UC San Diego's Division of Arts and Humanities has always thrived on the edge of new ideas and new modes of expression. A prime example is the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA), a pioneer in the global tech-arts arena. Since 1972, when it was established as the Center for Music Experi-ment, CRCA has fostered collaborative working relationships among artists and scientists through the application of computer-mediated strategies to artistic and humanist research.

CRCA artists and scholars from the Departments of Music and Visual Arts direct an array of interdisciplinary tech-arts projects. One such project, CRCAnet, will link several campus locations with a high-speed network for new high-resolution, real-time, arts and music applications. CRCA's track record for cutting-edge research helped place the center among the top ten new media education programs in North America.

The CRCA-driven marriage of technology and the arts, long one of UC San Diego's academic strengths, has helped generate two new campus initiatives: the interdisciplinary computing and the arts major (ICAM), UC San Diego's newest and fastest-growing undergraduate major; and an arts, culture, and technology academic focus for the future Sixth College, set to open in fall 2002.

ICAM majors find themselves at the forefront of the global art scene and in demand in the job market. In the spring, an internship fair for ICAM majors brought recruiters to campus from seven corporations, including Angel Studios, Artisan Creative, and Presto Studios.