General track of the Informatics concentrationDigital information technologies are no longer tools for everyday life in working settings, cultural settings, domestic settings, entertainment, and more, they also are now a fundamental part of how we think about the world.
For instance, algorithms and procedures have become metaphors for the organization of human activity and information technologies have become sites of cultural production.
The general track of the Informatics concentration allows students to pursue a broad-based program of inquiry into the design, development, application and implications of information and communication technologies, exploring the nature of the relationship between technology design and practice, especially in emerging research areas such as ubiquitous computing.
The track can be paraphrased as combining some of the ICT track and Software track with a broader basis of courses to present an overview of the many facets of Informatics.
The Department of Informatics is internationally known for its research programs that blend social and technical aspects of information technology. Informatics is a recent program, but draws on decades of research that has made UCI a leader in areas such as social informatics, computer-supported cooperative work, and software engineering.
The key feature of the general track of the Informatics program is its dual grounding in technological practice and in the analysis of technology use. In contrast to programs which focus purely on the technical or social aspects of digital information technologies, we bring both together to understand the ways in which they each shape the other.
The program is deeply interdisciplinary; in addition to working with Informatics faculty drawn from computer science, psychology, anthropology, education, organizational science, new media arts, and more, students are encouraged to explore links between Informatics topics and other disciplinary areas on campus.
Learn the reason behind the renumbering of courses and get a list of corresponding old numbers to new numbers.
View a short video higlighting how, for more than three decades, the Bren School has been leading many technological advances and spawning countless research breakthroughs.
