AIMS Digital Innovation Center Opens San Fran to Design Students
The AIMS program, in which the graphic design program partners, is the leading undergraduate interactive and emerging media program in the country. The program in the only one to span the entire university, bringing expertise, faculty, facilities, and students from business, the arts, engineering, education, arts & science, and the libraries. We have built our program and reputation on trans-disciplinary, experientially-grounded curriculum that weaves theory and practice to help develop the new liberal arts for the 21st century. Whether it is our immersive VR CAVE, our Usability Center’s eye-tracking lab, our rapid prototyping lab, our visualization wall, our games & learning lab, or our digital development classroom, AIMS students have always had a learning environment that represented the bleeding edge of emerging media. But, as we all know, context matters. We wanted to create an opportunity for our students understand what drives digital innovation; that it is more than emerging technology – it is emerging behaviors, emerging communities, and emerging opportunities. This means thinking outside the classroom. Yes, we have always thought outside the classroom. From our digital agency-style capstone class that has done client projects since 1996 to our games courses and their work with gamification for clients. But we needed to think further outside the classroom. Further. Innovation requires a petri dish. And while the Bay Area isn’t the only innovation petri dish, it is worth noting how many cities have penned themselves “the silicon valley of XYZ,” but failed at meeting the aspiration. There is something about the Bay Area.
This Spring Semester, Miami students will spend most of the week in internships, part of the week processing and talking about their internship experience, and part of the week meeting with and hearing from the leading experts and rising stars of digital innovation. AIMS is looking forward to many years in San Francisco – building a presence and a bridge from Oxford.
If you want to find out more about the AIMS presence in San Francisco or want to apply, please take a look at our microsite for the AIMS Digital Innovation Center.
