Category Archives: faculty

Kim Knight

Dr. Kim Knight has been selected for the Inclusive Excellence and Intercultural Teaching Award to be presented at the 4th Annual UT Dallas Diversity Awards Gala hosted by the Office of Diversity and Community Engagement (ODCE).

The Inclusive Excellence and Intercultural Teaching Award honors the contributions of an individual who has supported diversity and inclusion at UT Dallas in the past academic year.

Each year the ODCE recognizes the contributions of UT Dallas faculty, staff, students, and community partners to advance the UT Dallas diversity mission, goals, and programs, with special awards during the annual Diversity Awards Gala. The Gala was established in 2009 to celebrate and highlight how diversity enables and empowers the UT Dallas community to reach the highest levels of excellence.

A new article in Nature examines the convergent relationship between traditional scientific and artistic avenues of stud

Graduate students who want to pursue both art and science have multiple options. Universities are responding to the demand from students with hybrid interests, who want to pursue the coupling of art and science rather than be forced to choose between the two, says Roger Malina, Distinguished Chair of Arts and Technology and Professor of Physics at UT Dallas. UT Dallas opened an Arts and Technology (ATEC) program in 2004, and launched an ATEC PhD program last year that currently has 55 students and is planning to double in size in the next few years.

Dr. Roger Malina

Malina adds that other universities are also experimenting with how best to fuse art and science. Some, such as MIT, UCLA and the University of California, Davis, offer student training at their art–science centers or labs.

In France, a partnership across the scientific research institutes and the decorative- and performing-arts centers of Paris Science and Letters has launched the Science, Art, Creation, Research PhD program.

And such training can help newly minted PhD holders to expand their job search to include art-related posts. “We are starting to see a few positions for hybrid art–science professionals, and I believe this will continue to grow,” says Malina.

Guna Nadarajan, dean of the University of Michigan School of Art & Design in Ann Arbor, notes that Google and IBM are hiring graduates with design backgrounds for their research and development teams; and companies such as 3M and Proctor and Gamble have a steady demand for those skills in their efforts to develop innovative materials.

Read the full article on the Nature Website.

As of September 1, 2013 the ATEC and EMAC programs at The University of Texas at Dallas will have three new tenured associate professors: Monica Evans, Todd Fechter and David Parry.

Monica Evans

Monica Evans

As a faculty member in the Arts and Technology program, Monica Evans‘ focus is to expand the game studies curriculum, particularly at the graduate level. This year she created the Game Production Lab within the ATEC program, a series of courses in which students design, develop, and produce original games and gaming content at both the graduate and undergraduate level.

Monica Evans has recruited many industry members to donate equipment and resources to the ATEC program, offer internships to ATEC students, teach ATEC courses as adjuncts, and advise students through seminars, guest lectures, and as judges for the UT Dallas CGEC. Companies include Pixelux Entertainment, iStation, Gearbox Software, Barking Lizards, MumboJumbo, iD Software, and Texas Instruments, as well as investor Hughes Ventures.

Evans’ personal research is focused on narrative for games and other interactive systems, which she is currently publishing as articles, book chapters, and conference submissions; and on meaningful play, serious games, educational games, and simulations, for which she is both publishing articles and submitting multiple grant proposals. She is currently working on a series of proposals for new research in virtual medical simulation, and proposals have been sent to the American Heart Association, Pediatrix, Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) granting agency.

As to the significance of her work: Game studies is a brand-new, continuously evolving field, and few universities are pursuing significant academic research in the area. Evans’ long-term goal is to seed top-level game studios with our undergraduate students at higher than entry-level positions (in other words, positions where they have influence over design, content, and innovation); to seed top-level universities with our masters and doctoral students as the next generation of game studies scholars; and to provide a place for students to incubate independent game studios, research projects, or to follow other academic inclinations in the field.

