The HCI major and minor require four 9-unit (or more) electives.

Beginning with the spring 2027 application period, students in the HCI Additional Major and Minor will be required to take at least two 05-xxx courses towards the HCI elective requirement.

All HCI courses with an 05 prefix are pre-approved as electives, as are courses on the list below. 

Undergraduate students in the HCI additional major or minor must submit requests for review through Stellic for any class that is not pre-approved. There are many other courses university-wide that may be accepted, provided that they have HCI-relevant content. 

The general rules on requesting approval for HCI electives are:

  1. They need to be HCI relevant and
  2. If offered in your primary major’s department they need to be 300-level or higher.

Submitting a request via Stellic  

  1. Logging into Stellic, you will see the Workflows approval process:
    1. From the Home menu, click “Track Progress” on the leftmost menu
    2. Click “Requests” tab view (all the way on right)
    3. Click “New Request”: “HCI Elective Exception” (this is the only option available)
    4. Click “Select Request Type”
    5. Click “Submit Request” (in blue) - this will open up a ‘Start Request’ window, where you will enter all the relevant course information. This window does not save progress, so please have the course name, number, units, description, and explanation ready.
  2. After you have submitted a request, you will receive a confirmation email.
  3. After a course has been reviewed and approved or rejected, you will be alerted via email.
  4. Records of all submitted course requests will be noted in the “Requests” tab in Stellic.
  5. You must submit a separate request for every course.

DO NOT request approval for any 05-xxx class or for any class on the list below which is a list of pre-approved electives for the HCI major and minor.  
 

Pre-approved Electives

Please remember that you CANNOT use a 200-level course from the list below if it is from your primary major department.

05-xxx: All HCI courses with an 05 prefix are pre-approved as electives. If you have questions about any HCI core course counting as an elective, please contact the Undergraduate Program Manager. Please remember that you CANNOT use a 200-level course from the list below if it is from your primary major department.

  • 10-301: Introduction to Machine Learning
  • 10-315: Introduction to Machine Learning (SCS Majors)
  • 11-411: Natural Language Processing
  • 15-390: Entrepreneurship for CS
  • 15-462: Computer Graphics
  • 16-264: Humanoids
  • 16-467: Introduction to Human Robot Interaction
  • 36-202: Methods for Statistics and Data Science
  • 36-309: Experimental Design in Behavioral and Social Sciences
  • 51-379: Spatial Interaction Design
  • 51-385: Designing Service Experiences
  • 51-831: Methodology of Visualization
  • 53-409: Game Design
  • 60-223: Introduction to Physical Computing
  • 70-311: Organizational Behavior
  • 70-415: Introduction to Entrepreneurship
  • 76-487: Information Architecture & Content Strategy
  • 85-110: Cognitive Psychology
  • 85-150: Social Psychology
  • 85-310: Research Methods in Cognitive Psychology
  • 85-412: Cognitive Modeling
  • 90-445: Social Entrepreneurship

If you have questions about any HCI core course counting as an elective, please contact the Undergraduate Program Manager.