Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies

at Kaplan Group - Arizona State University - Polytechnic Campus USA

The BA program in communication is a broad-based program that trains individuals to speak and write competently, manage relationships well, problem-solve effectively and understand the role and function of communication in public forums, organizational settings, relational exchanges and intercultural situations.

The curriculum provides an extensive understanding of the practical, theoretical and professional distinctions of today's field of communication. Utilizing the nationally recognized CommLabASU, students perform in-depth study of what contributes to and detracts from effective human communication, recognizing that the art of communication is far more nuanced than simple speaking and writing prowess.

Students may pursue one or more focus areas that are designed to amplify their academic and professional preparation in specific contexts.

The BA in business with a concentration in technology is an innovative, transdisciplinary degree program intended to prepare students for positions in a variety of professions in which business and technology play an important role.

This program incorporates business knowledge and a strong skill set in technology and is designed to help students realize and analyze the relationship between business and technology.

The BS program in environmental and resource management provides critical scientific, engineering, regulatory and management skills for students who plan to pursue careers in industry, government or nongovernmental organizations, focusing on ensuring the health of engineered and natural ecosystems and mitigating the environmental impact of the industrial world.

The curriculum combines a strong foundation in chemistry, physics, biology and mathematics with a solid grounding in environmental law and policy, engineering and management principles. Students learn to apply environmental technologies to manage engineered environmental operations such as drinking water and wastewater treatment, management of hazardous and solid wastes, and the control of industrial and mobile sources of air pollution. They study OSHA, EPA and DOT regulations on health and safety, as well as strategies to protect workers in hazardous environments. International environmental issues and legal frameworks are included along with U.S. environmental laws.

The MS program in human systems engineering in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering provides students with a deep understanding of the science of human performance and experience.

Students learn to use methods and tools that enable them to apply this understanding, to design and problem solve in a wide variety of domains such as product usability, learning design, sports performance, cyber security, human-robot teaming and workplace and patient safety.

A broad range of professions need experts in human factors to work on problems that involve an understanding of human performance. Students gain real-world experience by tackling projects that examine cutting-edge issues such as cell phones as a source of driver distraction, detection of improvised explosive devices, process optimization in health care and even control of unmanned vehicles.

Interest areas include user experience, aviation human factors, cognitive performance, consumer psychology, transportation human factors, patient safety, effective teamwork, human-robot teaming, health psychology, learning optimization, social cognition, threat detection and sports psychology.

The BS program in graphic information technology with a concentration in user experience is designed to provide students with an interdisciplinary foundation in design, research and communication, to prepare them for the rapidly growing area of user experience.

The concentration provides students with a conceptual understanding and applied skills in methods of gathering user information, analyzing data and communicating through visual design technologies. Although its disciplinary home and primary focus is graphic information technology, the concentration includes courses from the fields of human systems engineering and technical communication in order to provide students with the multiple perspectives and complementary skills needed for user experience work.

The MSTech degree program offers a concentration in aviation management and human factors.

Students in this program are provided with professional skills and exposed to educational theory and practice for use in leadership positions within the aviation industry. Management and leadership positions at airports of all sizes require skills in labor management and policy, economics and analysis, national aerospace structure and aviation law, as well as an awareness of unmanned systems and flight operations. Those interested in the human systems and safety area find exceptional use of educational discussions on human performance and the human limitations and capabilities of working within a complex system.

Courses are offered at the Polytechnic campus, with some courses offered as iCourses.

The BA program in the history of science, ideas and innovation provides students with a grounding in the social and intellectual issues central to understanding the role of science, technology and ideas from past to present.

This transdisciplinary degree program encourages students to combine coursework in the natural and applied sciences with historical and philosophical approaches to social knowledge. Students majoring or minoring in the history of science, ideas and innovation program graduate with a foundation for advanced work either in the humanities, the sciences or in transdisciplinary fields bridging written and technical work.

The MS program in human systems engineering with a concentration in health systems provides current and future managers with the technical expertise to lead efficient health care systems by identifying needs through system modeling, field research and analytics to improve existing health care systems. This concentration program also attunes students to perform research and develop innovative approaches to transform health care from reactive to proactive systems, which reflect National Institute of Health initiatives.

In the BA program in business with a concentration in business administration, students gain a breadth of knowledge and the skills needed for managing business operations. The program provides the full business core plus a concentration with 18 hours of coursework focused on skills such as forecasting demand; planning inventory; purchasing services; conducting skillful negotiations; building strategies for the future and managing people, finances and risk.

The BS degree program in human systems engineering with a concentration in user experience combines topics in psychology, the web, human factors, visual displays and technical communications to make products and services useful, usable and desirable.

Students learn how to research customer needs, identify criteria for successful products and services, prototype those products and services, and refine them through usability testing and other user-centered methods.