Course Updates - Regular Studies

Students explore the interdisciplinary field of Environmental Science. They investigate the causes and impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, land-use change, and human–environment relationships using evidence from a multidisciplinary perspective. Students also learn about coupled human–environment systems, global Indigeneity and land-based peoples, and diverse frameworks for understanding sustainability.

Collaboration between design and development is essential to the successful development of a data-driven web platform. In teams, students create a web application to address a real-world problem while applying project management principles and tools. Throughout the project, students demonstrate the integration of technical skills, knowledge, professional competencies, and development strategies. They research, document, plan, design, develop, outline AI use, test, and demonstrate their live application to an audience.

In teams, students design and develop a mobile application to address a real-world problem. To complete the project, they draw on skills learned throughout the program, demonstrating professional competencies in collaboration, communication, and project management, as well as technical abilities and knowledge, and execution strategies for design and development. The teams research, document, plan, design, develop, outline AI use, test, and finally, demonstrate their live mobile application to an industry audience.

User Experience (UX) on the web extends far beyond the desktop experience through responsive, connected interfaces across all areas of our digitally-enhanced lives. Students research and create user flows, journey maps, and wireframes for responsive, data- driven, web-based connected technologies. They empathize with users and focus on product goals to identify browser limitations and pain points and iterate on designs.

Motion graphics, animation, video, and audio bring life and energy to branding, promotion, and digital applications, providing important complementary support to a User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design strategy. Students create compelling animated assets, enhance their designs with movement, and integrate various forms of media into potent and unforgettable digital experiences for users.

Students unlock the power of design systems and brand strategy to build scalable, consistent, and accessible interfaces that meet professional standards and delight users. Through hands-on projects, they create robust component libraries, integrate usability practices, and prototype high-fidelity interfaces. Beyond User Interface (UI), students define brand identity and messaging, crafting style guidelines and UI kits to deliver a unified brand experience across platforms while strengthening skills in system architecture, collaboration, and cross-functional workflows.

Aesthetics, branding and identity, content, and modern interface appeal are crucial to User Interface (UI) design and to an engaging, professional design portfolio. Students select and display viable group and individual design projects for their digital portfolios, highlighting web, mobile, and immersive digital designs. They research and identify applicable visual palettes, dynamic interface elements, visual assets, and mobile-centric UI for mobile and connected interfaces.

The integration of mobile User Experience (UX) into all aspects of daily life, from the home to the workplace, continues to expand through wearables and emerging connected technologies. To enhance motivation, engagement, and interaction within mobile and connected experiences, students apply research to create user flows, wireframes, and prototypes while examining opportunities for gamification and playful interaction across devices. While empathizing with users and focusing on product goals and pain points, students identify opportunities for scalability and gamification to optimize interfaces and create intuitive, compelling digital products.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), User Experience (UX), and User Interface (UI) design have become essential components of the connected, digital technologies shaping our world. Through hands-on projects, students explore, experiment with, and test the ethical dimensions of creating interfaces using AI models. They prioritize fairness, transparency, and user trust, while accounting for bias and social impact.

New and innovative design tools, software, hardware, AI tools, trends, and connected technologies can optimize and enhance our workflow in web and mobile design. Students identify which tools, User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) trends, and connected technologies will be effective in the design process while also delivering a user-focused product. They learn to research, compare, and integrate emerging technologies into a digital platform.

Managing data effectively is critical for building intelligent applications in today’s cloud-driven world. Students examine how modern cloud and AI applications manage and retrieve data at scale. They implement strategies for integrating relational databases, document stores, caching systems, and vector databases to design hybrid architectures that enable intelligent retrieval, semantic search, and AI-driven services. 

HTML and CSS provide the basic building blocks to create web interfaces, but to create truly engaging, modern interfaces, developers need the most cutting-edge frameworks and APIs. Students leverage emerging libraries, APIs, and the newest CSS features to design and build front-end web interfaces that provide slick, low-friction experiences for users. Students advance their development skills using innovative AI-powered environments and tools.

Mobile devices have changed the world and transformed our lives; they mediate our social activities, work, entertainment, and connection with each other. Mobile developers therefore have the responsibility to imagine and create front-end applications for users that are not only engaging and fulfilling, but secure, safe, and practical. Students learn contemporary, cutting-edge technologies to create maximally-capable, AI-enabled mobile applications.

Developers need strong skills in software and system security to design, deploy, and secure cloud-based applications with an emphasis on modern AI-enabled systems. Students develop practical experience with Linux and shell scripting, cloud infrastructure concepts, and multi-tier application architectures. They also acquire core security principles, including authentication and authorization, encryption, and application and API security. Through hands-on labs and a comprehensive project, students learn how to build scalable, secure cloud environments suitable for contemporary software and AI-driven applications.

Learning to integrate modern AI tools responsibly is critical because AI doesn't merely execute instructions-, it influences people, decisions, and society at scale. Through a hands-on, systems-focused approach, students explore neural networks, large language models, embeddings, generative AI, and multi-modal agentic systems. Emphasizing practical application over formal mathematics, students learn to build, deploy, and evaluate AI systems while critically reflecting on ethical, societal, and real-world implications. Project work enables them to design AI-powered solutions, integrate multiple AI components, and assess the impact of AI technologies responsibly.

​​As AI shifts from a standalone feature to the core of application architecture, developers must be capable of handling "non-deterministic" software. Using a radar-first approach and focusing on the metacognition of AI development (the professional ability to identify, vet, and integrate rapidly emerging technologies), students develop frameworks for tracking the bleeding edge of hardware and model architectures. Through activities such as invited guest speakers, developer logs, and technical prototypes, students explore the orchestration of autonomous workflows and the communication strategies required to defend "unproven" technical choices to stakeholders and the local tech community. ​