The major in human-computer interaction is offered jointly by the Department of Psychology, 301 Smith Hall and the Department of Computer and Information Science, Room 4400 Guttenberg Information Technologies Center, New Jersey Institute of Technology, pending formal approval.

Human-computer interaction (HCI) combines disciplines within the fields of computing and information sciences (information systems, software engineering, artificial intelligence) and the behavioral sciences (cognitive science, cognitive psychology, sociology, organizational psychology, and social psychology) to study the design, implementation, and evaluation of interactive computer-based technology. The main purpose of this field is to understand the nature of human-computer interaction and the constraints on design of such systems from understanding perceptual and cognitive aspects of humans. Examples of HCI products include intelligent tutoring systems, wearable computers, and highly interactive web applications.

The bachelor of science in human-computer interaction, a joint-degree program with NJIT, provides the student with the necessary background to conduct design activities, including eliciting from the client, formulating, and artic-ulating functional specifications; knowing how human factors and cognitive models should inform design; knowing the principles of, and having experience with, com-munication design; understanding how implementation constraints should inform design; and incorporating eval-uation results into iterated designs.

Students implement their design knowledge by using their analysis and programming skills and demonstrating their computational literacy, i.e., knowledge sufficient for effective communication and decision making about interface construction tools and languages, multimedia author-ing tools, data structures and algorithms, and systems development. They also become proficient in evaluation activities, including experimental design, survey methods, usability testing, and statistical analysis. The program includes the following specialty areas, which consist of four courses each: learning systems, human systems, applications development, publishing and multimedia communications, networks, the web, and other tailored specialty areas of computer applications.