Creative Technologies
The Creative Technologies program prepares students to work as artists and makers across emerging media, creating work that moves between the screen and the physical world. Students learn to apply their skills across contexts, from games and interactive installations to performances and research. The curriculum continues to be revised, with consideration for how creative tech spaces will exist years from now.
Our program demands curiosity, collaboration, and adaptability. Students work both individually and in small teams, learning to share ideas, divide roles, and build working relationships that continue beyond the classroom. Many undergraduates work on funded faculty research projects while at Virginia Tech. Through partnerships with University Libraries and other university institutions, students gain access to specialized equipment and cross-campus collaborations. Graduates are working in museums and immersive experiences, research and engineering, game development, creative agencies, audiovisual live productions, and as independent freelance technologists.
Students first build a broad foundation as creative generalists. Alongside the foundations program, they take several required courses: Intro to Creative Technologies, Creative Coding, and Intro to 3D Animation. Upper-level classes allow students to shape their own path with the option to specialize in one of three tracks, Game Design, Animation, or Interactive Media, each culminating in a collaborative studio course. Students take a variety of electives, such as Animatronics, 3D Scanning, 3D World Building, Projection Mapping, Sound Design, Compositing/VFX, Motion Graphics, Video, Art and Ecology, and Web Development for Artists and Designers.
Classes such as New Media Art and Theory, as well as Experimental AI for Creative Tech, ask students to think critically about the role of technology in the future and how to make work in a rapidly changing world. The program concludes with Senior Studio, a year of focused work on a self-proposed project developed with faculty guidance.