Todd Fechter

Todd Fechter

Todd Fechter‘s professional background is in the field of 3D computer animation. He has experience working on both television and film productions, which he gained while employed at DNA Production, Inc from September 2002 through June of 2006. There he held the position of Head of Environment Modeling, where he led a team of eight modelers in the planning and creation of all environments and props.

After leaving DNA Productions he worked as a freelance 3D artist providing both modeling and texturing services for various companies including Jeep, Ember Studios, Reel FX Entertainment and NASA.

In October 2006 Fechter accepted a position at Element X Creative as Head of Modeling. There he worked on various projects ranging from promotions to a direct to DVD animated series.

Fechter is currently an Assistant Professor of 3D Computer Animation at UT Dallas. During this time he has been able to integrate his production experience and expertise into his teachings with the goal of better preparing students to reach their professional aspirations. This includes the creation of the first online Arts and Technology computer animation digital class material archive where students have unlimited access to course materials and examples that allow for off campus learning and review.

Fechter’s current interests are in the continued redesign and growth of the ATEC 3D animation curriculum. Two new courses will focus more on the planning and development of 3D animation rather than the actual execution. Students will then be able to fully realize production timelines and methodologies to focus skills learned in other ATEC courses and create of their own complex animations. In return these works will be submitted to festivals and other showcases.

David Parry

David Parry

David Parry has taught as an assistant professor since August 2007, and has helped to grow and shape the EMAC program. His work centers on understanding the complex cultural transformations brought about by the change from an analog archive to one whose substructure is a digital network. His current area of research is focused on understanding how the digital network produces a different type of public and alters civic practices, analyzing how power structures and relations between people and governance are altered in the digital era.

Currently he teaches courses on writing in the digital era, digital culture, and civic media. His presentations and published writing include works on digital games, web technologies, digital literacy, and the emerging networked public.

David writes for several online resources including his own blogs, Profound Heterogeneity (www.profoundheterogeneity.com), and Academhack (www.academhack.com), and has been featured in The Chronicle for his work on microblogging as pedagogical practice. He also is regularly invited by organizations to speak about digital literacy and the changing cultural landscape.

The School of Arts and Humanities at The University of Texas at Dallas invites scholars to apply for two positions in the Emerging Media and Communications (EMAC) Program beginning as early as August 2013: one at the Assistant Professor level and the other at the tenured level. The latter appointment seeks an individual to serve as the Director of the EMAC program. Appointment could begin as early as September 1, 2013; search will remain open until positions are filled.

Assistant Professor

Applicants at the tenure track level must have an MFA or PhD at the time of appointment.

Associate Professor/Professor

Applicants at the senior level must have a strong interest and demonstrated history in securing extramural research funding. Applicants must have a Ph.D. at the time of the appointment.

We seek outstanding teacher/scholars who take a variety of research approaches to emerging media and communications including a social scientific approach to the study of social media, broadly construed. Areas of expertise may include, but are not limited to, youth and media, networked journalism, online social networks, digital media and health, political communication, media globalization, digital media and learning, and big data and data journalism. We welcome applicants from a variety of disciplines, such as communication, humanities, information studies, sociology, education, and computer science.

Located within the School of Arts and Humanities, this young and innovative program emphasizes interdisciplinary study of digital and social media and addresses the importance of understanding the social and cultural implications of the digitally networked world, as well as research and development of new social and technological solutions and applications.

The EMAC program will be moving into the new Arts and Technology building at UT Dallas in the fall of 2013, EMAC offers the BA and MA in Emerging Media and Communications, EMAC faculty also advises doctoral students in the Arts and Technology Ph.D. program.

Review of applications will begin April 15, 2013, and will continue until the positions are filled; the starting date may be as early as August 2013. Indication of gender and ethnicity for affirmative action statistical purposes is requested as part of the application. Official transcripts must be submitted to the Faculty Records Office prior to the first day of official employment for those applicants selected to teach at the University.

