<aside> š Stephanie is a senior majoring in Information Systems and HCI. She is also one of the two students pursuing an accelerated master's degree in HCI. Outside of school work, Stephanie is a brunch craver, all-time "speed walker," aspiring bookworm, and the co-president of UXA.
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I was very fortunate to have the option to choose between a job offer and the AMHCI program. It was initially a hard decision for me, but I realized that was still so much I wanted to learn and explore. ****
I was mainly drawn to the AMHCI capstone project, in which Iām currently gaining invaluable professional experience through working on a project for a client for 8 months with a group of 5 other Rockstar HCI students. In addition, during the fall semester, I could also explore various areas of interest that I couldnāt during undergrad.
The HCII has an emphasis on process and students are well-versed in it. Given this, I was struggling between pursuing a career in research or design. If I went into industry, I wouldāve been primarily a designer but through AMHCI Iāve been able to immerse myself in both domains.
AMHCI students do the MHCI Capstone project instead of the BHCI one.
The main difference is theĀ timeline. TheĀ MHCI capstone lasts for two semesters, from spring to summer, which gives meĀ more time to develop our project. We spend the spring semester researching and developing concepts and can continue researching through the summer but honing in on design more.
The undergraduate capstone project, in comparison, is more of a time crunch as it is one semester-long. Students have to conduct research, create high-fi prototypes, and implement their designs within a semester.
Plus, there areĀ lots of resources from MHCI capstoneĀ that are super helpful. For example, we have guest lectures across various domains in HCI and often have critique sessions with adjunct instructors and other teams. These crits are great learning opportunities and often raise intriguing questions about our project.
Regardless of these differences, there are a lot of growth opportunities and value gained across both the BHCI and MHCI Capstone.
I havenāt really thought about it that way. It feels surreal if this is the right word... many of my friends are graduating, but Iām going to staying here. Since Iām staying at CMU and was already in HCI, it didnāt feel very different. I get to be a part of the HCI community (which I love) for a bit longer and be involved in UXA as well!