Interactive Media Business (Minor)

Program Description

The Interactive Media + Business (IMB) minor is where innovation + business meet through emerging media technology. It teaches how innovative ideas combine with technology, creativity and business principles to yield viable products, services and experiences. IMB students are  challenged to imagine and implement interactive products and services that fearlessly investigate the recently possible in media, technology, and communication. IMB minors are also expected to think holistically about the impact of their work in society as well as the business value, whether it involves software or hardware, virtual or physical, product or experiences. The IMB minor welcomes interest in entrepreneurship in all forms — large organizations or startups, for-profit or not-for-profit — that bring about disruptive changes and create positive social impact. Students of IMB acquire a design-and-build mindset and gain experience by implementing creative solutions to real business problems in order to graduate well prepared for stimulating careers or future learning journeys in diverse organizations across the globe.

IMB minors will take a unique blend of interactive media, technology, and business foundation courses, including Innovation Lab, which introduces modern rapid prototyping, theories of innovation, early-stage business concepts, and user experience design. For their second foundation course, IMB students will choose between one of 5 courses: Interaction Lab, which covers interaction design, electronics, computation, and digital fabrication;Communication Lab, which covers digital media production methods, including imaging, audio, video, and Web development;,Creative Coding Lab, which introduces students to the fundamentals of computation, software design, and web technologies; Intro to Computer Programming, which provides a foundational introduction to computing and data science processes;  and Introduction to Media Industries and Institutions, which provides an overview of the business of media and the uses of media in business contexts. Business foundation courses include Economics of Global Business, and Principles of Financial Accounting. Students also choose from a range of elective courses across the disciplines of business, emerging media, art and design, the humanities, social and physical sciences, as well as computation and data.