The University of Texas at Dallas is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, citizenship status, Vietnam era or special disabled veteran’s status, or sexual orientation. UT Dallas strongly encourages applications from candidates who would enhance the diversity of the University’s faculty and administration.

To apply for the Assistant Professor position, applicants should submit (a) their current curriculum vitae, (b) a letter of interest (including research interests), and (c) at least three letters of recommendation via the online application form.

To apply for the tenured position, applicants should submit (a) their current curriculum vitae, (b) a letter of interest (including research interests, and (c) at least five letters of recommendation via the online application form.

How many earths can fit on the end of a pin?  If your using IBM Zurich’s newest nano-fabrication tool apparently about a hundred . Or close to a thousand if you prefer your scale comparisons to a grain of rice. Using a heated atomic scale silicon probe, scientists at IBM have created a precise method for etching and even sculpting materials on the nanoscale.

More information can be found on this project at Technology Review, and for more information on how art is mixing with sciences, visit artandatoms.com.

The School of Arts and Humanities has named ATEC Assistant Professor Todd Fechter the Victor Worsfold Teacher of the Year.

From left: Assistant Professor Todd Fechter, Dean Dennis Kratz and Professor Emeritus Victor Worsfold. Fechter was selected as the Victor Worsfold Teacher of the Year.

Fechter, who has experience working in television and film production, teaches courses in 3D computer animation in the school’s Arts and Technology (ATEC)program. He created the first online ATEC computer animation digital class archive, providing unlimited access to course materials and examples that allow for off-campus learning and review.

“Todd is an inspiring teacher, mentor and more. He has taken a leadership role in developing an animation program of the highest quality. His impact is already and quite literally visible in the superior work that our students are producing,” said Dr. Dennis M. Kratz, dean of the School of Arts and Humanities.

Fechter’s honor was part of the school’s Outstanding Faculty and Teaching Awards, which are presented yearly and are named for Professor Emeritus Victor Worsfold, who taught ethics and philosophy at UT Dallas from 1975 to 2001. Dr. Worsfold was present for the awards ceremony.

The Worsfold Teaching Assistant (TA) of the Year award went to LaToya Watkins, a PhD candidate in aesthetic studies.

Akin Babatunde and David Hanson were named Alumni of the Year. David Hanson received his PhD from UT Dallas in aesthetic studies and interactive arts and engineering. In 2003, he founded Hanson Robotics to pursue character robot research and applications.

Hanson creates androids – humanlike robots with intelligence. Through integrated research in cognitive artificial intelligence, bio-inspired mechanics, material science, sculpture and animation, expressive robotic faces and walking robot bodies, Hanson strives to bring robots to life. The walking, talking robots resulting from Hanson’s efforts have been recognized in various publications, including Wired and PC Magazine.

“David Hanson has helped revolutionize our notion of what a robot is and the possibilities of robotics in education. His robots with human faces are displayed around the world, adding luster to our aspiration of leadership at the intersection of arts and technology,” added Kratz.

As the Arts and Technology program continues to grow, three new faculty will join the program in spring 2013. A variety of new courses will be offered. View the full listing of ATEC and EMAC courses on CourseBook.

New Courses

A variety of new courses will be offered at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Visual Evidence is a multidisciplinary course, where we will look at exemplary visualizations in the broadest sense – from classic artworks, such as Altdorfer’s Battle of Alexander, to the latest scientific plots and info-graphics. Besides analyzing visualizations much like art historians traditionally do with artworks, the course will also include some practical exercise in producing and criticizing visualizations, ideally based on examples from the student’s original focus of study.

Participants will acquire essential skills of critical seeing, enabling them to persuade with better visualizations by applying the principle of creative destruction in a cognitive way.

Integrating visualization and visual studies, the course will include introductory lectures, multidisciplinary guest speakers from ATEC and beyond, as well as collaborative projects and talks by the students.

