Human-computer interaction is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them.
An HCI professional organization describes how practitioners arrive in the field from diverse orientations:
Part of the complexity of curriculum design in this case arises from the relationship of HCI to many different disciplines, which suggests that an HCI curriculum could be housed comfortably in a number of different departments, e.g., Computer Science, Psychology, Information Systems, or Industrial Engineering. Furthermore, the boundaries of the HCI discipline are still fairly dynamic, as evidenced by recent emphasis upon computer-supported cooperative work with the necessary incorporation of pertinent social psychological and sociological theory.
ACM SIGCHI Curricula for Human-Computer Interaction
Human-computer interaction is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them.
ACM SIGCHI Curricula for Human-Computer Interaction
Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute (SEI) has published New Directions in Human-Computer Interaction Education, Research, and Practice, a report on the outlook for HCI professionals.
Image credit: Courtesy National Institute of Standards and Technology
Magenta Microheater. A NIST-developed microheater device can be used to quickly detect toxic gases such as sarin or mustard gas. Slight variations in the thickness of the sensing film covering the microheater cause changes in color that have been enhanced in this micrograph. NIST researchers will use the AML's Nanofabrication Facility to make arrays of such microsensors tailored to sense specific chemicals at part per billion concentration levels.
12_NIST_Magenta_Microheater
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/gallery/aml/Magenta_Microheater.htm