M. Sc. Program in User Interface Software Development

News

Application deadline for new students in 2011 will be 1st of February. Please see the Admissions website of the University of Tampere for the application forms and instructions. And the Admissions page by the Faculty of Information Sciences for further information.

Description

The goal of the program is to deepen the students' knowledge of computer science and especially software development with regards to human-computer interaction. The aim is to give students a solid basis for working in the fields of product development and research in positions that include designing and implementation of user interfaces. In addition, the program provides students with skills needed for studying human-computer interaction from a constructive perspective.

After graduation, students in the M.Sc. Program in User Interface Software Development can work as software engineers or in tasks requiring the design and implementation of user interfaces, or they can become researchers in companies or university research projects that examine the interaction between human beings and the computer and develop innovative solutions to different kinds of problems concerning user interfaces. Attention is paid in particular to becoming familiar with new interaction techniques and the implementation of user interfaces based on them.

Each student is able to specialise in different topics by choosing advanced courses in Interactive Technology and Computer Science that belong to the M.Sc. Program in User Interface Software Development. It is possible to specialise in topics such as New Learning Environments, Computer-aided Groupware, Software Agents, Speech Interfaces or different Interaction or Information Visualization Techniques. Human-Computer Interaction courses are also offered in the M.Sc. Programme in Interactive Technology, in which implementation skills are not emphasised.

In practice

The official word on what studying in the M.Sc. programs means is in the Curricula guide (aka. ECTS guide). Here the purpose is to give a short practical overview of what it all means for a student accepted in this M.Sc. program.

The ideal situation that we aim for in student selection is that the students have a bachelors degree that is equivalent to a Finnish bachelor's degree in the field of the M.Sc. Program. If this is the case, all that needs to be done is to do the studies that separate a Bachelor's degree from a Master's degree. This means 120 ETCS credits worth of studies in the major of the M.Sc. program (of which 40 ETCS credits is generated by the Master's thesis).

The following courses (or equivalent courses elsewhere) are prerequisites for the UISD program:

• Discrete Mathematics
• Data Structures
• Programming Technique
• Project Work
• Introduction to User Interfaces
• Principles of Programming Graphical User Interfaces

As it is sometimes impossible to finish all of these before starting the program, these prerequisites can be completed as part of the M.Sc. program. This means that the students without the prerequisites will end up doing some extra credit or taking fewer elective courses.

Because judging whether all prerequisites are satisfied can be difficult, a formal study plan will be made for each student in the beginning of the first term of studies in the M.Sc. program. The plan lists the courses that need to be taken. Once the plan has been approved, the ambiguity will be gone. The student can be certain of that by doing the work listed in the plan, he or she will get the Master's degree.

Personnel

Program Director: Raisamo, Roope, Professor

Student Advisor: Isokoski, Poika, Professor