Students from ATEC, EMAC as well as Arts and Humanities will bring in their specific skills and are encouraged to learn from each other. We will cross-fertilize literature work, critical seeing, as well as data science skills (such as acquisition, cleaning, analysis, and visualization). Programming and math skills are not necessary but very useful.

ATEC 6389 Ecology of Complex Networks
Maximilian Schich

The Ecology of Complex Networks is a fundamental phenomenon that permeates data across multiple disciplines. This course will provide an introduction to this multidisciplinary phenomenon with a (non-exclusive) focus on the arts, humanities and culture. The course will provide an overview of the emerging state of the field and it’s connections to other relevant areas, such as biology, computer science, economics, engineering, math, physics, social science, technology, and others.
Participants will acquire a basic understanding of complex network phenomena in a variety of fields, including what is currently known as data science and digital humanities.

In addition to introductory lectures and multidisciplinary guest speakers from ATEC and beyond, students will form small teams to analyze, visualize and interpret complex network data. Students from ATEC, EMACS as well as Arts & Humanities will bring in their specific skills and are encouraged to collaborate and learn from each other. We will cross-fertilize literature work, critical seeing, as well as data skills (such as acquisition, cleaning, analysis, and visualization). Basic to advanced skills in programming, statistics and math are not a requirement but very useful. Requires permission of instructor.

ATEC 6389 Virtual Analog Computing
Paul Fishwick

How would you represent computer data (big and small), equations, and code if you were told to build rather than to write software? This is the question we will explore in this seminar. Most computing has been analog until fairly recently, and our representations of software artifacts has been limited by cost of deployment.

A Petri net machine encoded in the game of Minecraft

While our computers are digital, we are analog. Recent research in neuroscience and embodied cognition indicates that we “simulate” when we read and think. This suggests a new approach to software design where we evolve new embodied media to design and build software. This media includes 3D games, mixed reality, physical computing, and 3D printing. The idea is to explore new machines in virtual spaces, and to re- envision “software” by making it analog, more accessible, and engaging, for a wide audience.

The course will involve instructor lectures, invited lectures, student talks and projects. Both ATEC and Engineering (especially Computer Science) students are encouraged to take the class. The main prerequisites are a knowledge of at least one programming language, and an interest in arts-based design.

More information about this course

ATEC 6389 Translation of Spaces and Time
Frank Dufour and Rainer Schulte

The conceptual frame of the seminar will be based on the paradigm of translation. Together with the students, the instructors plan to build the vocabulary necessary to perform complex descriptions and analyses of representations of space and time in films, poems, music, novels, plays, and interactive narratives. George Steiner’s statement that all acts of interpretation and communication are acts of translation can serve as an entrance into the study of time and space.

By its very nature, translation establishes dynamic interactions from texts to texts and cultures to cultures. Thus, students will be able to identify and describe specific aspects of representations of space and time as they relate to cultural and artistic contexts. Furthermore, the instructors will make students aware of the existence of digital tools and techniques specially designed for the analysis of textual and multimedia contents. In addition, students will gain experience in the use of such tools to build models for the recording of the representation of time and space in literature, film, music, and theater. The seminar should be of particular interest to students in arts and technology, aesthetic studies, arts and performance, and world literature.

The ultimate goal of the seminar will be the work toward recommendations for digital software that would facilitate the dynamic representations of time and space in multimedia environments.

New Faculty

Three new faculty members will be joining Arts and Technology in spring 2013: Paul Fischwick, Maximilian Schich and Scott Swearingen.

Paul Fishwick
Distinguished Endowed Chair of Arts and Technology and Professor of Computer Science

Paul Fishwick is joining the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) in January 2013. He will be Distinguished Endowed Chair of Arts and Technology (ATEC) and Professor of Computer Science. Paul has six years of industry experience as a systems analyst working at Newport News Shipbuilding and at NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia.

