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Explore MHCI+D

A page for candidates offered admission to the MHCI+D Class of 2023

Congratulations, you’ve been offered admission to UW’s MHCI+D Class of 2023!

We hope that you will accept this offer–your unique talents, skills, and perspective would be an asset to the cohort. But we also understand that you have a big decision to make.

So what’s next? Start by checking out the information below. We hope it will help you make the right decision for you.

This top section connects you to special activities available between now and April 15th, the deadline for your acceptance of the admission offer.

Below that, we’ve curated content about the program that previous candidates have found useful in exploring MHCI+D.

Student Experience: Previous students describe what it’s like in the MHCI+D program and what their fellow students bring to the experience.

Next Steps

Between now and April 15, we will be offering a number of online sessions, most recorded, for you to talk with current students, faculty and staff, to meet each other, and to learn everything you can about our program and the UW.

Because of Covid uncertainties, we did not schedule in-person events this month, and will instead hold all organized events online. If the UW Covid restrictions are indeed relaxed at the end of March as currently planned, we may be able to allow visitors to the studio in early April on a one-on-one basis. Email if you will already be in town and if you are interested in this.

Pre-decision webinars

Please join us at some or all of the following webinars over the coming month. At the end of most of these, we’ll also open up breakout rooms to allow you to get to meet some of your potential classmates more casually if you want to stick around:

  • Tuesday March 22 at 8:00 AM (Pacific Daylight Time). Overview of MHCI+D with Program Director, Axel Roesler and Advisor, Matt Bartels. Zoom link here
  • Tuesday March 29 at 4:30 PM (Pacific Daylight Time). MHCI+D Teaching Faculty. Zoom link here
  • Friday April 1 at 8:00 AM (Pacific Daylight Time). Career Outcomes and Career Services. Zoom link here
  • Tuesday April 5 at 6:00 PM (Pacific Daylight Time). Sit in on Research Studio Class with Kristin Dew and John Zoshak. (Zoom link will be sent by email the day before class)
  • Wednesday April 6 at 5:00 PM (Pacific Daylight Time). Free talk with current students and alumni. Zoom link here
  • Monday April 11 at 4:00 PM (Pacific Daylight Time). Final Q & A with staff. Zoom link here

Talk with us

    • Schedule a one-on-one Zoom meeting with Graduate Advisor Matt to discuss your specific questions.
    • You should have received an invite on 20 March to a Slack channel with current students. That will be a great forum to speak directly with each other and current students

How to accept the offer

April 15, 2022 is the last day you can accept the offer of admission. Accepting the offer is a two-step process:

  • Notify us that you accept the offer by changing your status in the application system. This will trigger a notification to you with your UW student ID number and with information on how to pay the non-refundable $500 deposit.
  • Pay the non-refundable $500 deposit. This deposit will be applied to your Fall Quarter tuition.
Once you have paid your $500 deposit, you will be part of the Class of 2023. Congratulations!

Please allow time for wire transfer or other financial transactions so that your $500 deposit is RECEIVED BY APRIL 15. You want to make sure your spot is secured before we initiate the waitlist. Contact us immediately if you anticipate any delays in completing the deposit.

Should you decide to decline the offer, please notify us as soon as possible by changing your status in the application system.

Additional information for international students. For details about visas and other information see the following UW Grad School page.

students

Why did you choose MHCI+D? Class of 2022 students reflect on their decision.
Profiles of current Students and Alumni

Where you’ll spend your time this year: The Studio

Studio Tour: Join Class of 2022 students Daniel and Madison on a tour of the MHCI+D Studio space.

Where to live in Seattle

Here are short introductions to some of the neighborhood popular with the students: Here’s a map of where the Class of 2020 (Cohort 7) lived while students student-living
Exploring Seattle: Join Class of 2020 students on a day trip exploring Seattle.

Follow students’ current activities on social media

students
Curriculum Structure and Core Principles from our website.

Student Work

Immersion Studio

In the first week in the program, students complete a one week “Immersion Studio.” For the Class of 2021, the challenge was to use technology to support harmonious cohabitation between humans and non-humans. Sample project write-ups, shared on Medium:
  • Algo, by Joan (Class of 2021)
  • in Soil, by Alara (Class of 2021)

Ideation Studio

In fall quarter, Ideation Studio has student teams respond to a challenge related to changing human behavior through technology. four recent examples, from student portfolios:
  • Story, by Ann (Class of 2021)
  • Helply, by Nathan (Class of 2021)
  • Somo, by Casey (Class of 2020)
  • Sail, by Zara (Class of 2020)

Prototyping Studio

In winter quarter, Prototyping Studio allows students to explore physical computing, hardware and software integration, and alternative input and output modalities. Professors Jon Froelich and Andy Davidson describe the process in this video

The Class of 2019 worked with Microsoft Education to design STEM lesson plans for middle school classrooms. Three examples, from student portfolios:

Capstone Studio

Capstone projects are the culmination of the program (not the starting point). Teams consist of three or four students, and an industry advisor provides guidance and advice. Capstone projects span three quarters and challenge you to design a solution to a real-world problem using all the skills you have developed.

