Madeira Program

Overview | Curriculum | Madeira Program | Capstone Project | Admissions | Contact

Human Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Madeira offer a professional Master’s double degree in Human-Computer Interaction under the CMU/Portugal agreement and with the cooperation of the Information and Communication Technologies Institute (ICTI).

Students who enroll in the MHCI program through ICTI take courses at Carnegie Mellon’s HCII and at the University of Madeira’s Mathematics and Engineering department and complete a master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction over a 16-month period. During this time, students complete ten traditional semester-long courses and a team-oriented, real-world studio project spread out between one semester at Carnegie Mellon and two in Portugal. By taking a large variety of course, students obtain a broad background in computer science, human behavior, design as well as evaluation and assessment. Additionally, students may elect to take more advanced courses to deepen their knowledge in a more specific area.

Program Overview:

1. Goals
The Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Masters program prepares you to participate in the design and implementation of software systems that can be used easily, effectively and enjoyably. With a Masters in HCI, you will be well prepared to contribute to the multi-disciplinary teams that typically construct software systems. You will become broadly knowledgeable about techniques for building successful user interfaces, design principles that make user interfaces visually clear and appealing, techniques for identifying needs for software and its success, and the people and organizations that will use their systems.

2. Interdisciplinary Orientation
The MHCI program has an interdisciplinary orientation, with faculty and students from Computer Science, Design and Behavioral Sciences. The masters takes 3 semesters to complete, one of which is at Carnegie Mellon and two of which are at University of Madeira. The curriculum consists of ten conventional semester-long courses and an extensive team-oriented studio/project experience. You will take courses to obtain a broad background in computer science, human behavior, design, and evaluation and assessment, and you may elect to take more advanced courses to deepen your knowledge in a more specific area.

3. Capstone Project
The MHCI Project course is an 8-month long capstone project for the Masters of HCI program and integrates everything the students have learned in their coursework into one "end-to-end" experience. Students work in interdisciplinary teams with an industry sponsor to produce a working prototype that serves as a proof of concept of a novel service or product idea.

Past and current sponsors in the Portugal program include Portugal Telecom, MEO, Sapo, Critical Software, Promosoft, Novabase, PT Inovação and Vodafone.

To Apply:

To apply, visit the Madeira program application website.

Students successfully admitted to the MHCI program through ICTI may be eligible for scholarships. View Madeira’s website for more information.