Digital Media Design
Digital Media Design -- or DMD as we call it -- is a novel undergraduate program. Housed in the Computer and Information Science Department at the University of Pennsylvania, DMD is a direct outgrowth of twenty-five years of computer graphics research at Penn. Over the last decade, that research effort has been pursued under the banner of the Center for Human Modeling and Simulation. The great success of the Center is represented by its world class human modeling and animation software system Jack, which was spun out of the Center in a start up that eventually became part of EDS. The legacy of the Center's research, as well as the design of usable and useful interactive software, is a fantastic set of more than 60 PhD students and many other graduate students who have been influential in computer graphics around the world both as teachers and as technologists.
With the evolution of computer graphics hardware to a price-point that makes it a commodity, and with the emergence of computer game technology and the spectacular imagery done for movie special effects, it was time to move these concepts into the undergraduate curriculum. The DMD degree came online in 1998, and since then has grown and developed a community of students with unique technological and expressive perspectives. DMD students take significant coursework in Fine Arts and the Annenberg School of Communication, as well as their Computer Science courses in the Engineering School. They take the same courses as majors in each of these areas; they learn the essential skills and techniques appropriate to each area. The DMD community literally created itself: students with artistic skills but needing a handle on the technological underpinnings of web animation, game design, special effects, and visual communication.
Our DMD students are encouraged to work with the Center's graduate students in a novel partnership the crosses research experience with student mentorship. Already we have had two major conference publications done jointly between PhD students and undergraduates, and we intend to further strengthen this collaborative model. The combination of DMD students with the Center for Human Modeling and Simulation's research enterprise provides a natural synergy to energize the educational experience for all students. I look forward to all the exciting opportunities of this partnership and welcome you to join me in its realization.
Norm Badler, Director of HMS and DMD