He has been on the faculty at the University of Florida since 1986, and is Director of the Digital Arts and Sciences Programs there. His PhD was in Computer and Information Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Fishwick is active in modeling and simulation, as well as in the bridge areas spanning art, science, and engineering. He pioneered the area of aesthetic computing, resulting in an MIT Press edited volume in 2006.

He is a Fellow of the Society for Computer Simulation, served as General Chair of the Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), was a WSC Titan Speaker in 2009, and has delivered over fifteen keynote addresses at international conferences. He is Chair of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group in Simulation (SIGSIM). Fishwick has over 200 technical papers and has served on all major archival journal editorial boards related to simulation, including ACM Transactions on Modeling and Simulation (TOMACS) where he was a founding area editor of modeling methodology in 1990.

Maximilian Schich
Associate Professor

Dr. Maximilian Schich is an art historian, joining The University of Texas at Dallas as an Associate Professor for Art and Technology in January 2013. He works to converge hermeneutics, information visualization, computer science, and physics to understand art, history, and culture.

Recently, Maximilian worked on complex networks in the arts and humanities with Dirk Helbing, FuturICT coordinator at ETH Zurich (2012), and Albert-László Barabási, complex network physicist at Northeastern University in Boston (2008-2012). He was a DFG Research Fellow (2009-2012) and received funding from the Special Innovation Fund of the President of Max-Planck-Society (2008).

Previously, Max obtained his PhD in Art History from Humboldt-University in Berlin (2007), and his MA in Art History, Classic Archaeology, and Psychology from Ludwig Maximilians University Munich (2001). Besides, he looks back at over a decade of consulting experience, working with (graph) data in libraries, museums, and large research projects (1996-2008).

Maximilian is the organizing chair of the ongoing NetSci symposia series on Arts, Humanities, and Complex Networks, as well as an Editorial Advisor at Leonardo Journal (MIT-Press). He publishes in multiple disciplines and is a prolific speaker, translating his ideas to diverse audiences across academia and industry.

Teaching at UT Dallas, Maximilian Schich aims to raise visual literacy (Visual Evidence) and provide students with a multidisciplinary perspective (Ecology of Complex Networks in Arts, Culture, and Beyond). Both aspects count on Art and Technology as key ingredients to further our understanding of our increasingly complex world.

Scott Swearingen
Associate Professor

Scott Swearingen is an artist, developer, and educator who creates interactive multimedia spaces that blur the boundaries between the virtual and practical. He has been working at the intersection of art and technology for nearly 20 years specializing in the categories of digital imaging, kinetic sculpture, video games, and virtual environments.

His work has been widely published and has garnered recognition from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences as well as the Game Developers Choice Awards. He has collaborated on several award-winning franchises including Medal of Honor, The Simpsons, Dead Space and The Sims.

As a professional designer, Scott is responsible for deploying game systems, prototyping mechanics, and crafting the overall user experience. He has partnered with and been featured by such notable companies as CompuServe, Electronic Arts, and MAXIS.

Scott has also instructed on Game Design and Virtual Environments at The University of Texas at Dallas as an Assistant Professor. Since then, many of his former students have gone to excel in academia and at various industry studios including iD Software, Gearbox Software, and DreamWorks Animation SKG.

His personal interests bridge installation art with short-form game design. While Scott’s early work embodied this in spaces contextually bound to themes of navigation, his art is becoming increasingly haptic-driven in concept.

Arts and Technology faculty Drs. Thomas Linehan and Mihai Nadin will be among 14 faculty honored by the University with an Investiture Ceremony on Monday, Oct. 22.

Dr. Thomas Linehan

A chair or professorship is among the highest academic honors that the University can bestow on a faculty member, and it lasts as long as the University exists.

It is also an enduring tribute to the donor who establishes it. Endowed chairs and professorships are filled by faculty members who are recognized industry leaders, perform groundbreaking research, mentor PhD candidates and junior faculty, and attract talented undergraduates.

