UAT now enrolling students in nation's first BS in Digital Maker and Fabrication degree

TEMPE, Ariz., March 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Students can lead the Maker Revolution with the nation's first fully accredited Bachelor of Science degree in digital making and fabrication at the University of Advancing Technology (UAT) in Tempe, Ariz. The regionally accredited, private technology University is currently enrolling for the maker degree program's founding class of 2014 that begins this fall.

In the first year of this product design degree program, only 45 students will get the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become the first educated maker experts in an area of technological change reshaping the nation and world. Now, students can develop their own inventions in an exclusive, campus-wide, open-lab environment beginning their first year. As part of their curriculum, digital maker and fabrication graduates file their own U.S. patent. They learn to take an idea from concept to prototype and how to raise venture capital to bring innovation to market. Scholarship opportunities for the digital maker and fabrication degree are available.

"The Digital Maker and Fabrication movement is as big for technology innovation as the dawn of the Internet," says Dave Bolman, PhD, UAT Provost. "The American public will soon discover the digital maker movement will impact innovators similar to the Industrial Revolution or the Internet."

The unprecedented product design degree combines the curriculums and capability of UAT's existing and respected degrees in Robotics and Embedded Systems, Artificial Life Programming, Advancing Computer Science, Tech Product Design, Virtual Modeling & Design and Human-Computer Interaction. 

"We have a responsibility to both our students and nation to prepare for this explosion of technology breakthroughs that are catalyzing a change in how we bring innovation to the markets," says Jason Pistillo, UAT president. "We want to place our digital modeling and product design graduates at the forefront of the digital maker and fabrication revolution, opening new doors of capability most cannot even imagine yet."

Among other firsts, the UAT product design program is the first in Arizona to launch a digital maker fabrication lab on campus, the UAT Makers Fab Lab. Modeled from the design of MIT's first Fab Lab community, the UAT Makers Fab Lab is equipped with the latest 3D printers, maker bots, CNC cutters, software and more.

For more information and a "founding student" application for UAT's Digital Maker and Fabrication degree program, visit www.UAT.edu/DMF. For more information on UAT's Makers Fab Lab, visit www.digitalmaker.com.

About UAT: University of Advancing Technology is an elite, private college that serves its student body by fostering knowledge creation and academic excellence in an environment that embraces the young technophiles of the world. With three centers of research and a suite of technology-centered undergraduate and graduate degrees, the University is a recognized leader in technology education.

SOURCE The University of Advancing Technology