<aside> 💡 Prof. Skip Shelly is the Director of Master Program in Human-Computer Interaction (MHCI).

</aside>

What class are you teaching this semester?

Digital Service Innovation 05-470.

What do you wish students to take from this class to their HCI careers?

Fearlessness, to push the limit of design technology and bring that to the future of UX industry.

From you as an educator perspective, how do you describe current HCI students at CMU?

The student body is so diverse, cognitively, culturally and academically, in just a right way.

Do you think there’s any opportunities at CMU that students in HCI should make use of but seldom do?

Yes. It actually took me three semesters to learn this when I was an undergrad at school of design. Let’s use a metaphor: CMU is not a fine dining, no one walks up to you, you have to find your table, and the server only points to the buffet. It is important that students catch the research opportunity at CMU, because HCII is the only place where you will find research faculties from so many disciplines. I really encourage students to reach out to us, even just asking a time for cup of coffee. We are always more than willing to chat about our research. For students, they can’t wait for being told what to do.

How do you describe a successful HCI education?

More of design activities, more process of making are turn into ready-made commodity. Our HCI education then pushes students to the fuzzy front end, to be comfortable with ambiguity.

What kind of character do you find 'outstanding/successful' HCI students have/share in common?

Students who do what they want to become successful. Unlike industries, at CMU, there is no real penalty as long as you learnt things from mistakes. CMU provide us to practice without risk, and successful students should really make use of that chance.

Could you give some tips for students who want to get in but don’t know how to prepare?

Do research about the HCI program, show your work, and let us know how you are candid. Imagine your essay be like an interface and we are users reading it, so be able to emphasize with us too. Also, don’t use template. we can smell that out since we’ve seen so many before.