This Master program is no longer active.
The Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the Madeira Interactive-Technologies Institute (MITI) at University of Madeira (UMa) jointly provide a two-year program offering Masters of Entertainment Technology degree (MET), under the Carnegie Mellon Portugal program, sponsored by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).
To foster leadership in education and research that combines technology and fine arts to create new processes, tools, and vision for storytelling and entertainment. The high concept behind ETC and the Masters program is to have technologists and fine artists work together on projects that produce artifacts that are intended to entertain, inform, inspire, or otherwise affect an audience/guest/player/participant. Because the larger challenge we face in authoring in new media is bringing together different disciplines, our degree program is driven by trying to do this most effectively.
This is not a Master of Science nor a Master of Arts or Fine Arts degree—rather a unique, specialized degree program in the interdisciplinary field of entertainment technology. Your diploma will say; Master of Entertainment Technology. The MET is considered a professional, terminal degree. It is the academic pinnacle of studies in this field, thus having greater significance than the M.A. or M.S., and the equivalent academic weight of the M.F.A. and/or M.B.A. degree.
The ETC does not turn artists into technologists, or vice-versa. While some students will be able to achieve mastery in both areas, it is not our intent to have our students master ‘the other side.’ Instead, we intend for a typical student in this program to enter with mastery or training in a specific area and spend his or her two years learning the vocabulary, values, and working patterns of the other culture. This learning will be evidenced by their ability to work effectively with those who are expert in it.
Students in the ETC take courses ranging from computer programming to designing virtual worlds to improvisational acting, but the emphasis is on project courses. Each project course brings together interdisciplinary student teams that must produce working artifacts; in the tradition of Carnegie Mellon, this emphasis is on making real things that work. A key aspect of the program is to ensure that students have an opportunity to work with a large, diverse set of collaborators with different skills and sensibilities. A typical project covers an entire semester and is built around four or five students, a faculty supervisor and a client representative.
In keeping with the ETC mantra of “learning-by-doing,” our students are required to pursue an internship during the summer between their first and second years in the program. We encourage students to consider which internship opportunity would be the best learning experience for them, regardless of payment status.
Applicants to the ETC-Global must be a graduate of an undergraduate program from a college or university. Otherwise, there is no special requirement, undergrad major, or professional experience expected from our applicants. We expect applicants to have a demonstrated proficiency in some area, such as animation, 3D modeling, programming, stage managing, screenwriting, mechanical engineering, theatrical lighting, music composition, etc. The bounds of those areas are defined only by your imagination. We expect to have students with passion for what they do, who are self-motivated and have a capacity for critical thinking.
