Bachelor of Science in Human Centered Design & Engineering

Why Human Centered Design & Engineering?

The Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) is an interdisciplinary department in the College of Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, an internationally-ranked, R1 research institution. HCDE students learn to center on human needs and interests as they solve design problems and build engineering solutions. Students graduate from the program with engineering degrees. HCDE's award winning interdisciplinary faculty have graduate degrees from fields such as computer science, industrial engineering, information studies, education, English, linguistics, public policy, technology and society studies, and urban planning.

In HCDE, students are designing the future by building innovative technologies and systems. Putting people first, HCDE students and faculty research, design, and engineer interactions between humans and technology.

Bachelor of Science in Human Centered Design & Engineering

Students in the HCDE Bachelor of Science in Human Centered Design & Engineering (BSHCDE) program build a strong foundation in designing user experiences and interfaces, creating information visualizations, conducting user research, designing for the web, and building web technologies. Students in the BS in HCDE program have the opportunity to solve real-world problems side-by-side with our award-winning faculty in collaborative teams through directed research groups, many of which focus on the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) multifaceted grand challenges: sustainability, health, vulnerability, and joy of living. Click on the thumbnails below to see examples of student projects, classes, and research!

Curriculum

As part of the major, HCDE undergraduate students complete 52 credits of complete core coursework in design and research. Students also complete 19–23 credits of elective courses. The elective coursework allows students the flexibility to:

• Create a specialization targeted to their professional and academic goals
• Build on their foundation in HCDE
• Increase their knowledge about the field of HCDE

Learn more about the flexibility of the HCDE major!

Some students choose to pursue a specialization in human-computer interaction (HCI) in order to design, evaluate, and implement interactive computing systems for human use, and to study major phenomena surrounding them. For this specialization, HCDE has created a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) degree option.

A degree option is an area of study officially recognized by the University of Washington. Upon completion of their degree, students with this option will see "Bachelor of Science in Human Centered Design & Engineering," as well as the designation "Human-Computer Interaction" on their UW transcript.

Who Are Our Students?

Our students who are interested in researching, designing, and engineering interactions between humans and technology from a human perspective come to HCDE. Our undergraduate students have a variety of academic interests spanning engineering and other technical fields, the social sciences, humanities, and design. Many of our undergraduate students study full-time and many pursue concurrent internships during their studies. Our student cohort is diverse; about one-third of our students are students of color and about one-third are international. Slightly more than half of our students are female. More information on our student demographics is available on the Missions, Facts, and Statistics page.

Careers

Graduates of the BS program receive engineering degrees and find jobs with high-tech companies as multimedia and web developers, interface designers, user experience researchers and designers, usability engineers, information architects, programming writers and editors, and instructional designers. Students and alumni from HCDE have excellent career resources. They often take advantage of HCDE's Corporate Affiliate Program, working with area companies on research partnerships, adding industry projects to their portfolios, and finding internships and jobs upon graduation. HCDE's full-time advising staff, located in Sieg Hall, work closely with companies and students to provide a multitude of career services.

Located at the University of Washington in beautiful Seattle, students have access to Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Expedia, Boeing, Intel, IBM, and other prominent corporations that have offices in the Pacific Northwest. In addition, Seattle has a strong start-up and entrepreneurial community, with more than 500 start-ups calling the city home, making Seattle the perfect location from which to launch an exciting career, whether in established corporations or in the fast-paced start-up community.