What is Digital Sciences?


Kent State University's School of Digital Sciences is a cutting-edge new interdisciplinary school designed to train tomorrow's digital leaders.  Integrating elements of computer science, computer information systems, computer technology, library information science, visual communication design, journalism, communication studies, and instructional technology, it fosters a broad exposure to digital technologies as used by a wide range of professions and organizations.

Structurally, the School of Digital Sciences is an independent school, sitting beside Kent State University's ten Colleges. The School of Digital Sciences is also an interdisciplinary school, bringing together faculty from across the university to teach courses for the school or collaborate on interdisciplinary research.

The school offers Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Digital Sciences, an undergraduate Minor, a Master of Digital Sciences degree, and a post-Baccalaureate (graduate) certificate in Enterprise Architecture.

 

WHERE DID THE TERM "DIGITAL SCIENCES" ORIGINATE?  WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

While "Digital Sciences" is not yet a well-understood term, interdisciplinary curricula in digital disciplines in general are developing nationwide.  Nearby Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, and Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, are two well-known examples of computing units aggregated into a traditional College structure.

While not digital "science", a well-understood and closely related discipline is digital "humanities".  Established in the 1970s and 1980s, Digital Humanities or Digital Studies programs exist at many major universities, including the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Southern California, Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin, Loyola University Chicago, Duke University, George Mason University, MIT, Yale University, and Dartmouth College. A digital humanities program typically brings together expertise from some subset of library information science, computer science, journalism, communication studies, visual design, history, the arts, and others. 

Like digital humanities, Kent State University’s School of Digital Sciences also brings together expertise from library information science, computer science, journalism, communication studies, and visual design, but then diverges to include business and technology.  As a result, Digital Sciences has a different focus from digital humanities, but these two interdisciplinary programs also have many commonalities.

 

INFORMATION FOR EMPLOYERS

Is your company a potential employer for Digital Sciences students?  The fact sheet above briefly describes:

  • The School of Digital Sciences
  • The Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts in Digital Sciences, including the courses required for the major
  • The six concentrations in the Bachelor of Science, including the courses required for each concentration
  • A comparison of the skill set of Digital Sciences graduates to those of graduates from Computer Science, Computer Information Systems, and Visual Communication Design

For further comparisons, see the web page "Compared to...

 
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