Programs of Study / Immersions

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As part of their bachelor's degree requirements, students must complete an immersion—a concentration of three courses in a particular area. These courses support deeper learning within a focus area and are used to meet RIT's general education requirements. In many cases, an immersion can lead to a minor with the addition of two courses. However, not all minors have a corresponding immersion and vice versa. View full list of RIT minors and immersions.

Business, the arts, the sciences, and the humanities now rely on work that is “open," work that is released in a manner that allows it to be shared, copied, and improved upon by its users. Open Source Software powers the internet and the World Wide Web, Open Data, and Open GIS mapping. All of these are at the core of most digital humanities projects. Creative Commons licenses allow artists, musicians, and writers to collaborate more freely by altering the “all on or all off” conditions of copyright. The Open Hardware of the Raspberry Pi and Arduino board drive the maker movement and interactive arts.

Learn More about the Free Culture and Free and Open Source Computing Immersion 

As the world grows in complexity and interconnectedness, new challenges arise in visually representing, reasoning, and making sense of spatially-oriented problems and data. The geographic information systems immersion allows students to study geographic problem solving and scientific inquiry from an interdisciplinary perspective of interactive, digital mapping tools and related digital data problem solving technologies. Students are introduced to geographic mapping concepts and theory, digital cartography, geographic problem solving with geospatial and related computer tools, geospatial technology ethics and application of GIS to global problems such as natural disasters.

Learn More about the Geographic Information Systems Immersion 

The principles of computing immersion introduces students from interdisciplinary backgrounds (for majors outside of computing, mathematics, or informatics) to the central ideas of computing. In this immersion, you will understand how computing impacts and changes your world; establish the foundational concepts and best practices of computational thinking, use of computing technology, and data to solve real-world problems; and learn basic programming skills and develop programming techniques to solve problems, and become familiar with the effects that computing has on society and culture. This immersion is intended for students with no prior computing background as a bridge to expand their understandings of the computing domain.

Learn More about the Principles of Computing Immersion