Computational Media

The Computational Media Department (CM) engages in boundary-pushing research and education that integrates technical, interpretive, and design work to create human-centered media that address complex problems for societal impact.

These are the core values we hold, which form the foundation on which we perform work and conduct ourselves as scholars, researchers, and members of communities:

• Impactful: We create media, experiences and ways of understanding that have an impact in the world we live in.
• Socially responsible: We actively perform research and education that benefit society at large and advance social goals.
• Open: We embrace diverse ideas, disciplines, approaches, concepts, and methods in our work and community.
• Boundary-pushing: We are forward facing while being reflective of the past. 
• Collegial: We engage in partnership across our communities in a respectful manner.
• Address “messy” problems: We are unafraid of handling real-world problems that are naturally messy.

Research

Learn about the research being conducted within our department.

People

Meet people in Computational Media.

Degrees

Learn about the Graduate and Undergraduate programs in Computational Media.

1st

university in the country to offer a program in Serious Games

#5

best game/simulation development program in the nation (U.S. News & World Report, 2024)

9th

undergrad game design program (U.S. News and World Report, 2022)

#10

best school for game & interactive design bachelor's degree (College Factual, 2024)

#19

in the top 25 public augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) schools in the U.S. (Animation Career Review, 2022)

Humanizing artificial intelligence

A new study shows how AI chatbots like ChatGPT perpetuate biases when performing empathy—highlighting gaps between human and AI responses.

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CM Research News

• New eye-tracking VR experience, Face Jumping, wins XR Audience Award at SXSW
• Workshop aims to create speech AI for all
• AI chatbots perpetuate biases when performing empathy, study finds
• Recent UCSC alumni take over the SF MOMA
• UC Santa Cruz named a U.S. National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps Hub for the Northwest Region

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Ph.D. Opportunities

Computational Media faculty are recruiting Ph.D. students for the 2024-25 academic year

Upcoming Events

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Explore potential Computational Media career paths

• UI/UX Designer
• Interactive Designer
• Game Designer
• Multimedia Developer
• AR/VR Specialist
• Product Manager
• Front End Developer
• Professor/Researcher

Sri Kuniawan, Associate Professor of Computational Media and Computer Engineering, is leading her student to research and develop games and applications to help people with special needs.

The Social Wearables Educational Live Action Role Play (SWEL) Camp was designed by UCSC researchers to blend social experience with computational activities to drive middle school girls’ interest and confidence in pursuing technical subjects.

Professor of Computational Media, Katherine Currie Isbister and her students use games to explore how technology can influence human's emotional experiences.