Bachelor of Arts, Major in Design Studies

at San Jose State University USA

The Master of Arts in Art History and Visual Culture offers a broad education in art history, including preparation for a Ph.D. degree program. It also prepares students for a graduate library degree with specialization in art history, as well training for a variety of positions including community college professor, researcher, museum curator, arts administrator, conservator, and visual resources librarian. Our program is especially strong in modern and contemporary art, architecture and design, and the art of the Renaissance. We also feature a variety of special-topic courses such as Art and Architecture of Islam, History of Photography, German Art, and “Fashionology.” Students have the opportunity to study with experts in these fields and to work within a dynamic department that includes a strong M.F.A. program located in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Besides featuring a wide array of courses we host a number of activities during the academic year. These include the Art History and Visual Culture Colloquium, the Art History Association Symposium, the Tuesday Night Lecture Series and a range of exhibitions in the Thompson Gallery. The department website offers information about our courses, faculty, facilities, and events.

The Bachelor of Science degree in Software Engineering (BSSE) goes beyond programming to include engineering methodologies and hands-on project experience. The program prepares students to become qualified engineers for IT leading companies in Silicon Valley and international engineering market by providing them with state-of-the-art engineering methods, emergent technologies, team work experience, and solutions so they are capable to address design, coding, validation, and measurement issues for the construction of large-scale computer systems and software applications in the real world.

Program Educational Objectives
The educational objectives of our program is to ensure that the graduates are fundamentally solid, practical, dependable, collaborative, and professional. Specifically, three to five years after graduation, the successful graduates will have

• Engaged in successful professional practices in their chosen discipline
• Demonstrated professional and personal leadership in their workspace and the society
• Demonstrated effective collaboration and communication in the work environment and beyond
• Utilized formal and informal learning opportunities to maintain and enhance technical excellence and professional growth

Student Learning Outcomes

To prepare the students for a successful professional and personal life, the BS Computer/Software Engineering program is designed to produce computer/software engineering graduates who have attained the following student learning outcomes at the time of graduation:

• An ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics
• An ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors
• An ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences
• An ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts
• An ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives
• An ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions
• An ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies.

The field of packaging includes disciplines of engineering, graphic design, project management, advertising, and material science. Every product manufactured from health care and beauty products to washing machines and drugs require packages to protect and sell the product.

Almost every firm that makes a physical product has a packaging department with 20-40 individuals engaged specifically in packaging technology and applied engineering. A huge multinational like Johnson and Johnson can employ hundreds of individuals involved with some area of packaging their products.

SJSU's Packaging Program is one of a handful of programs in the USA providing technical expertise in the multidisciplinary field. The number of potential jobs for graduates and careers available with a background in packaging is driven by not only the uniqueness of the skills learned by the students but also by the fact that there are very few places to learn the skills necessary to design and develop package systems.

The number of positions available combined with the fact that there are only a handful of schools in the USA teaching Packaging creates a situation where Packaging has a 100% placement rate. In fact there are more jobs available than candidates available to fill them. This has been the fact for the last 60+ years since Michigan State University began the first Packaging program at the request of an Industry looking for people with package design skill sets.

Career development is another key advantage of an individual involved with packaging. Packaging professionals engage with almost every group in an organization, marketing, production purchasing, legal, product development, and graphics. A firm values individuals that have a broad picture of the operations and packaging interacts with these groups as part of their daily tasks. This makes individuals with packaging backgrounds valuable to a company as they understand how all of the operations combine and work together to accomplish corporate goals.

Program Learning Objectives

• Assess a package’s functional properties
• Demonstrate knowledge of package material properties to meet particular physical needs.
• Describe a package production system in order to present design and develop cost comparisons between various package configurations.
• Assess a distribution channel to identify particular stresses incurred.
• Design a package system (primary, secondary and tertiary) to contain, protect and transport products from manufacturer to consumer.
• Develop reproducible test methodologies for evaluating particular properties in a package/material.
• Organize and assemble presentations describing package systems, operations, designs, and cost comparisons.

The undergraduate concentration in Creative Writing invites students to become involved in the creation of new literary art. Like all English majors, Creative Writing concentrators begin their studies with the three-course Transatlantic survey sequence, giving them a solid grounding in literary history. Later, they take writing workshops in various genres, including fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and scriptwriting. They are encouraged to work on the Department’s 150-year-old literary magazine, Reed, and to participate in other literary programming on campus, for example the readings and conversations with visiting authors sponsored by SJSU’s Center for Literary Arts.

The Master of Science in Data Analytics, offered by the Department of Applied Data Science, is developed in partnership with industry experts targeting students from diverse academic and professional backgrounds. Students receive the advanced education necessary to apply analytics to solve real-world problems by immersing them in the full data analytics process lifecycle.

Students learn how to build portfolios of data analytics projects by leveraging the interrelationship between domain data knowledge and emerging information technologies. Students advance their knowledge and skills through the integration of:

• Identifying domain-specific problems, defining requirements, and establishing measurable organizational objectives.
• Performing data exploration, preparation, visualization, and governance.
• Applying programming, statistics, database, data mining, and machine learning technologies to build models for descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive data analytics.
• Engaging in the development, validation, and monitoring of data analytics systems to meet requirements and objectives.

