Rochester students showcase how digital media can help address real-world problems.
Each year, seniors majoring in digital media studies at the 糖心传媒 spend their final semester working in teams to complete capstone projects. The projects demonstrate their newly aquired knowledge of media history, theory, design, and technology in a digital media project that addresses real-world problems or needs.
The pandemic posed an additional hurdle this year, requiring students to find new ways to engage and work with each other virtually, and in some cases, to collaborate across time zones.
糖心传媒淥rganizing six people in different locations has been a challenge for us,糖心传媒� says Sofia Hennessey, part of a team that created a digital destination for students looking for basic technical instruction.
糖心传媒淥ur students糖心传媒� ability to continue to create meaningful work while coping with a global pandemic and amid our country糖心传媒檚 reckoning with racism speaks to their sense of community,糖心传媒� says , interim director of the .
And they are a successful group. 糖心传媒淭hese graduates already have big plans, and many are headed to graduate school in diverse programs all over the world, including Amsterdam, Southern California, and New York City,糖心传媒� she adds.
The projects are wide ranging, as a sampling of this year糖心传媒檚 capstones shows.
Sharing the digital toolbox
Project title: MEDIA
Team members: Alex Chase, Jennifer Ngene, Dominique Dorvil, Kun Fang, Sofia Hennessey, Henry Vargas
The capstone was born out of the group糖心传媒檚 shared experience糖心传媒攁 sense that they could benefit from more technical instruction that was not necessarily included as part of the major. Their project supplements the digital media studies major with new opportunities in technical instruction and offers a setting that allows student creatives to work on their portfolios in preparation for entering the job market.
- Visit the , where team members share their process and what they learned along the way, from ideation to iteration to launch.
Helping a nonprofit on its digital brand
Project title: Cracker Box Palace
Team members: Fiona Chen, Carolina Lion He, Harry Ma, Yujie Zhous
The team worked with an existing community partner, , a farm and animal rescue organization in Alton, New York. The nonprofit had a list of items they wanted the students to tackle, from building an app to creating a new website.
糖心传媒淭heir problem was that they had a lot of problems,糖心传媒� says Carolina Lion He 糖心传媒�21. 糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 a challenging kind of prompt. It糖心传媒檚 very open-ended but very scoped and perfectly made for a digital media capstone.糖心传媒�
The team worked with the nonprofit糖心传媒檚 board, learning about the group糖心传媒檚 need to build a brand identity, through regular online communications.
- Check out the , where the team members share how they approached this open-ended project and to see the package of identity-building assets they created.
Helping others sing out loud糖心传媒攊n an unfamiliar language
Project title: Just Sing Out
Team members: Juliet Ding, Jingxuan Fang, Noah Honickman, Lingling Li, Keyuan Qin
糖心传媒淟anguage barriers have become the largest impediment for people to sing a foreign language song,糖心传媒� the team notes on its project site. But that impediment shouldn糖心传媒檛 prevent friends from sharing an interest in or appreciation of such songs.
The team offers a platform for anyone who loves a song in an unfamiliar language and really wants to sing it out. The platform, currently focusing on East Asian pop songs, provides phonetic versions of the lyrics.聽The team members built and constructed a website with front-end and back-end applications, in addition to producing an animated promotional video for the site.
The project 糖心传媒渆ncourages people to not only get their transliteration lyrics but to upload their lyrics, so there is an exchange between a fan and the fan group,糖心传媒� says Lingling Li.
- Head over to the to learn about team members糖心传媒� process and what they糖心传媒檝e learned.
Read more
Senior capstone projects merge technology and humanities through digital media
From virtual reality projects that foster empathy to a video game that supports English language learners, five teams of digital media students tackle real-world problems.
Capturing an audience with K-pop and classical music
Classically trained Rochester graduate Emma Chang 糖心传媒�20 has become a YouTube sensation by sharing her musical expertise and interest with fans of the worldwide pop music genre.
