Degree Programs

Master of Science

The Master of Science (MS) program provides advanced training in Media Arts and Technology. The master's program typically takes two full-time academic years to complete. The goal of the first year of MAT's intensive interdisciplinary curriculum is to provide a common foundation of aesthetics, history, and technology in the core areas of electronic music and sound design, visual and spatial arts, and multimedia engineering.

The second-year electives allow students to focus on their area of research. All candidates are expected to complete an advanced project or thesis in the second year. The project option involves artistic production and/or media research supervised by MAT faculty. The thesis option involves the writing of an extended research paper.

Unit Requirements

The MS degree requires a minimum of 48 units of graduate level core courses and elective courses. 36 units must be upper-division or graduate level. No more than 12 units total of the following courses may be applied: MAT 293 (Internship in Industry), MAT 299 (Independent Study), or MAT 596 (Directed Research).

Degree Requirements

Each student's area of emphasis and course list is determined in consultation with a MAT faculty committee, consisting of three UC ladder-rank faculty members (i.e., Assistant, Associate, or full Professor). Two of these members, including the chair of the committee, must be MAT faculty. Optionally, a fourth member can also serve at the discretion of the degree committee chair. This person can be a Lecturer or anyone from inside or outside UCSB. The committee is nominated by the degree committee chair in consultation with the student and is approved by the graduate dean.

More information about the degree requirements can be found in the program description in the UCSB catalog:

UCSB General Catalog - Media Arts & Techology, Master of Science

UCSB General Catalog - Media Arts & Techology, PhD

Thesis or Project Plan

A master's degree may be earned in each of the three areas of emphasis according to two plans; thesis or project.

• Plan 1 (thesis)
• Under the thesis plan, a student must submit an acceptable thesis, completed under the supervision of an MAT faculty member and approved by the student's committee. A thesis is a substantial work of research or production that is a novel contribution to the field. The thesis must meet the filing requirements of Graduate Division. The student will give a public lecture based on the thesis.

• Plan 2 (project)
• Under the project plan, a student must submit an acceptable project, completed under the supervision of an MAT faculty member and approved by the student's committee. The project will consist of a digital media work resulting in a prototype, installation, or performance. An academic paper, typically 30 pages in length (or 9000 words), will describe the project, and the student will make a public presentation of the work. A draft of the paper will be made available to the student's degree committee at the time of the pre-presentation, which takes place two weeks before the final presentation. The project and documentation will be evaluated by the student's committee.

PhD Program

The Doctor of Philosophy degree in Media Arts and Technology prepares students for academic research and teaching positions, for research and leadership positions in industry and government, and for leadership positions in relevant artistic fields. The MAT Ph.D. curriculum provides a common foundation of the field's aesthetics, history, and technology through rigorous coursework, seminars, and active participation with the faculty. Each Ph.D. student participates in interdisciplinary projects and performs innovative research, under the supervision of a faculty advisor and committee, leading to a dissertation that exhibits significant and novel research in the student's area of specialization.

There are three main requirements in order to complete a Ph.D. in Media Arts and Technology: coursework, the qualifying exam, and research leading to a doctoral dissertation (including the dissertation proposal and the dissertation defense). The student advances to candidacy after completion of the coursework requirement and the qualifying exam.

Degree Requirements

Students entering directly into the PhD without a master's degree must first meet the equivalent course requirement of the MAT master's program, which is 48 units of non-thesis-related upper-division (100 series undergraduate) and graduate courses. In addition, they must successfully complete a master's thesis or project and present it publicly. Students who enter the PhD program with an MS or MA in a discipline other than MAT are required to take or place out of the MAT core courses. MAT PhD graduates will be expected to have broad knowledge in all fields of digital multimedia and have a deep and current understanding of at least one of these areas. The MAT PhD is not a unit-count degree; rather, it is awarded upon demonstration of academic excellence and performance of original research. Students will complete an individual program of study determined in consultation with their PhD committee. This will typically include a mix of MAT elective courses, seminars, directed reading for research, and dissertation research. Specific course requirements shall be identified on a per-student basis, under advisement with each candidate's doctoral committee. It is the responsibility of the student's advisor, in consultation with the PhD committee and the MAT graduate advisor, to ensure that the candidate has achieved the appropriate breadth and depth from coursework and independent study. In order to proceed to dissertation research, Ph.D. students must pass a thorough qualifying exam, after completing their coursework.

The Ph.D. dissertation is a novel and substantial research work that makes a significant contribution to the field. The dissertation is done under the supervision of an MAT faculty advisor (degree committee chair) and the doctoral committee, consisting of three UC ladder-rank faculty (i.e., Assistant, Associate, or full Professor), at least two of whom must be from MAT. Optionally, a fourth member can also serve at the discretion of the degree committee chair. This person can be a Lecturer or anyone from inside or outside UCSB. The committee is nominated by the degree committee chair in consultation with the student and is approved by the graduate dean.

The committee must approve a dissertation proposal that describes the proposed research and presents a comprehensive plan for the dissertation. After the dissertation is completed, the committee evaluates the dissertation and the candidate's presentation at the dissertation defense; the committee's approval indicates that the candidate has successfully defended the dissertation.

The Qualifying Examination (QE)

The Qualifying Examination (QE) serves as a major milestone in the pursuit of a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree. It comprises three distinct components: a written QE Report, a QE Project, and a QE Oral Presentation.

QE Purpose: the purpose of the QE is to determine that the student is indeed qualified to conduct research in a chosen topic. To this extent, the nature of the QE depends on the topic chosen. This process prepares students for independent research.

