MDes for Human-Computer Interaction + Emerging Technology

The Master of Design (MDes) for Human-Computer Interaction and Emerging Technology program is a two-year, STEM-designated, terminal professional graduate degree. The MDes offers a uniquely interdisciplinary approach to digital product design built on strengths in visual, interactive, social, and systems design in the Sam Fox School, technical development for emerging technology in the McKelvey School of Engineering, historical and critical research methodologies about technology in Arts & Sciences, and entrepreneurial leadership in the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The MDes prepares students to lead in emerging design challenges impacting every industrial sector. Students will design socially innovative digital products, experiences, and interfaces that ensure productive, delightful, and sustainable interactions with — and through — technology.

The curriculum is a 60-credit, four-semester, full-time, on-campus program. While the design discipline has no professional licensure, this curriculum aligns with other terminal degrees in design, allowing graduates to pursue entry-level academic positions. Students will take 15 credits per semester across design, engineering, emerging technology, history, media, and business.

Our faculty are practicing artists and designers who engage in projects internationally, nationally, and regionally. They exhibit their work in museums, galleries, and other venues. They engage a variety of audiences, receive critical review in periodicals, publish their own writing, and produce documentaries. Others produce site-specific performances and lead community-based programs. Their range of creative practice spans conceptual and media territories that include art and social practice; propaganda and print media; figurative painting; and cinematic, time-based work including sound and digital film-making, book arts, and large-scale sculptural installations. Students often have the opportunity to assist faculty members with studio-based work and research that addresses timely and relevant topics, including race, global politics, the environment, art and science, evolving technologies, social justice, and materials culture and studies.

For further information, please visit the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts website:

• MDes Faculty

Master of Design for Human-Computer Interaction + Emerging Technology

The Graduate School of Art subscribes to the standards for the MDes degree as set forth by the College Art Association of America (CAA) and the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).

The residence requirement for the MDes degree is at least two academic years of full-time study (minimum of 15 credits each semester). Students have three calendar years from the date of first registration to complete the degree.

The MDes for HCI and Emerging Technology program combines studio work in design and engineering studios with the academic study of history, entrepreneurship, and critical and ethical methods. Individual programs of study are arranged with faculty advisors according to the student's area of interest. 

In addition to individual projects and studies, students will complete a robust collaborative design project. Their studies will culminate with a public defense of this work.

The breakdown of credits is as follows:

The two-year program may be organized as follows: 

• Art and design electives introduce students to the intellectual and conceptual issues and production methods of a broad array of practices that complement and expand the student's studio practice. 
• Elective courses taken inside or outside the College of Art must be at the 3000 level or above to count as graduate-level credit and require approval by the student's academic advisor (program chair) in advance of registration.
• Students may not register for courses offered by WashU Continuing & Professional Studies.