Course Overview
We live in an increasingly technologized and digitized society. To participate in society, people need to be able to interact with, use, and understand technologies. But wherever people encounter technology, problems can arise, and specialists are needed who can understand human-technology interaction and understandably communicate technical content. Our master's program in Human-Technology Interaction and Communication at RWTH Aachen University is tailored to educate and train such specialists. The curriculum of the degree program of Human-Technology Interaction and Communication, or MTIK for short, comprises the following:
Since nowadays, technology shapes all areas of our lives, both professionally and privately, the program is set up to deal with human-technology interaction and communication in many different contexts, including (electric) mobility and transport, IT and production, (renewable) energies and climate change, medical technology and healthcare, education and policy.
This master's program is interdisciplinary. Thanks to being offered at a technical university, the program is well positioned to bridge the gap between the different ways of thinking in the humanities and technical sciences. The Human-Technology Interaction and Communication degree program is unique in Germany regarding its orientation and structure. It is strongly influenced by the technical orientation of the university and the integration of its Faculty of Arts and Humanities into this context. The curriculum combines a high engineering component with a focus on written communication and electronic media. This joint major combines two areas of study: The first field is communication science, and the second is fundamentals of either computer science, mechanical engineering, or electrical engineering.
On the one hand, the master's program aims to expand the specialized knowledge and methods of the bachelor's program and, on the other hand, to train specific professional knowledge and skills. Students from purely technical disciplines who want to transfer into this combination track can make up for the missing communication science knowledge by fulfilling additional requirements. Another option is to pursue the program in addition to a pure computer science, mechanical engineering, or electrical engineering master's degree as a so-called double degree program.
This master's program is research-oriented. Students learn to reflect on complex scientific problems, understand larger technical contexts, familiarize themselves quickly with new issues, design solutions to problems, and apply them based on theories and models. The research orientation of the program also requires students to always explore application-oriented perspectives.