Certificate of Advanced Studies in Interaction Science and Technology (CAS)

Benefits of the CAS

Through a combination of courses and a project, students of the CAS will gain the appropriate theoretical and practical knowledge to meet the increasing demand for human-centered approaches to technology, and to be able to apply them immediately in industry. They will be able to work in positions in industry such as user experience designer, interaction designer, usability specialist, requirements engineer and human performance specialist. 

The Certification in Brief

The CAS is worth 15 ECTS credits and will be carried out over 6 months, part time. 9 of those credits come from courses, while 6 will come from an applied project and certificate thesis. 

Courses 

• 15 full days (8 hours/day) of courses
• pre- and post-course work amounting to approximately 8 additional hours of work per course
• evaluated based on submitted assignments
• courses will be held once a week, most likley on a Friday, over 4 months 

Project and thesis 

•  done over 9 weeks, with a workload of about 20 hours per week
•  around 2 hours of supervision per week, face-to-face or remote
•  a certificate thesis based on the project should be submitted at the end
•  an oral presentation about the project should be done at the end

Further details about the program, including how the different parts are evaluated, can be found in the Study Plan.

Student Profile

Given its structure, the CAS program is particularly suited for students who are already in the work force and want to learn new skills or complement their existing knowledge set to meet the market need for human-centered interaction specialists, but recently graduated master students from universities or universities of applied sciences who want to specialise in the area of interaction science can also greatly benefit from it. 

Admission Requirements

Students will be considered for admission into the Human-IST CAS program if they have: 

• a Bachelor's diploma from an institute of higher education
  (a university, a polytechnial university, a university of applied sciences or equivalent)

      or

• proven professional experience in a related field.

Procedure

Interested students must submit their application before June 1st, 2018. Fulfilling the admission requirements does not guarantee admission into the CAS program. Decisions regarding admission are made by the program direction, and students must receive a formal notification by email from the program direction to confirm their admission. This notification will be sent out on June 15th, 2018, along with a request to pay the program fee within 30 days. The applicant will be considered as fully registered for the program once the payment of the fee is received.

Fees

• Full certification: The fee for the full CAS certifiction is 9'000CHF and includes admission to courses, access to course materials, coffee breaks during courses and supervision of the project and thesis. 
• Individual courses: For those wishing to enrol in individual courses but not the full certification, the fee is 300CHF per full-day course. Please contact us directly for further details.