Dr. Mihai Nadin

“The endowed professorships and chairs are important to the entire community and crucial to the success of the University,” said UT Dallas President David E. Daniel. “It’s all about discovery, change and innovation. The very best scholars want to be at those institutions where they’re constantly re-inventing the future. The endowed professorships and chairs are crucial to attracting and retaining the best talent.”

Linehan is director of the Institute for Interactive Arts and Engineering as well as Arts and Humanities Distinguished Chair. He has a background in both corporate management and educational administration. He has served as a college president, a corporate vice president, an associate dean, a research laboratory director, a professor and a public school teacher.

“UT Dallas students are the smartest I’ve taught,” Linehan said. “Most of them write very well, so it gives me great hope that the stories of the future will come out of this generation. They’ve got good, fresh ideas. This university is a university for this century.”

Nadin is Professor of Computer Science and Interactive Media and Ashbel Smith Professor. He is credited with introducing various terms and phrases that have found wide usage throughout society, including “semiotic machine,” “the civilization of illiteracy” and “anticipatory computing.”

“I am teaching because it gives me a chance to continue learning, and boy, do I learn at UT Dallas,” said Nadin.

The Investiture Ceremony will be held on Monday, Oct. 22 at 2:30 p.m. in Naveen Jindal SOM Davidson’s Auditorium.

Bonnie Pitman served as a leader of the Dallas Museum of Art for more than a decade. She is now a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the University.

Bonnie Pitman, a guiding force in remaking and advancing the reputation of the Dallas Museum of Art, recently joined the faculty of the School of Arts and Humanities.

As Distinguished Scholar in Residence, she is charged with creating new methods of education, focusing much of her expertise in technology and emerging media in helping to build the national reputation of the school.

“The University is fortunate to have such an innovative thinker join our faculty,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Hobson Wildenthal. “Attracting distinguished leaders indicates high-caliber academics and research. The University and the community will surely benefit from Bonnie Pitman’s wealth of experience.”

Pitman arrived at the DMA in 2000 as deputy director and was named Eugene McDermott Director in 2008 before departing in May 2011. Under her leadership, the museum found new ways to engage audiences, dynamically build the collections and present major exhibitions and innovative programs to the community.

“I am honored to be joining the innovative faculty and research staff in the School of Arts and Humanities, and I do so largely because UT Dallas is deeply committed to creating new models for learning and collaboration,” said Pitman. “The leadership and support of Provost Wildenthal and Dean (Dennis) Kratz is vital to the development of interdisciplinary education and research programs in the School.  A primary aspect of my work will be to strengthen the relationships between UT Dallas and other educational, cultural and health-related institutions in our region, nationally and internationally.”

Under Pitman’s leadership, DMA initiatives like the Center for Creative Connections challenged visitors to engage with art. Late Nights at the DMA brought performances, concerts, readings, film screenings and family programs into the galleries. Pitman co-authored a book, Ignite the Power of Art: Advancing Visitor Engagement in Museums, which documented a seven-year research project that examined how people connect with art at the museum. She also served as editor and an author of The Dallas Museum of Art, Guide to the Collection.

“UT Dallas aspires to be at the forefront of higher education, and a transformative leader such as Ms. Pitman is the ideal person to help the University achieve that goal,” said Kratz, dean of the School of Arts and Humanities.

Kratz said Pitman’s use of technology in education also makes her a great asset to the University. He cited the smARTphone Tours at the DMA that introduced interactive content to exhibits as an example of how Pitman’s expertise fits the University’s focus, especially through its Arts and Technology (ATEC) program.

Dr. Richard Brettell, also a former director of the DMA, will work closely with Pitman.

“She has expertise in using technology to transform the educational and aesthetic experience. Working beside our other faculty, she will fashion a new model for integrating the arts throughout the educational experience,” said Kratz.

