Subliminal/Covert Channels, Mental Poker, Goldwasser-Micali and Blum-Goldwasser Cryptosystems, Paillier PKC and Homomorphism, Elliptic Curve Cryptography, and Blind Signatures and E-cash. Students cannot receive credit for both CSCI 4240 and CSCI 6240.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: CSCI 4230/6230; ECSE 4670 or CSCI 4220 or permission of instructor; also desirable is CSCI 4210.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Cross Listed: CSCI 6240.
Credit Hours: 4
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CSCI 4250 - Frontiers of Network Science
This course will offer an introduction to network science and a review of current research in this area. Classes will interchangeably present chapters from the textbook and related current research. The emphasis will be on the mathematical background of network science: graphs and networks; random networks and various types of scale-free networks; network properties such as assortativity, mobility, robustness, social networks, and communities; and dynamics of spreading in networks. Students cannot receive credit for both CSCI 4250 and CSCI 6250.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: CSCI 2300; a 4000-level algorithms-based CSCI course (e.g., 4020, 4050, 4260, 4800) or MATH course (e.g., 4100, 4150, 4210, 4800); familiarity with probability, linear algebra, and calculus; or permission of the instructor.
When Offered: Fall term odd-numbered years.
Cross Listed: CSCI 6250.
Credit Hours: 4
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CSCI 4260 - Graph Theory
Fundamental concepts and methods of graph theory and its applications to computing and the social and natural sciences. Topics include graphs as models, representation of graphs, trees, distances, matchings, connectivity, flows in networks, graph colorings, Hamiltonian cycles, traveling salesman problem, planarity. All concepts, methods, and applications are presented through a sequence of exercises and problems, many of which are done with the help of novel software systems for combinatorial computing. Students cannot receive credit for both CSCI 4260 and MATH 4150.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Prerequisites: CSCI 1100 and CSCI 2200.
When Offered: Spring term annually.
Cross Listed: MATH 4150.
Credit Hours: 4
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