STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (WTAJ) — A new school year brings a new major to an area university.
The new human centered design and development major at Penn State is offering classes to teach students how to develop software, like apps.
Lauren Pearl loves to program and code, but wants to incorporate that with art and working with people in a career.
She says Penn State’s new Human Centered Design and Development major in the Information Sciences and Technology college is giving her that opportunity.
“It’s definitely extremely unique that Penn State was able to do all of this and actually recognize it as a need for an entire major, instead of just a path of focus under IST,” Pearl, said.
Penn State Professor John Carroll says most of the Human Centered Design and Development Classes within the I-S-T major were full, so the university decided it was time to expand.
“By calling it out as a major and developing it, adding courses, articulating the content more, giving students more different opportunities, we think we’ll attract more students,” Professor Carroll, said.
Students will learn everything from creating apps or a voice activated assistant like Alexa, to creating software that helps farmers.
“I was so pleased after just having the first class,” Pearl, said. “I was extremely impressed with the professor and he seems like he knows a lot, he has a great background.”
There’s no specific concentration or track within the major being offered right now. Professor Carroll says he imagines development and design could each become tracks, down the road.