LEARNING.
Curriculum.
Design Cultures & Creativity is a 2 year, 16 credit program. There are four DCC specific courses students must take (one each semester) beginning with a broad overview of how technology and society influence one another in the first semester and culminating in a capstone project of the students choosing at the conclusion of the program. Students are also required to take 2 Honors Seminars of their choosing during their 2 years in DCC as well as participate in a variety of workshops, lectures, film screenings, or working groups. Below is a brief overview of the courses.
Full description of program (pdf)
16 Credits over 2 years:
Year 1
Fall Semester: HDCC 105
2 credits
(Fulfills UNIV 100 requirement).
Spring Semester: HDCC 106
3 credits
(Fulfills Humanities General Education requirement).Year 2
Fall Semester - HDCC208
3 credits
(Fulfills Scholarship in Practice General Education requirement).Spring Semester - HDCC209
2 credits
(Fulfills Scholarship in Practice General Education requirement).Any Semester
2 Honors Seminars with HONR prefix.
(Most of these also fulfill a General Education requirement)Capstone.
The DCC Capstone Project is the culmination of 2 years of work in DCC. Students will spend the Spring Semester of their second year working on a project of their design that engages with DCC\'s curriculum, challenging students to think outside disciplinary boundaries, take creative risks, and approach problems from multiple perspectives. This project begins in the fall with students creating a proposal of their project similar to any proposal that they would write for a professional research grant they may apply for in the future.
Past Capstone Projects
Galya Oberman
EEGen Project, 2016The project aims to combine the worlds of neuroscience and art in an accessible, easy to understand, and relatively inexpensive way. It strives to allow even those with rudimentary knowledge of circuitry and programming to experience neuroscience in a new and exciting way through the derivation of open source material. By utilizing a homemade EEG circuit and program, brain waves are used to influence the generation of art which is displayed on this site in the form of videos and still images.
The project is composed of two main parts: the circuit and the program. The circuit retrieves brain wave voltages from the scalp and sends them through an Arduino into a dual monitor computer system, where one computer runs the prompt system and the other runs the art program.
The circuit is created using two electrodes, an amplifier, a DC bias, and an Arduino. The program is created using Processing, and is comprised of three parts: brain wave plotter, prompt system, and generative art output.
More about the project: https://theeegenproject.wordpress.com
Ben Graney Green
Soundware, 2016Soundware is a device worn over the head, encapsulating the listener in a sphere in which the only sound comes from the speakers mounted inside. Microphones outside pick up sound, send it through a computer for processing, and re-emit it through the speakers in real time to allow for live audio editing. It is effectively a forced meditation on the sounds in your environment.
Jacqueline Chen
Rubygirl, 2015Rubygirl is an interactive, animated superhero comic featuring Ruby, Java, and Cici, a trio of girls named after popular programming languages. The girls fight against programming villains and gender inequality in their adventures, and the reader can help them by figuring out basic computer science logic problems. Rubygirl aims to inspire young girls in middle and high school to try out computer science and to encourage the idea that females can and should pursue STEM fields. It also hopes to bring awareness to the lack of diversity in computing.
To see the first chapter of the girls’ adventures through comic panels, animations, and interactive portions, please visit: http://linnytu.com/rubygirl
Muftiat Ogunsanya
You Are Not Alone, 2016
You Are Not Alone is a literary magazine being created in order to both raise awareness of the importance of mental health and mental illness. This magazine is a project created by college students for college students. The goal of this project is promote mental health, serve as a therapeutic outlet for college students, and reach out to college students who may be suffering in silence or feel as though they are alone.Read more about it here: https://www.arhu.umd.edu/news/you-are-not-alone-mental-health-literary-magazine
Information on UMD web accessibility: https://www.umd.edu/web-accessibility
