MSc in Human-Computer Interaction

Human-Computer Interaction aims at investigating people and their actions as a starting point for the purposes of technology design. It provides an effective approach to address the many challenges (public engagement, participation, privacy, emotion) currently faced by computer sciences.

The ultimate goal of the Master is to train a new generation of researchers and professionals, who can understand the complexity of human cognition, behavior, and emotion at a micro-meso- and macro-level and are able to embed this knowledge in new computing artifacts and technologies matching the most diverse human values, interests and needs.

About the Master in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

The Master aims at training professional figures and researchers with a wide range of multidisciplinary skills to understand, design, and evaluate new interaction possibilities between human beings and IT devices.

The Master is structured into three specialization areas:

• Social-cognitive area: brain/mind interaction and cognitive ties;
• Computer science area: user-interfaces; user-centered design; participatory design; human-machine interaction; prototyping of interactive systems, affective computing, e-learning;
• Methodological area: qualitative and quantitative methodologies; visual, ethic, and epistemological planning.

Specific learning outcomes are:

• Acquaintance with simulation, observation, and experimental methods in the study of the interaction between human beings and complex systems;
• Ability to plan a user-centered design of user interfaces;
• Theoretical and practical knowledge of communication and decision-making processes;
• Secure knowledge of quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis;
• Capability to analyze decision-making processes, at an individual and collective level, in organizational, economic, and social contexts;
• Capability to autonomously carry out basic and applied research activity.

By virtue of its interdepartmental nature, the course:

• Offers an integrated program that allows students to pursue their own research interests in an interdisciplinary research environment;
• Fosters the development of research skills in areas that several departments are concerned with;
• Provides specialized skills that are not included in traditional degree courses.