This fall, the Digital Media Design major at Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science will evolve into the newly announced Visual and Interactive Computing degree.
VIC will retain a majority of the current program's curriculum while expanding student skills in artificial intelligence and immersive media. The last cohort of undergraduates entering the existing DMD degree will join during the fall 2026 admissions cycle, while future students will apply directly to the VIC program.
DMD program director Adam Mally wrote in a statement that the new program is a response to how virtual and interactive computing have become “omnipresent in the technology we interact with on a daily basis.”
“This technology has and will continue to become more central to our daily lives and thus the need for people proficient in computer science and design will likewise continue to grow,” Mally added, pointing to examples ranging from medical imaging tools to graphics in the games people play on their phones.
The DMD curriculum currently combines coursework from the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and the Computer and Information Science department. VIC continues that collaboration and maintains the core curriculum, but adds “greater flexibility for students to pursue coursework in AI and other emerging areas of visual computing that align with their interests.”
One notable course difference is the addition of required courses and electives — including CIS 4120: Introduction to Human Computer Interaction.
According to computer science lecturer Talie Massachi, the course equips students with the skills to design effective interfaces for users with a focus on the full development process from building and experimenting to user tests. She added that its inclusion in the VIC curriculum serves as an example of how Penn is teaching students to effectively harness modern technologies.
“There are certain generative AI systems that are now integral to how people design in the real world so we need to understand how we can use them in class but it doesn’t replace the other work we are doing,” Massachi added. “It’s just another tool you can use as part of your toolbox.”
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There will be no significant change to the Fine Arts & Design Electives included in the VIC curriculum.
According to Fine Arts lecturer Guava Rhee, the increased openness towards AI usage is a positive shift.
“It’s a good approach to not pretend that AI doesn’t exist but to acknowledge that it’s already part of what students are used to and want to utilize,” she said.
While VIC will soon entirely replace DMD, students currently enrolled in the latter can choose to remain in it until graduation or transfer to the former before the start of their junior year.
Engineering sophomore Alexander Liu — who is currently pursuing a DMD degree — said that the new program “seems almost identical to DMD, but with extra AI coursework put in.”
To him, there is a “tradeoff” when switching to VIC — as DMD has a “good network” and VIC is “very new.” He added that both programs are “relatively unknown” so there is “not a huge risk of switching.”
“I talked with my fellow DMD students and we all think it’s a pretty good major,” Liu said. “It feels like Penn is pivoting to anticipate the effects of AI on the computer graphics industry.”
VIC is among Penn’s continued efforts to integrate AI programming across the University. Last week, the Engineering School launched a joint master’s degree in AI and data science, beginning fall 2027.
