Carnegie Mellon IDeATe Minor: Physical Computing
At Carnegie Mellon I minored in Physical Computing, offered through the Robotics Institute as a part of a new program called IDeATe. IDeATe stands for Integrative Design, Arts, and Technology. It was launched by Carnegie Mellon to foster interdisciplinary collaboration, as any student could take the courses offered, regardless of major.
Physical Computing focused on the evolution of technology and how it interacts with the physical world. An example of this would be the Internet of Things. So much of the technology we use now begins with some interaction from the outside world. The best part of this program was how all the amazing projects we got to work on was created out of collaboration with students of all backgrounds.
During the two years I took these courses and completed the minor, I worked on projects with students with majors such as Art, Design, Drama, Sound Design, Material Science Engineering, Information Systems, and Decision Science. I got to work on projects that interacted with the outside world, like a lightbulb that would flash every time a certain word was tweeted, or a robot that would track a human’s movement and ‘dance’ based on how they were moving, or a headband that measured force and acceleration applied to an athletes head to use for concussion research.
These were often my most favorite classes I got to take, and while I did learn a lot about different technologies and how they interact with the outside world, the biggest lesson was in how to work with people from different industry backgrounds. Even though everyone approached problems differently, each project turned out even more amazing than the last.