MS in Creative Technology & Design: Social Impact

Make an impact with a degree from CU 51ý'sCollege of Engineering and Applied Science.

The professional MS in Creative Technology and Design (CTD)is a 33-credit hour program empowering you to become an interdisciplinary problem-solver. The Social Impact track prepares you to leverage technology to create equity in access and support underserved communities in the US and around the world.

This 2-yearprogram is adaptable to your area of focus, whether you are passionate about accessibility, entrepreneurship, policy, or any other wayyou aim to make an impact.

The University of Colorado 51ý is the #11engineering graduate program among public university peers in the U.S., according toU.S. News and World Report’sBest Graduate Schools rankingsfor 2025-26.

MS + PhD Info Request

Program Benefits

Unique Student Experience

Small classes offer hands-on project-based learning with direct mentoring and student collaboration. Core classes provide a foundation in domestic and global development, technology and professional skills. Then, choose your own path by selecting from technical and critical perspective electivesfocused on topics such as accessibility, education, climate change, global health, and policy.

Industry Collaboration

Learn from industry leaders in various ways. Many courses are taught by working professionals from small studios to large companies like Google and Amazon. We create opportunities to engage with working professionals, including classes, workshops, guest lectures, networking, portfolio reviews, and project mentoring.

Learn & Work

Most students work at least part-time while in the program, including opportunities for roles at ATLAS, across campus, along the Front Range and in remote positions. CU 51ý offers many resources to assist you in finding roles, while the course schedule offers flexibility to match your needs.

Creative Community

A diverse student cohort is one of the program’s greatest strengths. A broad mix of talent leads to more thoughtful and thorough impact projects and solutions.

Real World-Experience

Our curriculum leverages project-based learning with an emphasis on real-world experience. Our curriculum gives you opportunitiesto work on real projects for outside organizationsthrough group lab projects and a practicum.

Future Forward Careers

Our students are uniquely positioned for the evolving job markets of the future. No single technologywill fully equip students for the field—instead we help you build a technical toolset and an approach to life-long learning and creative problem solving as your careerevolves.

Course Sequence

The MS track in Social Impact equips students with skills in three areas:

Social Impact Foundations and Practice — You learn development history and theorywhile reviewing social impact projects at the intersection of technology and development (or human-need) across applications and technologies. You gain expertise in bottom-up, community-centered, sustainable design.

Professional Development —You are introduced to a wide range of people and projects across the social impact and development landscape. This processconnectsyouto a range of industry leaders andemploymentoptions fornetworking and post-graduate career development. The final practicum project uniquely equips you withsemester-long field experience in your focus area.

Technical Fluency — You develop a foundation in contemporary digital skills including coding and development, building a unique technical toolset to address social issues.

Descriptions

ATLS 5230 Case Studies in Social Impact

3 credit hours

This course explores the challenges and opportunities in the evolving field of technology for social impact by evaluating case studies across a range of technologies and applications. Class sessions are interspersed with student presentations and lively discussions around best practices, implementation strategies, and technology's role(s) in development.

Students gain:

  • knowledge of past and present Social Impact projects
  • characteristic of project success and failure
  • hands-on understanding of several technology platforms
  • the ability to match available technologies with human and environmental needs and resources

ATLS 5430 Design Methods OR CVEN 5919 Global Development for Engineers

3 credit hours

In this course students will learn design, deliberate observation (e.g. cultural probes, ethnography, etc); “problem finding” and “design thinking”; wicked problems; iterative design; alternative generation and assessment.

Students gain:

  • strategy and framework for design methodology
  • skills for collaboration
  • comfort with iteration
  • documenting process for portfolio

Introduction to Programming *or* Creative Code

For students with little to no programming experience, the Intro to Programming class gives students the coding experience needed for more advanced programming classes and many technical focus classes. For students with prior programming experience, Creative Code explores creative uses of software development, while focusing on developing the “digital plumbing” that supports our creative work.

ATLS 5650 Introduction to Programming

3 credit hours

Take if you have no experience in coding.

ATLS 5660 Creative Code

3 credit hours

Take if you have experience in coding.

ATLS 5410 Creative Technologies

3 credit hours

This course gives students hands-on exposure to a wide range of technologies, including 3D printing, laser cutting, microcontrollers, sensors and programming. Through physical computing projects, students gain technical fluency and competence while identifying technology skills they wish to develop further.

