Bachelor of Design Computing

Overview

This program teaches you to recognise the value of your ideas, and how to ensure others will too. You will be trained in ideation — the ability to solve real world problems by conceptualising, empathising, and evaluating various design solutions. Your ideation will be matched with skills in implementation: how to use software and devices to make your ideas into reality.

Design Computing teaches a whatever-it-takes, human-centred approach to designing technology. It’s the approach industry leaders like Apple and Google use to dream up new interactive products, services and experiences. This degree will make you a creative problem solver, preparing you to join these industry leading companies, or to start the next one.

Design Computing teaches you ways of thinking that have been proven effective for inventing elegant, commercially viable products and services. You will learn to manage a team of creators, working in a studio model that puts the focus firmly on your expression and your solutions. You will be empowered through a toolbox of skills in user experience, interaction design, graphic design, product design, and creative coding. Most importantly, you will be taught to recognise what tools are needed for specific social and commercial challenges and to use those skills to produce unique, innovative solutions.

The combined Bachelor of Design Computing/Bachelor of Advanced Studies degree lets students combine the depth of the Design Computing program with the breadth of education available across the University of Sydney. Advanced Studies double-degree students will use their elective units in the Design Computing program, plus a fourth year of study, to complete a second Major from anywhere on campus. The interdisciplinary nature of this unique double degree will prepare you for the rapidly changing nature of industry and the future of work in the digital economy.

The Bachelor of Design Computing can also be extended with a fourth year of Honours study. Honours is an opportunity for students to engage with the rigour and depth of the research world. It can serve as an entry point into higher degree research, and is increasingly being recognised by industry as a valuable indicator of the critical thinking skills prized by employers.

Bachelor of Design Computing enrolment guide

The Bachelor of Design Computing is a three-year degree, or four years with honours. The Bachelor of Design Computing/Bachelor of Advanced Studies is a four year degree. The first year introduces the fundamentals of design thinking, creative coding, and digital media. These units form the basic knowledges needed for the unique studio-driven environment of the second and third years. The studios are where Design Computing students apply their skills to solve real-world problems and explore the possibilities enabled by emerging technologies. The accompanying electives allow students to develop additional knowledge both within design computing and beyond.

In order to qualify for the degree, candidates must complete the requirements as specified in the resolutions of Senate and school for this degree. All student should read the course resolutions and monitor their progress throughout the degree by reference to them. The following points summarise the resolutions but do not replace them.

Summary of requirements

In order to qualify for the award of the pass degree, candidates need to:

• maintain a full-time enrolment (18 credit points or more per semester; a normal full-time load is 24 credit points per semester; the maximum allowed is 30 credit points per semester)

• successfully complete 144 credit points in total

• successfully complete 96 credit points from the core units of study listed in Table B

• complete successfully a maximum of 48 credit points from elective units of study from those listed in Table B, or with the permission of the unit coordinator concerned, units of study from the school's tables of graduate units, provided they have completed at least 96 credit points with a weighted average (WAM) of at least 70.

Honours

To qualify for the honours degree, candidates must satisfy the requirements for the pass degree with a weighted average mark (WAM) of at least 70 and in addition successfully complete 48 credit points consisting of a research thesis. In their third year, students are encouraged to enrol in a preparatory unit of study as an elective, such as an Independent Study unit. Honours may only be undertaken on a full-time basis. For more information about honours see the section of this Handbook about undergraduate honours.

Planning your degree

The program has been designed so that the core units should be taken in a certain order and the elective units fitted with them. The enrolment planner shows progression through the core units of study.

Bachelor of Design Computing enrolment planner: Semester 1 commencement

Students enrolled in the Bachelor of Advanced Studies will continue into their fourth year, where they will complete their second Major, take advanced-level Design Computing units, and engage in interdisciplinary project-based units.

Students opting to pursue a Bachelor of Design Computing with Honours will continue into their fourth year to undertake a year-long research project.

Bachelor of Design Computing enrolment planner: Semester 2 commencement

Students commencing their studies in Semester 2 have access to all the same options as those commencing in Semester 1.