Integrative Design, Arts and Technology (IDeATe)

The IDeATe network offers Carnegie Mellon students the opportunity to become immersed in a collaborative community of faculty and peers who share expertise, experience, and passions at the intersection of arts and technology. Students will engage in active "learning by doing" in the IDeATe labs and classrooms based in Hunt Library. The program addresses current and emerging real-world challenges that require disciplinary expertise coupled with multidisciplinary perspectives and collaborative integrative approaches.

The IDeATe undergraduate curriculum consists of 10 interrelated areas, all of which can be shaped into minors that students pursue alongside their primary majors. The themes of these areas integrate knowledge in technology and arts:

  • Game Design: Design compelling game experiences, and enhance your knowledge of key components of game design such as systems and mechanics, dramatic narrative and character development, programming and engine development, user testing and iterative development. Create games for a variety of audiences, including mobile applications, virtual reality platforms and even tabletop games.
  • Animation & Special Effects: Explore the technical and artistic aspects of 3D and 2D animation in an integrated manner within different application contexts (from film animation and special effects to interactive displays).
  • Media Design: Learn to design digitally mediated experiences across different platforms, from mobile apps to large-scale installations, and for varied applications (from media for daily living to mediated performances).
  • Design for Learning: Explore the art and science of designing engaging learning experiences that creatively merge technology, learning sciences, and media arts know-how. Create inclusive learning media experiences ranging from mobile games to interactive museum exhibits, augmented classrooms, and adaptive ed-tech.
  • Sonic Arts: Create experimental music and explore emerging applications and markets for sound design, music creation, and performance.
  • Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Work collaboratively in hands-on explorations of the problems, opportunities, strategies and circumstances that lead to innovations. You will experience integrated models of innovation that increase the likelihood of successful products and services that bring value to society and/or the marketplace. 
  • Intelligent Environments: Design and implement interactive 3D spaces -- both physical and virtual -- that shape our experience of time and space.
  • Physical Computing: Build interactive devices combining small programmable electronic controllers with physical embodiments, adding on-board processing and reactivity to nearly anything around you. Create novel games, useful devices, experimental provocations, and more.
  • Soft Technologies: Weave together a rich set of traditions and experimental techniques to animate soft materials and matter.
  • Immersive Technologies in Arts & Culture: Blend technological skills with creative imagination and critical humanistic practice.

For more information, visit the IDeATe website.