Sample Sequence for the QE:

Year 1 of MAT Studies: Students select and collaborate with a primary advisor to identify research topics of interest. These topics guide the selection of the full QE committee responsible for evaluating the student’s work and determine the focus of the Qualifying Examination (QE).

Committee Formation: Selection, Nomination, and Approval: In collaboration with their primary advisor, students submit Committee Nominations to the Graduate Division. The nominated committee members approve their nominations to formalize the relationship.

After Committee Formation: students convene with all committee members to discuss the direction and topics of the QE, QE Report, QE Project, and eventual QE Presentation.

QE Duration and Committee Support: The full QE process takes place over a period of 60 days. Committee input and mentorship are strongly encouraged throughout this 60-day process.

• QE Report: The written QE Report is an open-book set of essays addressing questions submitted by the primary advisor in consultation with the QE Committee. QE Committee members formulate questions (one comprehensive question or a series of questions per member) for the student to address in the QE Report. The QE Report must be completed within a maximum of 30 days following the submission of the questions.
• QE Project: The implemented QE Project is designed in collaboration with the primary advisor, with input from the entire committee. It is a project related to the student’s intended research. It is due 30 days after the submission of the QE Report.
• QE Presentation: The oral QE Presentation takes place following a review period of a maximum of 10 days. It is scheduled as a two-hour oral presentation. The student’s formal presentation portion should last approximately 30-40 minutes and include approximately 25-30 slides on the QE Report text itself plus a discussion of the implemented QE Project itself. Time should be reserved for discussion with the committee.
• QE Focus: The primary focus of the oral QE Presentation will be on assessing the student’s research progress along its associated themes. Additional questions that broadly relate the student’s research to the core areas of Media Arts and Technology are also appropriate for inclusion. Questions and discussions of core Media Arts and Technology knowledge and principles during the oral examination will be guided by the role played by these areas in the written QE Report and QE Project and the student’s treatment of these areas.
• QE Quarter: Preparing for and taking the QE (including the QE Report, QE Project, and QE Presentation) will require a time commitment of one academic quarter. Students should register for the MAT 597 Individual Study for PhD Exam (available here), which is equivalent to an 8-unit course.
• QE Schedule: Students must clear their schedules to ensure that no other obligations (such as travel, presentations, installations, performances, etc.) interfere with the examination period. Student schedules should be structured to prepare and deliver the entire QE examination process (including the written QE Report, implemented QW Project, and oral QE Presentation) within the 10-week timeframe.
• QE S/U: The exam will be graded on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory scale. There will only be two opportunities for students to take the Qualifying Exam.
• QE Report and Dissertation Proposal: The QE Report must include the student’s responses to the main committee questions. However, when warranted by tangible student research progress, as discussed with the primary advisor and committee, it can also address a description of preliminary dissertation efforts to be undertaken as the first part of the PhD-proper research proposal, including a discussion of background literature, description of the research methods expected to be employed, preliminary results, and a coherent plan for future research aligned with the student’s emerging PhD plan. (Please note: this is just preliminary work — it is not the Dissertation Proposal per se. The Dissertation Proposal is a separate milestone with a separate process).
• QE Further Information: available here.

Dissertation Proposal

The next step after the qualifying exam is the dissertation proposal. The dissertation proposal consists of a document and a public presentation. It should be substantial enough to already reflect your engagement in the research, and demonstrate its feasibility. It should describe the dissertation topic, summarize the relevant background literature and state of the art, and present a comprehensive research plan for the dissertation, to be approved by the committee. There is no set time after the qualifying exam to present the dissertation proposal, but it usually takes from a few months to a year to prepare.

The details of scope and size should be worked out between a student and his or her advisor. It can vary from as few as 15 pages (little work already done) to as many as 100 pages (most of the work already done). The key things are that the candidate clearly articulate what the main problem and challenge is, how it will be approached (including any preliminary work), what the main uncertainties are, and what should be expected of the final product.

Once advanced to candidacy, students are typically expected to complete the PhD degree within four years. Some students who have a clear idea of their dissertation topic and a focused plan can finish in substantially less time. When the dissertation research is complete and the dissertation is written, the student presents the dissertation defense, a public lecture based on the dissertation. The dissertation must be approved by the committee; it must also meet the filing requirements of the Graduate Division. The PhD is granted when all degree requirements are met.

Dissertation Research

A dissertation is an original, rigorous, and significant contribution to knowledge in the field of Media Arts and Technology. The composite nature of Media Arts and Technology requires sufficient creative latitude in the form of the dissertations pursued. It is anticipated that some dissertations will be content-driven (initiated from artistic or theoretical investigations) while others will be technique-driven (proceeding from scientific and technological investigations). In either case, rigor will be ensured by requiring that both the qualifying exam and the dissertation address all the aspects necessary for a completed work in this field, namely formal and conceptual issues, critical and discursive issues, and scientific and technological issues.

Originality shall be demonstrated by a) showing extensive knowledge of current theories and practices in the field, including their history, discourse, and prospect, and b) either addressing a known problem in the field in a new way, or addressing an emerging or new problem that the field has yet to fully recognize. Rigor shall be demonstrated by establishing clear and comprehensive research methods, stating a clear and well thought out hypothesis, carrying out thorough research experimentation to test that hypothesis, and carefully and thoughtfully evaluating the results.

In accordance with Academic Senate regulations, a PhD committee consists of at least three UC ladder-faculty members. Two of the committee members must be affiliated with MAT, and the committee chair must be in MAT. In special circumstances, non-UCSB faculty may be proposed as members. The chair of this committee advises the student on a course of study and directs the dissertation research. The committee is nominated by the program chair in consultation with the student and is approved by the graduate deans.