HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION

Key Faculty: Stephanie Guerlain, Greg Gerling, and Ellen Bass
URL: http://www.sys.virginia.edu/hci/

Area Description: The field of human computer interaction deals with the study, design, and evaluation of human-machine systems with an emphasis on human capabilities and limitations as they impact system operation. The goal of HCI and the human factors methodology is to optimize system performance while maximizing human safety and operational effectiveness. HCI expertise on a design team can improve the design process and lower the overall cost of a product. A product can be designed through trial and error, which is a lengthy and costly process, through the expert opinions of the designer, which is hampered by their own personal preferences, or by the application of human factors principles to the design.
Potential Courses:
ANTH 703Ethnography
APMA 643Statistics for Engineers and Scientists
BIOC 508Sequence Alignment
BIOM 620Application of Computers to Medicine
COMM 725Decision Support Systems
COMM 767Management of Information Systems
COMM 768Database Management Systems
COMM 769Advanced Systems Design
COMM 785Expert Systems
CS 551Adv. Modeling and Simulation
CS 645Computer Graphics
CS 650Designing Complex Software Systems
CS 651Safety-Critical Computing
CS 660Theory of Computation
CS 661Design and Analysis of Algorithms
CS 662Database Systems
CS 685Software Engineering
CS 851Forensic Software Engineering
EDIS 702Instructional Design
EVSC 796GIS Methods
EVSC 796Advanced GIS Methods
GBUS 828Information Resource Management
GBUS 884Innovation and Technology Management
GBUS 890Management Decision Models
HES 707Health Care Informatics
HES 721Quality Management Principles and Techniques
HES 742Information Resources and the Organization
PSYC 515Advanced Cognition
PSYC 544Cognitive Development
PSYC 583Cognitive Science
SYS 582Human Computer Interface
SYS 614Decision Analysis
SYS 616Knowledge-Based Systems
SYS 618 Data Mining
SYS 623Cognitive Systems Engineering
SYS 674Total Quality Engineering
SYS 681 Quantitative Models of Human Performance
SYS 702Case Studies in Systems Engineering
SYS 716Artificial Intelligence
SYS 721Research Methods in Systems Engineering
SYS 742Heuristic Search
SYS 752Sequential Decision Processes
SYS 775Forecast Decision Systems
Example Concentration Areas

A student interested in this field has the ability to customize his or her course selection to fit their concentration. Possible concentratons within HCI and Human Factors include Health Care and Software Development.

Job Opportunities

Possibilities include a wide range of jobs in web development, software development, consulting (hci firms), and quality assurance. Some sample jobs include user interface analyst, human factors engineer, human/cognitive systems engineer, software engineer, information architect, and many more. For more information and resources on job opportunities in the field of HCI and Human Factors go to the HCI Career Resources page.