Pitman joins another former director of the DMA on faculty. She will co-teach a course in the fall with Dr. Richard Brettell, Margaret McDermott Distinguished Chair of Art and Aesthetics at UT Dallas. Pitman will also work closely with Brettell as the co-director of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Museums (CISM).

“Bonnie’s vision and deep museum experience will bring a wealth of new connections and ideas to CISM,” Brettell said.

The American Association of Museums recently awarded Pitman the Distinguished Service Award, the profession’s highest recognition.  She has degrees in art history from Sweet Briar College and Tulane University and has worked as a director, educator and curator at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Canada, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archives and Bay Area Discovery Museum.

The following are excerpts from “Reinventing the Arts,” the cover article in the just-released edition of UT Dallas Magazine.

The piece was written by Gaile Robinson, an area art critic and arts writer. The full version of this story and other articles are available in the magazine’s online edition.

What do you get when you put an animator, a physicist and a painter together?

Don’t anticipate a punch line; there isn’t one. Not yet.

“The answer will come in the future,” said Dr. Dennis Kratz, dean of theSchool of Arts and Humanities, “in a place designed to create pathways among people, projects and ideas.”

As dean, Kratz has developed an interdisciplinary curriculum that fosters collaboration at the intersection of arts and humanities, science and engineering.

“There is a statistical correlation between Nobel Prize winners and art,” Kratz said. “It enables them to see from a different viewpoint.”

Kratz’s viewpoint, a broadminded administration, and a creative faculty eager to transform the traditions of a typical liberal arts program, have redefined how the arts and humanities are viewed and taught at UT Dallas.

“This isn’t about putting art in a science-based university. It’s about reconstructing the way we educate people to bring science, art and humanities together,” Kratz said.

“We want to suffuse everything.”

Kratz’s manifest destiny—geographically and cognitively—is recognized by way of the Arts and Technology Program, Texas’s first degree that combines computer science and engineering with arts and humanities.

ATEC is a contemporary hybrid, a joint creation of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science and the School of Arts and Humanities.

New ATEC Building Demonstrates Commitment

“It’s right on the center of campus. This is prominent real estate. This tells you about the University’s own priorities.” said Dr. Richard Brettell, the Margaret M. McDermott Distinguished Chair of Art and Aesthetic Studies.

The 155,000-square-foot, $60 million project is scheduled for its ribbon cutting in 2013. It will provide 2,150 new classroom seats and 50 offices, as well as a lecture hall that will seat 1,200. The building was designed by Studios Architecture, the same firm that designed the Googleplex, Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Student Perspectives Broaden

Dr. Dave Parry, assistant professor of Arts and Technology and emerging media and communication.

“Humanities students often have no understanding why the Internet is fundamentally different from other forms of communication. The computer science students get it. But the humanities students understand the critical issues and why it matters on a cultural level. When you get them together it’s more productive,” said Dr. David Parry, assistant professor of ATEC and emerging media and communication

Parry believes there is an absolute necessity to be digitally literate. “In the future, the people who have power—power in a good way, power over their own lives—will be digitally literate,” he said. “There will be people who understand how to make, use, manipulate, critique and engage with social media in all its forms and there will be people who will just consume.” Parry sees his job as moving the consumers into the group of producers.

Recent Hires Show Emphasis

Dr. Roger Malina is a physicist, astronomer and executive editor of the Leonardo publications at MIT Press. With dual appointments as a distinguished professor of arts and technology in the School of Arts and Humanities and a professor of physics in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, he focuses on connections among the natural sciences and arts, design and the humanities.

“In my career, I’ve had the scientific strand and the art and technology strand. This is an opportunity to combine both,” Malina said. “There are not many places in the U.S. or internationally that are doing what we’re trying to accomplish here—merge arts and humanities with science and engineering at a deep level and with the resources to support it.”

UT Dallas Magazine includes the full version of “Reinventing the Arts.” The magazine is available for viewing online.