Our website archive of all Capstone Project Videos. Both short ‘concept videos’ and longer final presentation videos are available for all previous capstone projects.

Alternately, browse final product videos on youtube, here:
faculty
Teaching Faculty

Watch and read recent talks and blogs by faculty involved with the program:

Faculty talks

  • Amy Ko, Information School, instructor for  “User Interface” core class, wrote recently about Adapting to Teaching in a Hybrid Model for MHCI+D [link]
  • Jon Froehlich, Computer Science & Engineering, instructor for  “Prototyping Studio” core class, and chair of the MHCI+D Faculty Committee. A recent article profiled Project Sidewalk, the accessibility project he has been leading through his lab, the Makeability Lab [link]
  • Jeff Heer, Computer Science & Engineering, Faculty Committee member and instructor for “Data Visualization” elective. Podcast interview from ACM discussing his work [link]
Faculty shorts on selected electives

    • Axel Roesler, Division of Design, School of Art, Art History + Design. Foundations of Interaction Design elective [link] and Advanced Interaction Design elective [link]
    • Daniela Rosner, Human-Centered Design and Engineering. Visual Communication elective [link]
    • Gregg Gottesman, Computer Science & Engineering. Entrepreneurship [link]
    • Jacob Wobbrock, The Information School. Designing Information Experiences elective [link]
    • Jeff Heer, Computer Science & Engineering. Data Visualization elective [link]
    • Katharina Reinecke, Computer Science & Engineering. Intro to HCI and Adv. Intro to HCI electives [link]
    • Sean Munson, Human Centered Design & Engineering. Usability Studies elective [link]
    career

    MHCI+D graduates are in demand. You can expect to leave the program ready to find meaningful and rewarding work.

    Be sure to join the Career Overview webinar on April 1 for details. We’ll be diving deep on all the career development programming you can expect while a student (or alum!). We’ll also talk about career outcomes from recent years and discuss where our alum have been finding work recently. In the mean time, refer to the following pages on our site:

    costs
    Overview

    • Financial Aid: In general, as an intense professional program, this is not designed to be work-compatible and because this is a fee-based program, many sources of state funding are not available. The majority of students meet the majority of their financial needs via loans, savings, or family support.
    • GSEE supplemental finance awards: Merit-based financing for U.S. students from underrepresented groups. We have had students receive this award in the past. If interested in applying, contact us immediately at mhcid@uw.edu to get started on the award application process.
    • Working: You will not have enough time to work full-time while in this program. A few students are able to hold down positions asking for 8-10 hours / week, but that is about the maximum you might manage. Some students have started the year with part-time consulting or freelance work, but most have found this is too taxing and distracting and have let these go mid-year. Each year we hire 3-4 students to assist with social media, website design,videography and other tasks. A few other students have taken other light work-study positions, but these are generally less than 10 hours per week.
    • Additional Expenses: We work hard to keep you from having to buy little things throughout the year. So we provide coffee and tea in the studio, a high-quality printer/copier/scanner (although occasionally you may need to print elsewhere to meet a deadline), all in-class and prototyping materials for core classes, access to the studio Cricut cutter, 3-D printer, video-quality hard-drive, and large-screen monitors. Each quarter, your team will have a budget for relevant purchases, such as gratuities for research participants or specialized materials for your capstone project. What we don’t provide is materials or gratuities for your elective courses, meals, housing, dog sitting, etc.
    uw-seattle
      • DUB: Bringing together the broader UW HCI community of faculty and students, “DUB” or “Design Use Build” is the MHCI+D program’s founding organization. DUB holds weekly seminars, an annual retreat, and a chance to network with others from a wide range of disciplines, programs, and departments.

      • UW Career & Internship Center: The campus-wide career center offers workshops, industry and employer information sessions and other events nearly daily. They also organize career fairs throughout the year that offer a chance to connect with hundreds of employers.

    • Seattle HCI community: Beyond campus, Seattle has a vibrant HCI scene, with hundreds of professionals working in the field at local companies. UX meetups, hackathons and conferences offer students frequent opportunities to get to know their future colleagues.

    A few of the more active organizations include:

    Contact Us

    Email with questions: mhcid@uw.edu