The digital path is a focused set of advanced courses within the Design, Theory and Practice Graduate Concentration that will actively seek ways to enrich the possibilities within that concentration. Students will bring digital expertise to studies of watercolor, design methods, theory and other topics and will, in turn, use those studies to understand, question and extend the role of the computer.

All digital path courses are open to undergraduate and graduate students.

The digital path aims to allow students the opportunity to learn and use advanced digital methods, both practical and theoretical, that are studied and applied in a variety of design situations. The digital course sequence includes classes in:

Digital Methods I    Seeing though modeling, lighting, animation, particle systems.
Digital Methods II    Development of scripting and parametric design tools.
Digital Fabrication I    Basic introduction to the use of digital fabrication modeling and production.
Digital Fabrication II     Implementation of generative design tools and large scale fabrication.
Digital theory    Readings on the use of the machine, historic and contemporary

Both the March I and the March II curricula allow room for these additional course:
    * CoA electives
    * research independent study (individual or based upon on-going research at the DDC)
    * electives from Computer Science and Charlotte Visualization Center

Digital Methods I (Arch 4050)
A class that focuses on intermediate to advanced techniques in photo and video editing (Phototshop/Final Cut) and in 3D modeling (Maya). The primary objectives of this course are to provide each student with a set of concepts and skills involving digital tools that are relevant to the architectural design and representation process, as well as provide each student with a broad conceptual knowledge of the technologies that are used in each software application. Special emphasis is placed on integration of these techniques in architectural design settings.

Digital Methods II
(Arch 4050)
This course will add time-based and parametric methods to the foundation of digital design techniques learned in Digital Methods I.  This course will explore generative methods of design where by the parameters of a design are defined, not the specific form.  This will be accomplished using time and force based deformations, using specific construction methods, which can accommodate a series of forms, and using simulated data to create highly efficient constructions.

Digital Craft I: Digital Fabrication
(Arch 4050/6050)
This course will employ ideas from industrial, mechanical, and technical construction techniques to formulate designs for spaces and programs within a digital environment.  We will explore the changes, which our profession is going through as we adjust to drawings, which no longer only represent, they make.  Using parametric design techniques, spaces and designs will be formed within the computer through techniques of dynamic systems and modifiers.  The course will analyze many of the recent projects being constructed around the world on varying scales and discuss the success of the relational programs, constructed spaces, and conceptual ideas.

Digital Craft II: Advanced Digital Fabrication
(Arch 4050/6050)
Implementation of generative design tools and large scale fabrication. Porgrams will include parametirc modelers and a wider selection of fabrication tools available across campus and in industry.

Digital Theory: iDiscourse
(Arch 6503)
This course will comparatively analyze work based on aesthetics and beauty (as defined through history), as it is one of the few fundamental design criteria applicable to digital design and will enhance the level of critical thinking devoted to the development, representation, and creation of architectural work within the set of tools offered by computer programs and computer controlled machines. Emphasis will be placed on the students verbal and writing skills with relation to an architectural vocabulary. This course will help to develop an understanding of the fundamentals of digital design & representation techniques, in the context of theoretical works since the industrial revolution. Using these fundamentals we will develop a set of aesthetic, performative, and method based criteria through which we may analyze digital work. This framework will assist the students to reflect upon and develop their own set of digital design values.

CoIt electives: Game Design
(CS 4455) Prof. Tiffany Barnes
This course will provide an introduction to current techniques for electronic game design and programming. Topics will include computer graphics, motion generation, behavioral control for autonomous characters, interaction structure, and social and interface issues of multi-user play, communication between non-CS team members and soon-to-be computer scientists on game development projects, concepts and strategies for making design decisions, tools, techniques, and ideas for interface design and the importance of good game design.

Visual Communication in Computer Graphics and Art
(ITCS 5010) Prof. Kocera
Computer science education focuses on the technical aspects of computer graphics - or, as one of my students once put it: Computer graphics is mostly computers, but little graphics. We will look at the many fields that are relevant to the contents of the images we create with our programs: Photography, Perceptual Psychology, Medical and Technical Illustration and Art. The class will be interdisciplinary, mixing computer science students with their colleagues from the arts and architecture.

Research Independent Study: Independent Study
(Arch 6890)
Based on the individual interest of the student or upon on-going research at the Digital Design Center, this course would allow students to pursue independent research on topics related to digital modeling, fabrications or method.