Master of Arts in Communication Studies

at San Jose State University USA

The BA in Sociology, offered by the Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, educates students about social processes that create, maintain, and transform social institutions and social identities. Sociology provides a framework for understanding social behavior in groups, social change and inequality in society, and solutions to social problems. Analytical and research skills speak to the needs of a changing world. The degree offers students the widest flexibility in terms of future career choices.

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.

MS in Artificial Intelligence (AI) program provides students with a state-of-the-art educational experience to become outstanding, socially responsible engineers of AI systems. This program focuses more broadly on building engineering systems powered by advances in machine learning and AI. Students will learn the theoretical foundations and gain practical skills to manage and engineer various data forms, to make predictive analyses, to derive actionable insights, and develop intelligent hardware and software systems and related cutting-edge AI technologies. The program draws on insights from mathematics, statistical analysis, computer science, software engineering, and systems engineering and is, therefore, best suited for students with software/computer engineering, computer science, mathematics, and closely related backgrounds.

Program Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Identify and apply fundamental concepts, algorithms, and methodologies to formulate, analyze, design, and evaluate artificial intelligence and machine learning systems;
• Tackle complex machine learning and artificial intelligence problems using contemporary principles, algorithms, technologies, methodologies, and tools;
• Lead and participate in a team to develop AI and machine learning applications;
• Recognize the ethical, economic and environmental implications of their work, as appropriate;
• Sustain a process of life-long learning in engineering or other professional areas; and,
• Communicate effectively and persuasively with a variety of audiences.

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 BFA program will have accomplished these objectives and will have produced a portfolio of work that will enable them to apply to graduate schools. The required BFA Seminar gives students an opportunity to consider contemporary and historical issues and allows them to evaluate their work and the work of others within a broader context. BFA students are required to complete a senior project that reflects a personal direction. They exhibit the resulting body of work that is then reviewed by a committee of faculty members.

The overall objectives of the Pictorial Art Area are as follows: Visual sensitivity in the pictorial art is developed in a number of ways. In Beginning Drawing students learn to translate the perceived world into two-dimensional constructs such as line and tone. While formal elements of composition are specifically addressed in 2-D Concepts, they remain an integral part of all pictorial courses. As students progress through more advanced courses, they engage in more sophisticated levels of visual thinking. This will be reflected in their work in the utilization of more complex formal means, both representational and abstract, and to express content. In critique sessions, students are encouraged to articulate visual ideas.

In Pictorial Art, students learn to conceptualize their ideas and execute them. This is true on every level from introductory courses to the most advanced. In some courses, such as Expressive Drawing, the emphasis is on the discovery of personal content through abstraction of the observed world or through the development of non-representational vocabulary. In other courses, such as Representational Drawing and Life Drawing, the emphasis is on perception and learning more traditional methods of rendering and depiction. In more advanced courses students are given the opportunity to choose the stylistic means of expression which best gives form to their visual ideas.

Students in Pictorial Art area are exposed to a wide variety of techniques and technical processes. This ranges from the simple and straight-forward use of pencil and charcoal in drawing through the slightly more complex techniques of watercolor, acrylic and oil painting to the more involved processes of hand-drawn and photo-generated serigraphy, as well as the chemical processes of lithography and intaglio printing. By the time they graduate students will be proficient in several of these areas. The Art History requirements for the major give the students a broad understanding of the major movements of the past and present in both the Western and non-Western worlds. In addition, slide lectures and books presented in the classroom put course work into a historical and cultural context.

The Master of Science program gives students the opportunity to further their knowledge in foundational and applied topics, preparing them for advanced industrial or research positions. Students are expected to complete six graduate level courses, two electives, and two semesters of project work. Full-time students generally take two years to complete the program. The program is available to students with a bachelor's degree in computer science or a related discipline. In order to ensure small class sizes and individual supervision of projects, the size of the program is limited and applications are competitive.

All students wishing to study graphic design, interior design or industrial design are admitted to the BA Design Studies Program. The BA Design Studies program is a liberal arts degree that allows students to choose from a broad range of university classes to curate their education with an emphasis on design. Students wishing to specialize in or achieve a  BFA in Interior Design, BFA in Graphic Design, or the BS in Industrial Design must successfully pass the required portfolio reviews held by each program.

The Journalism and Mass Communications Department's Public Relations program is nationally recognized and the only degree program of its kind in Northern California. One of the largest PR programs in the United States, this dynamic program has been a consistent leader in preparing students for success in a wide variety of strategic communications careers.

Program Highlights

• The most comprehensive PR curriculum in Northern California.
• Rated one of the 'premier' programs in the U.S. in a national survey conducted by Marquette University.
• All majors are required to complete an internship providing an excellent foray into the field of Public Relations.
• The School of Journalism and Mass Communications is 100 percent wired for the Internet with student-friendly Mac and PC labs.
• Students in campaigns class plan public relations programs for actual clients, including Cisco Systems, Intel, American Cancer Society.
• One of the few programs in the nation to have course electives in Special Events Management and the Principles of Fund-Raising.

This degree program is recommended for students who wish to pursue a career in statistics. This program also prepares a student for graduate study in probability and statistics.

The concentration in statistics is appropriate for students pursuing a career involving the collection and analysis of numerical data, the use of statistical techniques to predict population growth or economic conditions, the use of statistics to analyze medical, environmental, legal and social problems, or to help business managers make decisions and carry out quality control. The statistics concentration also provides a solid foundation for students who plan to become actuaries.

The Painting, Drawing, and Prinmaking faculty at San Jose State University are actively involved in the contemporary art community and exhibit nationally and internationally. Faculty work ranges from realism to abstraction, from conceptual to environmental. Graduate students are encouraged to develop their own creative and expressive directions through work with the faculty, individual studio projects, gallery exhibitions, interaction with the professional art community in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the investigation of current issues and concepts as presented in the graduate seminars.

General studio/classroom space is available for painting and drawing and there are well-equipped support facilities such as wood and metal shops. Graduate printmakers have the use of four large studio/classrooms, as well as the intaglio and lithography press prep rooms. A papermaking lab is also available. Three intaglio presses and four lithography presses allow the printer to work in monoprint or in editions, on stones or aluminum plates. The screen printing studio has a large vacuum-exposure table for exposing plates and stencils. The photo darkroom, with graphic arts camera and enlargers, allows printmakers access to a variety of photo-printmaking processes for all printmaking media.