Like most people, after high school finished I had no real idea where I wanted to head next. The obvious next step was university, but which one? All my friends were going off to UBC but I wasn’t completely sold on the idea of taking general studies, so I looked elsewhere. It was actually by coincidence that I stumbled across SFU Surrey and found out about their technical programs. I did some research into the Interactive Arts and Technology streams that they had to offer and immediately had my heart set on New Media. I applied, was accepted, and then hit the ground running for TECH 100.
The first year TECH classes were a little dry but (despite what I thought back then) proved to be very useful for my future courses.
Just the Beginning
No matter which field you choose within IAT (Interactive Arts and Technology), every student is required to take a certain number of TECH classes. These TECH classes are more or less a way to ensure that every student is on the same page, so it really doesn’t matter what your knowledge level is going into the stream. The first year TECH classes were a little dry but (despite what I thought back then) proved to be very useful for my future courses. The building blocks for conceptualizing, brainstorming, documenting, and various other group related activities were really drilled into us during the first two years of the course.
The two main skills that I took away from the TECH courses were public speaking/presenting, and writing. At various stages throughout the term we would have to present our work in front of our teachers and peers usually with some sort of slideshow. I was quite a nervous speaker but the small classes made for laid back audience and from there I found it progressively easier to address larger bodies of people in following years. Documentation was the other key ingredient in the TECH classes and there was quite a lot of written work which can be seen in two different lights – on the one hand it made for a lot of time consuming homework, but on the other hand it advanced my writing skills tremendously and transformed my unstructured monotony into sophisticated formal documents. At this point in my studies I actually feel that not enough stress is placed on written work in the 3rd and 4th year classes and that the majority of students really suffer from not being able to communicate their ideas in a clear and succinct manner not only to the teachers but also to their classmates.
The Leg Work
My latter years at SFU Surrey were easily some of the most enjoyable years of my life. Finally in 3rd year we were allowed to branch out and experiment in the fields that interested us the most. This was also the year that we were introduced to all the film equipment. The freedom that comes with 3rd and 4th year classes is amazing and it really allows you to find your own personal niche. One aspect of the IAT program that differs from almost any other program is that it throws you into numerous fields despite what your specific stream is, meaning that you have to cover courses ranging from areas like interface design to computer programming. Although this may seem like an unnecessary process, it really broadens your horizons in the sense that you become familiar with every possible stage of development. Furthermore, you start to understand that each of these individual fields interconnects and that you can apply the skills from one area directly to others. Another benefit of the freedom of the classes and this overlap of skills is that you can apply your personal interests to almost every project. For example, you can be in an interface design course, but you can present your material or your ideas using video (if that is your point of interest), and moreover, the teachers encourage us to draw upon our individual skills within our groups.
The Surrey campus may be small but it houses green screen rooms, studios, and motion capture spaces along with equipment like HD camcorders, sound equipment, lighting kits…
The IAT program really expands your interests not only through the classes but also through their resources. The Surrey campus may be small but it houses green screen rooms, studios, and motion capture spaces along with equipment like HD camcorders, sound equipment, lighting kits, SLR still cameras, Arduino boards, and countless sensors to name a few. The more I played around and familiarized myself with the equipment the more interesting and daring my ideas became.
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
You get out of this program what you put into it. Rather than just designing a product and then scrapping it at the end of the term, the IAT program has capstone classes that showcase your work to the public and to potential employers. Capstone courses run two semesters long and allow you and your team to do everything from conceptualizing an idea to designing and building it. As well, these classes also get assigned “Mentors” which are people who specialize in different fields and give you invaluable feedback and guidance throughout your entire design process. I can honestly say that graduating will be “such sweet sorrow” because on the one hand I’ll be free to explore the work world and pursue an exciting career, but on the other hand I won’t be able to socialize with my friends on a daily basis and have access to the seemingly endless equipment and resources that our school has to offer. In summary, the only thing I might have done differently is applied to an over-seas program in my second year, otherwise I would highly recommend IAT to anyone with even the slightest interest in technology.
If you plan on graduating in four years you literally have to plan every semester from start to finish in one sitting because some of the pre-requisite classes are only offered in certain semesters.
Drawbacks
In my four years at SFU Surrey I’ve personally been very lucky and have no complaints; however, there are few weak points in the IAT program that do affect many students. Because this program is fairly new, there are still a few kinks that are constantly being worked out. For one, the program requirements and classes are forever changing which leaves students having to choose between the new program requirements or the “grandfather” ones. The second area that falls short is more or less an aftershock of the first. If you plan on graduating in four years you literally have to plan every semester from start to finish in one sitting because some of the pre-requisite classes are only offered in certain semesters, which (if planned incorrectly) can leave you waiting around an extra year just for one or two classes. With that being said, the Surrey campus is continuously growing and the larger the program gets the more classes they’ll be able to offer which should make planning out your courses a little easier, not to mention the exceptional one-on-one help you can receive if you put aside an hour or so to visit the advisors right on campus.
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I’m so in that picture :D