The Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society (ATLAS) is a radically interdisciplinary research and teaching institute in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. Dedicated to integrating information technologies into all facets of modern life, ATLAS researchers are dreamers and doers who seek to predict the future by inventing it. Our graduate programs in Creative Technology & Design attract and breed technology visionaries and virtuosos who reach beyond convention, take risks and innovate.
The interdisciplinary PhD in Creative Technology & Design attracts highly motivated inventors and investigators whose interests at the intersections of technology, media and society fall outside traditional disciplinary PhD programs. Students have come from electrical engineering, computer science, landscape architecture, journalism, music, art history, physics and library science.
The program emphasizes out-of-the-box invention and radical investigation. We are looking for people who want to improve the world through technology, who aren’t afraid to think beyond conventional wisdom, and who have or are prepared to gain the technical expertise to carry out their vision.
We also offer a professional Master of Science in Creative Technology & Design with two tracks:
- Creative Industries
- Social Impact
The most exciting opportunities of the future will go to those who transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries. ATLAS programs prepare students to work in emerging, interdisciplinary fields, including roles that leverage technology for human need and make an impact on the world’s greatest problems. ATLAS emphasize out-of-the-box invention and radical investigation. We seek people who aim to improve the world through technology, who aren’t afraid to think beyond conventional wisdom, and who are ready to gain the technical expertise to carry out their vision.
ATLAS encourages students to work with individual faculty members in ATLAS centers and laboratories on a wide range of topics, including (but hardly limited to) human-robot interaction, mixed reality environments, playful computation and computational thinking, critical making, open source hardware, language and technology, sound synthesis and games, and more. We welcome new ideas and provide space to investigate them.
Creative Technology & Design graduates are highly valued in the workplace for their diverse range of expertise and ability to collaborate across traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Alumni have gone on to work at:
- Ashoka Changemakers
- Coursera
- Dar Si Hmad for Development, Education and Culture
- Dimagi
- Foraker Design
- Georgetown University
- Google
- Information Technology University Pakistan
- Inveneo
- Los Alamos National Labs
- Mercy Corps
- National Center for Women & IT
- Nethope
- QualComm
- Subset Games
- Tetra Tech
- University of Washington
- USAID
- US Geological Survey
- VillageReach
- Western States Arts Federation
- World Vision
Our graduates get great jobs. Unlike other professional master’s programs that target a narrow category of employers, graduates of our programs find jobs in a diverse range of industries, from online education, entertainment, and communications companies, to universities, government agencies and NGOs. According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report (2010), the projected growth in related industries (i.e. multimedia artists and animators, software developers, web developers, social scientists) ranges from average to much faster than average. Job growth is highest (faster or much faster than average) in Web Development and Software Development.
Salary will vary depending on the degree program, focus, size of a company, location and the graduate’s previous years of work experience. According to glassdoor.com, in 2016 the national average salary for a creative technologist in 2015 was $86,000.