Students gain:

  • foundation in creative technologies
  • technical fluency and competence
  • experience working with microcontrollers and sensors
  • fabrication skills

ATLS 5250 Fieldwork Methods

3 credit hours

This course introduces the methods and models that can be employed in the design, development, and deployment of social impact projects. This class will examine the applications of participatory research, ethnography, ethics in developing-world context, community assessment, behavior change communication, monitoring and evaluation, study design, and quantitative and qualitative data collection and (preliminary) analysis.

Students gain:

  • experience with multi-method approaches to “doing development”
  • a “toolbox” of useful and practical on-the-ground skills

Critical Perspectives or Technical Focus Electives

3 credit hours

Critical Perspectives: Based on interest (Public Health, Education, Energy, Gender, etc) students can select from a range of domain-specific courses offered within ATLAS and across campus.

Technical focus: Based on interest (e.g. mobile, product, etc), students can select from a range of technical courses offered within ATLAS and across campus. Students customize their skill set based on professional goals.

Students gain:

  • deeper theoretical understanding and sectoral expertise in the domain of their choice

ATLS 5240 Technology for Social Impact Laboratory

3 credit hours

In thisstudio course students learn to createtechnologies for underserved communities. Students work in multidisciplinary teams on projects in collaboration with community partners, field practitioners, and experts in relevant fields. Students learn the workflow for designing and evaluating user-centered designs, from need-finding to prototyping to evaluation. The Social Impact lab course is designed to bring everything that students have learned thus far about technology, development and methods together in one cohesive project. “Lab” is intended to be a dress rehearsal for the Social Impact practicum.

Students gain:

  • hands-on project experience
  • project management experience
  • collaborative team learning
  • direct client experience
  • prototype development


Technology-focused Elective

3 credit hours

Based on their professional goals for the program, students build their skill sets by taking technical courses through ATLAS and have the unique opportunity to take courses across CU 51ý departments. There are many options, so your advisor will work with you to find the best fit foryourindividual goal. Here are some popular focus areas with courses that support that goal: User Experience and Human-Computer Interaction, Game Design and Development, Interactive Product Design and Development.

Students gain:

  • deepen technical skills and knowledge

Critical Perspective Elective

3 credit hours

Based on interest (Public Health, Education, Energy, Gender, etc) students can select from a range of domain-specific courses offered within ATLAS and across campus.

Students gain:

  • deeper theoretical understanding and sectoral expertise in the domain of their choice

Practicum

6 credit hours with option to do 3 credit hours plus an elective

A hallmark of the Social Impact program is the practicum experience. Students spend a full semester working with a organization in asocial impact specific role. Student develop a scope of work and list of deliverables and present on these at the end of the practicum. This semester- long experience positions students for graduation, as they have a project and on the ground experience to highlight on their resume.

As part of the completion of the practicum experience, students develop a video. This prepares them to talk about their work and contributions to audiences both aware and potentially unfamiliar with the field of social impact. This video collateral can be used on their websites/portfolios.

Students gain:

  • hands-on social impact experience in the field
  • scope of work outline development and negotiation
  • communication and presentation digital media skills

Focus Areas

The Creative Technology & Design program is flexible to your goals, whether you want to pursue social impact through design, policy, business or artistic expression. Here are a few of the most common areas students focus on:

Accessibility
Entrepreneurship
Policy

Workshops

To extend your skill development, we offer free workshopsthroughout the year. The workshop series allows students to explore new areas of interest, gain additional skills, network with industry leaders, collaborate with non-Creative Industries students and further develop their skills.Recent topicsincluded:

  • Figma
  • Adobe Creative Suite
  • Motion Graphics
  • UI/UX
  • Bio Meets Computation
  • 3D Printing
  • Programming in Python and R
  • Data Science
  • Project Management

Practicum

A hallmark of the program is the final fieldwork or research practicum. You spend a full semester with non-governmental organizations, development agencies, foundations and technology companies applying thoughtful, real-world interventions that have a social impact. This experience positions you for careers in the field, sometimes with the same organization.

Alumni Profiles

Our alumni go on to inspiring careers in leading industries. Check out a fewdoing outstanding work in their field.

Benjamin Lee, Accessible Technologist
Bret McSpaddden, Publications and knowledge manager at IRC WASH

Companies Employing Social Impact Track Graduates

logos of companies employing MS CTD Social Impact alumni