Today most organizations treat analytics as a strategic asset, and analytics is central to many functional roles and skills. This program prepares students for a career in data analytics in almost all industry domains. Potential career roles for graduates include data analyst, data administrator, business intelligence analyst, and information research scientist.

The BA Mathematics is recommended for students who enjoy problem solving and would like to apply problem solving skills along with communication and analyzing skills in a future career. This degree also provides an excellent background for graduate work in mathematics and other disciplines including law and medicine as well as engineering and science.

Economics is a general program, flexible enough to allow for a variety of student objectives. The BA program has over 21 units of open electives. These elective units give students the flexibility to supplement the thinking skills developed in economics with technical skills developed in such fields as finance, marketing, and public relations. A bachelor degree in economics serves as an excellent springboard to an MBA or law degree.

Spatial Art is an interdisciplinary program that encompasses a broad range of media including Sculpture, Ceramics, Glass, Installation Art, Small Metals, Metal Fabrication and Casting, Multimedia, Performance Art. It provides excellent facilities and resources for students who wish to realize their ideas in three-dimensional form. The area is guided by a faculty with varying philosophical approaches and technical expertise and a common concern for spatial issues.

Technical facilities include well-equipped shops in a variety of areas. The jewelry lab allows for smithing and casting of small metal works. The large ceramics facility has a 3D printer, complete clay mixing capacity and eighteen kilns which can serve almost any purpose, including a fifty cubic foot gas kiln. The glass area is a modern lab with heat recuperative furnaces, as well as slumping and casting facilities. A large foundry and outdoor sculpture yard provide for the realization of ideas in cast and fabricated metal, stone and mixed media, including large scale work, with all the major welding equipment, vacuum casting capability, two 285 lb casting crucibles, a 140 cubic foot burnout kiln, and a fork lift. The wood shop is fully equipped for furniture making and construction of sculpture in wood, foam and plastics. The machine shop has mills and lathes, and metal-cutting bandsaws. Other shop facilities include a laser cutter, plastic vacuum former, spray booth, sandblaster, and sheet-metal working machines.

Many Spatial Art students work in the area of installation. There are seven galleries of varying size within the Art building that can be used on a weekly basis for such projects. There are also two brand new shipping containers, known as the Freight and Cargo Galleries, for installation projects. Students also have access to University and School digital and video equipment that may be needed as a part of installation work. Graduate students are encouraged to explore and utilize any and all of these facilities as resources. As they grow in their abilities to visualize and express the form and content of their ideas in three-dimensional terms, they may see each concept dictating its own technique and material. The resources of the Department of Art and Art History faculty and laboratories offer rich critical and technical support.

Students in the MSAE Program can specialize in sustainable aviation concepts, aerospace structural design, astrodynamics, space systems engineering, hypersonics or propulsion.  They have opportunities to work with AE faculty and NASA engineers to design, build, test, and launch microsatellites like the TechEdSat, participate in the design, building, and testing of our brand new hypersonic facility, learn how to use machine/deep learning for structural health monitoring, optimize spacecraft trajectories or explore the potential of electric and hybrid propulsion systems for general aviation, commuter, and large air transports.  In addition, students can participate in exciting extra-curricular projects, such as the High-Altitude Rocket Project (HARP). MSAE students present their work in professional conferences such as the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SciTech, the International Planetary Probe Workshop, and the International Symposium on Sustainable Aviation.

Students select a faculty advisor who helps structure a program of study that meets individual needs and addresses areas of interest. While working closely with a faculty advisor, each student completes a thesis or a project that results from an in-depth study of a particular research topic of interest.

The Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technology with a concentration in Manufacturing Systems is designed to prepare students for technical and management careers in business and industry. Manufacturing Systems prepares you for a career in manufacturing design and management. You will gain knowledge, skills, and practical experiences in innovative manufacturing processes and management, computer integrated manufacturing, robotics and control systems, and computer aided manufacturing.

This dynamic and expanding field applied computer and advanced technologies to solving problems in manufacturing systems, computer aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM), and computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) to basic and advanced industrial manufacturing design. Graduates of the BSIT in Manufacturing Systems will be able to:

• Demonstrate skills in the planning and design of manufacturing processes.
• Describe the product life cycle and how products are manufactured.
• Design and plan industrial facilities.
• Select and operate computer numerical controlled and other machines.
• Describe the uses, advantages, and disadvantages of current and evolving manufacturing techniques including laser machining, electrical discharge machining, water jet and abrasive water jet machining, and rapid prototyping.
• Select, analysis and use polymers, composite materials, and materials in the design of manufactured products.
• Apply the theory of computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM), including the computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) interface to industrial problems and settings.
• Use the principles of production scheduling and planning in an industrial environment.
• Apply knowledge of material properties and structural analysis to manufacturing product design.
• Use robots and mechatronics in a CIM environment.
• Demonstrate an understanding of materials management including Just-in-Time (JIT) and Materials Resource Planning (MRP).
• Integrate design, manufacturing, and materials into the design and development of new products.
• Apply the principles of Lean Manufacturing to manufacturing and soft systems. Analyze the appropriate use of marketing to both internal and external customers. Apply OSHA and NIOSH principles to facilities design and management.