C+I Summer 2021 Interdisciplinary Courses
Course number: ENGE 2094
CRN: 64799
Taught in: Summer I
Course meeting time: MTWHF 9:30-10:45 a.m.
Course delivery format: Online-Synchronous
Course cap: 40
C+I Partner: ENGE
Course description: Students from all disciplines welcome! Are you interested in art, science, engineering, business, and design? Learn about how all of these areas can be combined to create real world products and services, all while working with faculty, visiting artists, business professionals, and your peers. In this class, we engage in activities and discussions to learn processes of ideation, design, and customer discovery. Working in an interdisciplinary team, you can pursue your own interests to design innovative solutions to meet current and future market needs. Meets Pathways Requirement 6d.
Course instructor: Ben Chambers
Instructor email: bdc0112@vt.edu
Ben Chambers is an Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. He is an interdisciplinary scholar with three degrees from Virginia Tech, including an MS Civil Infrastructure Engineering, MS Entomology, and a PhD in Environmental Design and Planning as part of the BioBuild Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program. Ben also has professional experience in utility-scale wind power development. His educational research interests include student creativity and expression, as well as the built environment as an educational tool for engineering, biology, and ecology. He is also interested in animal interactions with buildings, particularly overwintering stink bugs.
Course number: ID 1114
CRN: 64791
Credit hours: 3
Taught in: Summer I
Course meeting time: MTWHF 3:20-4:45 p.m.
Course delivery format: Online-Synchronous
Course cap: 24
C+I Partner: CAUS/ID
Course description: Welcome to a creative sandbox like no other! Play2Make will expose you to inclusive play with a variety of artistic media that leverages technology. You will brainstorm ideas, tinker with materials and technologies, and embrace alternative and diverse worldviews in order to produce intentional, creative work both individually and through successful collaboration. This course is particularly appropriate for incoming freshmen who are interested in exploring creative uses of technology through arts and design and who may have not yet decided their area of study. It is also an exciting way for existing students to complement their studies with elements of arts, design, and technology.
Course instructor: Tacie Jones
Instructor email: tnjones@vt.edu
Tacie Jones employs a mash-up of creative tech and analog art forms in her work. She’s traversed the metropolitan to rural regions of the U.S., abroad to Scotland, and back applying her background in studio art and community engagement to find connections between creativity and resilience. Tacie has exhibited work both nationally and internationally in Baltimore, MD; New Orleans, LA; Chicago, IL; New York, NY; Australia; and South Korea, among other places. She is happy to have landed in the diverse Virginia Tech community where she is completing an interdisciplinary PhD in Human-Centered Design.
Course number: UH 2984
CRN: 64811
Credit hours: 3
Taught in: Summer II
Course meeting time: MTWHF 9:30-10:30 a.m.
Course delivery format: Online-Synchronous
Course cap: 19
C+I Partners: English and Honors College
Course description: Introduction to Podcasting helps students make great content for a growing audience in a booming industry. You’ll break down successful podcasts to analyze what makes them tick, then develop and create your own shows with guidance from instructors who have years of real world experience hosting and producing podcasts. We’ll cover everything from coming up with intriguing concepts to editing high quality audio, all in a laid back environment where curiosity and play drive our discussions and creations. From free-flowing conversations about beloved movies to audio essays on your favorite topics, Introduction to Podcasting gives you a unique chance to turn your ideas and talent into something people will love.
Course instructor: Rob Hooper
Rob Hooper earned an MFA in fiction from Virginia Tech, where he has taught writing since 2015. He haphazardly runs Low-Effort Content, where he makes podcasts with family and friends to celebrate life with curiosity, creativity, and compassion. Kind of.
Course instructor: Joe Truscello
Joe Truscello is the assistant director of creative writing at Virginia Tech.
Course number: ID 1114
CRN: 64454
Credit hours: 3
Taught in: Summer II
Course meeting time: TW 5:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. H 9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Course delivery format: Hybrid
Course cap: 24
C+I Partner: CAUS/ID
Course description: Play to Make is the introduction course to the Design Tech Pathways minor. It is open to all students in the university, regardless of whether they plan to pursue the minor. This course provides a unique opportunity to develop a transdisciplinary collaborative project at the nexus of art, science, engineering, and human experience. Throughout the course students will be asked to engage in a range of creative and intellectual modes of practice including; design research, creative ideation, hands on making of prototypes, critique and documentation. Although the work will be rigorous it is also expected to be experimental, inclusive and playful in nature, the main goal will be the production of thoughtful critical ideas manifested in built form and representation thereof as collaborative work. Key to success in this course will be one's ability to work collectively, experimentally.
Course instructor: Jonas Hauptman
Instructor email: jonasah@vt.edu
Jonas Hauptman’s work is focused on fundamentally reshaping the ways that we design and manufacture products and buildings. His work intertwines novel digital technologies with lightweight, biological and bio-inspired materials toward intelligent responses to human needs that generate net positive ecological impacts. His current research focuses largely on rethinking building with bamboo, he has integrated his research discovery with student learning and service to higher education and the broader community. His collaborations have gained the attention of nationally published design press and contributed to the discourse on varied forms of practice, sustainable design and design ethics within both the School and the design community. Hauptman has also been the co-founder of multiple startup companies including Seeyond which was acquired by 3Form. In 2019 his recent co-authored research was recognized as runner up, Autodesk ACADIA Emerging Research Award for work supported by the American Institute of Architecture’s 2018 prestigious Upjohn Award.
Course number: UH 2984
CRN: 64812
Credit hours: 3
Taught in: Summer II
Course meeting time: MTWHF 11:00 a.m.-noon
Course delivery format: Online-Synchronous
Course cap: 25
C+I Partner: Honors College
Course description: Reimagining diVersiTy is a transdisciplinary course that will help students engage in a critical reframing of traditional approaches to diversity. Using decolonial and technological frameworks, the course will address the shortcomings of current diversity initiatives, including those in higher education. We will begin with an historical overview of marginalization and minoritization, then consider key questions, issues, and debates about diversity as it is currently understood, and finally explore technological responses to discrimination based on race, gender, ability, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and other intersecting identities. Students will engage with concepts such as intersectionality and examine how technology can be deployed in ways that can cause harm but, more importantly, in ways that promote justice. Learn more about Reimagining diVersiTy.
Course instructor: Andrea Baldwin
Instructor email: andreanb@vt.edu
Andrea N. Baldwin, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology. Her area of concentration is black feminism, women, gender, and Africana studies. She will be responsible for overseeing the intersectional component of the class and for examining materials that critique contemporary diversity and inclusion practices.
Course instructor: Todd Ogle
Instructor email: jogle@vt.edu
Todd Ogle is the Executive Director of the Applied Research in Immersive Experiences and Simulations (ARIES) Program in the University Libraries and an associate director of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech. He holds affiliate assistant professorships in the Virginia Tech School of Education and Department of Computer Science. His research focuses on scaffolding learning performance in immersive learning experiences across disciplines.
Course instructor: Rafael Patrick
Instructor email: rncp@vt.edu
Rafael N.C. Patrick, Assistant Professor in the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, with a focus on Human Factors Psychology and Engineering. He will be responsible for designing and overseeing the experimental design aspects of the course. In addition, alongside Dr. Todd Ogle, he will provide a brief overview of how to conduct human-computer interaction (HCI) research with the immersive environment using human subject testing methods.