Human-Computer Interaction Institute
Capstone Programs
Master of Educational Technology and Applied Learning Sciences (METALS)
January–August
Sponsorship Fee: $80,000, 4-6 students per team
(Discounts available for qualifying start-ups and nonprofits.)
Our graduates answer CMU professor and Nobel Laureate Herb Simon’s observation that “improvement in education will require converting teaching from a solo sport to a community-based research activity.” To that end, the one-year, interdisciplinary METALS program trains graduate students to become learning engineers and learning experience (LX) designers. METALS graduates apply learning science principles, evidence-based research, qualitative and quantitative cognitive task analysis, and data-driven methods to design, develop and implement innovative, effective and desirable educational solutions that enable students and instructors to succeed. Our students are passionate about using technology to develop better learning outcomes.
External clients are invited to sponsor a seven-month educational technology capstone project. In a project for the sponsor and guided by industry, faculty and alumni mentors, project teams of four to six students employ evidence-based principles and methods and advanced learning science technologies in a full product cycle starting with an initial idea and iterating through research, design and prototyping.
More information can be found on the METALS website.
Previous Projects Include
- An immersive second language learning system that incorporates AI, ML and speech recognition.
- An award-winning job-shadowing application that was showcased at the White House.
- A tool for incorporating SEL in K3 students’ instructional activities.
- An app store for professional development with a recommendation engine for what to do next.
Program Lead
Master of Human-Computer Interaction (MHCI)
January–August
Sponsorship Fee: $85,000 (for corporations with discounts available for repeat sponsorship and early contracting); $40,000 (for early stage/start-up.); No fee (for nonprofit organizations with a 501c designation.)
The Master of Human-Computer Interaction (MHCI) program is the longest-running and most impactful program of its kind. This three-semester program, completed over the course of a full calendar year, offers a professional degree that includes user-centered research, iterative designs and product development experience. Students are prepared for industry and careers related to user experience, human-computer interaction and beyond.
The two-semester MHCI Capstone project is the crown jewel of this program and is known for attracting industry sponsors such as NASA, Bloomberg, Google, Bank of America, Mastercard, Amazon Music, Nationwide and many others. The sponsoring organization will define a prompt for the project and then collaborate with a team of four to six MHCI students who will rigorously apply HCI methods through the full lifecycle of research, design, validation, prototyping and testing in order to reframe problems and develop innovative solutions. Over 200 projects have been completed for sponsors.
Industry partners can expect:
- A prototype at various levels of fidelity that can be used to convey the experience of using the design.
- A detailed report with an executive summary.
- A public-facing website that describes the project without revealing confidential information.
- A presentation to which the sponsor can invite attendees from within and outside of their organization.
Previous Projects Include
- How visually impaired customers could make sense of their data by delivering through audio.
- How audio output hardware could be situated in interactions between drivers and AI in vehicles with different levels of autonomy.
- How devices made for electrical power management and national power grids could be repurposed for natural emergencies that disable energy and communication infrastructure.
- Before conversational agents were available to consumers, a MHCI Capstone worked on a project to design, prototype and test an agent embodied in a smart speaker. The resulting project influenced the design and development of a conversational agent the sponsor delivered to the market several years later.
Program information and project examples can be found on the MHCI website.
Program Leads
Master of Science in Product Management (MSPM)
April–December
Sponsorship Fee: $10,000 or less, depending on the size of the company
CMU's award-winning M.S. in Product Management (MSPM) is one-of-a-kind. This program is offered jointly through CMU’s top-ranked Tepper School of Business and School of Computer Science. With MSPM, we combine the best of both schools to produce product managers who empathize with customers, lead cross-functional teams and deliver business results.
MSPM student projects often start with open-ended exploration of a product problem, market or user journeys. We explore the unmet needs of users, customers and business stakeholders to test and deliver product strategies, models, prototypes and research. Our goal is to deliver meaningful, usable value to our sponsors.
Program Lead
Rapid Prototyping of Computer Systems
January–May (spring semester)
Sponsorship Fee: $10,000 per team, 30-40 students
The Rapid Prototyping of Computer Systems capstone aims to teach students to build complex, product-service systems. Working on project teams of 20-30 students split among multiple subteams, the course is unique in having students integrate mechanical and electrical, hardware, software, human-computer interaction design, sensing systems, cloud infrastructure, and data science together into functional prototypes. The class brings together students from across the university (with heavy representation from electrical and computer engineering, computer science, and human-computer interaction) to create a multifunctional team. Past projects have included developing hardware, software, and wearable human interfaces for augmented reality inspection systems; wearable and internet of things devices to support people living with Parkinsons, Alzheimers and Huntington’s disease; and mobile data sensor systems for cars and scooters to evaluate mobility issues within a city.
Sponsors provide a brief for a product-service system they would like to see prototyped. Student teams then conceptualize new design ideas, rapidly prototype subsystems, then integrate their subsystems into a functional final demonstration. Ideal sponsors will provide a liaison who can attend one project kickoff day and three project reviews. Liaisons can also provide professional knowledge and connections to potential users of the systems.
Program Leads