An Undergraduate Project combining Computer Science and the Arts: An Experience Report of a Multidisciplinary Capstone Design

The jobs pursued by Computer Science graduates often require an ability to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams (e.g., game development teams). While this skill can be strengthened throughout the CS curricula, the Capstone Course offered in many programs provides an invaluable opportunity to expose students to a multidisciplinary team. In this paper, we present an experience report in multidisciplinary capstone design, where the goal was to design an interactive film whose outcome can be changed by the viewer by using a second screen mobile app (a concept known as transmedia). We report on our implementation of this idea, including details on the composition of the team, the development methodology and end results. We highlight our lessons-learned and discuss possible improvements to the project. Our experience and methodology can help faculty at other institutions implement similar multidisciplinary capstone projects.