Year 2

In year 2, you will be fully equiped with a lot of basic skills in various disciplines from the first year. With this skill set, you will specialize in the second year and follow some more in-depth courses. Towards the end of the year, you will have acquired knowledge and skills in many different disciplines, technical as well as human centered interaction design. 

  • Module 5: Specialization

    This module is an elective module: you get to choose between the module Smart Technology and the module Interactive Media. The subjects in these two sub-modules vary, but both will offer you fundamental knowledge of tools you will frequently use when you carry out your profession. 

    Module 5: Interactive Media 

    Interactive media in general allow a person to control and interact with combined types of media such as images, computer graphics, animations, sound, video, newer media such as virtual reality or augmented reality, and more. The focus of the Interactive Media module, in particular the IM Core, is on various skills and understanding techniques for Interactive Media products and the end product will be a game prototype. The module consists of the following courses:

    • Interactive Media Project: in this project you get to make a game prototype. You will design the whole game yourself and there is a lot of creative freedom. The tools to create such a game will be taught in the rest of the courses. 
    • Game Design: the game design course teaches the process of game design and how to make better and effective games for your users. 
    • 3D Modeling and Animation: for a 3D game, you will need to learn about the tools with which you can create 3D models. This and how to animate those models will be taught to you in this course. 
    • Virtual and Augmented Reality: this course provides you with the opportunity to work with two of the most innovative interactive media tools out there. You learn a bit about the thoeretical background of VR and AR and of course get to test them out. 
    • Sound Engineering: this course is all about sound effects and adaptive sound. You will learn how music can affect users and how to implement sound effectively. 
    • Mathematics: to provide you with more technical backgroud, this course will teach you about the mathematics of reinforcement learning. 
    • Literature Research Project: It's important for students to learn how to conduct a good literature research so this will be discussed in this course. It includes writing a small scientific paper based on research related to Interactive Media.
    • Professional Development: the course in which you are free to pick a direction for your own personal development. You can choose a training, a course or workshops that will help you develop futher as a Creative Technologist.
    M. A. Gómez Maureira PhD (Marcello)
    Citadel H203

    Module 5: Smart Technology

    The focus in this module is on physical (mostly electrical or mechanical) systems like electronics, sensors, controlled systems and the interfacing of such systems to the digital world. In addition, signal descriptions in time and frequency domain play an important role, as well as modification and conversion of signals in time and frequency domain. The module consists out of the following courses:

    • Hackaton Project: A few days of full-time project work in which you can apply all the knowledge you learned in the other courses of this module. The hackaton is a really fun way to close off the module. 
    • Circuits and Electronics: this course trains basic understanding of electronic components (resistor, capacitor, inductor, transistor, IC etc) and their applications in electronic networks, filters, amplifiers, converters, etc. 
    • Modelling and Control: in this course you will learn about the interaction between technical subsystems. You will also learn about various aspects of control systems.
    • Systems and Signals: the main goal of this course is to introduce you to some concepts from the mathematical theory of signals and systems.
    • Sensors: in this course all the necessary steps in a given sensing system are explained. In addition, the necessary tools, like periodic/aperiodic signals, ADC design, amplifiers, and conditioning circuits, are deployed, aimed at embedded system design.
    • Literature Research Project: It's important for students to learn how to conduct a good literature research so this will be discussed in this course. It includes writing a small scientific paper based on research related to Smart Technology.
    • Professional Development: the course in which you are free to pick a direction for your own personal development. You can choose a training, a course or workshops that will help you develop futher as a Creative Technologist.
    Module Coordinator
    Erik Faber
    Zilverling, ZI1060
  • Module 6: Interaction Design

    In this module, the focus is on human centered design and you will create an interactive, intelligent system and evaluated it with potential users. You will also learn about AI techniques and start to programm with it. The module consists of the following courses: 

    • Design and Research of User Exerpience (theory & project): this study unit is about designing, realising, and evaluating the interaction between people and technical systems. Within the unit, students design an interactive system and evaluate it with potential users. In the project, the students work in teams to design and evaluate an interactive system. Through lectures, tutorials and self-study on the design and evaluation of human-computer interaction students learn about various methods for conducting user studies, and quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse the resulting data.
    • Data Analysis for CreaTe: in this course, you will learn the statistical methods that can be used, among other things, to analyse data obtained in user tests. The purpose is to analyse the results of enquiries and experiments in a justified statistical way.
    • Professional Development: the course in which you are free to pick a direction for your own personal development. You can choose a training, a course or workshops that will help you develop futher as a Creative Technologist.
    Module Coordinator
    dr.ir. R. Klaassen (Randy)
    Assistant Professor
  • Module 7: Hands-on AI

    The overall topic of the module is Artificial Intelligence. It includes a technical part, ethics, and Professional Development. The approach for the technical part is hands-on, i.e., theory will be motivated and complemented by practical examples. It consists of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) theory part with focus on Machine Learning (ML), a Programming part based on Python, and a practical part where the ML algorithms are applied for a running example on a dedicated hardware. The dedicated hardware is a touch-sensitive patch, and the running example is digit recognition applying the different versions of ML taught.   

    The module consists out of the following courses: 

    • Artificial Intelligence: The AI theory course will provide a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of AI, from basic data analysis to modern-day deep learning methods, with practical examples, explanations of the intuition and mathematical underpinnings of widely used approaches. 
    • Programming for AI: this programming course offers a practical introduction to Python, focusing on its application in AI, algorithms, and data structures. Students will develop skills in object-oriented programming, the use of Python libraries, data manipulation, and memory management. 
    • Ethics of AI: this component will provide you with the tools to critically assess AI applications in different fields. 
    • Professional Development: the course in which you are free to pick a direction for your own personal development. You can choose a training, a course or workshops that will help you develop futher as a Creative Technologist.
    Module Coordinator
    dr. A.H. Mader (Angelika)
    Associate Professor
  • Module 8: Data From the Source to Sences

    Module 8 is the last one in which you will work together with fellow students. It centres on the Hybrid Worlds project, in which you will collaborate with a big team on an installation that connects the physical world with cyberspace. It is the crown to all the other CreaTe modules so far, so you will get to combine all that you have previously learned. The module consists out of the following courses: 

    • Hybrid Worlds Project: in this project, knowledge and experience from the tracks Interactive Media and Smart Technology get integrated in the design, implementation and actual building of an installation for physical data visualization.
    • Internet Technology: this course addresses the basic principles of modern networks systems, thereby addressing both the general principles, and their concrete application in the internet.
    • Data Driven Applications: this course teaches you how to managae data, with a focus on knowledge usable to build web applications. You will learn about data modeling using Entity Relationship models and their translation into database schemas. 
    • Data Visualization: in this course, you will work on learning both conceptual and practical skills related to the useful visualization of data. 
    • Professional Development: the course in which you are free to pick a direction for your own personal development. You can choose a training, a course or workshops that will help you develop futher as a Creative Technologist.

    Depending on your interest and your specilization in module 5, you also get to choose another specialization course. You can choose between:

    • Animated Storytelling: you will learn how to visualise data within animated video's . The course focusses on teaching some animation tools and storytelling. 
    • Biosignals and Medical Electronics: this course will provide an introduction into this world of electrophysiological measurements. 
    Module Coordinator
    A. Briassouli PhD (Alexia)
    Assistant Professor