This position is one of eight new interdisciplinary faculty lines in the College of Communication and Information (CCI) and will be a joint appointment between the School of Digital Sciences (https://www.kent.edu/dsci) and one other school within the college, depending on the successful candidate’s disciplinary background: the School of Communication Studies (https://www.kent.edu/comm), the School of Information (https://www.kent.edu/iSchool), the School of Journalism and Mass Communication (https://www.kent.edu/jmc) or the School of Visual Communication Design (https://www.kent.edu/vcd).

The School of Digital Sciences is a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary school designed to train tomorrow’s digital leaders. Students learn from faculty drawn from programs across campus and receive broad foundational knowledge in digital technologies – hardware, software, web programming, management, analysis and data science. Academic programs include undergraduate and master’s degrees as well as the interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Communication and Information.

CCI is the only college in the nation that combines digital sciences, design, media, information science, and communication in one interdisciplinary college. CCI and its schools offer a supportive and collaborative environment that values both teaching and research/creative activity.

This new faculty member will teach in our undergraduate and graduate programs and conduct research and/or produce creative/professional projects – whichever is appropriate to the candidate’s area of expertise and home discipline. The successful candidate will also have the opportunity to develop curriculum in his/her specialization area.

We are particularly interested in candidates with knowledge and expertise in at least one of the following areas:

Web Programming/Development: Proficient in HTML/CSS, Javascript, templating languages (for example, Twig), preprocessors (for example, SASS), task runners (for example, Gulp or Grunt), other languages and frameworks used in web development (for example, Ruby, React, PHP, etc.), website testing and version control.

Emerging Media: Experience developing interactive or immersive media, published video games, and innovative mobile development. Proficient in Maya, Zbrush, Unreal UDK and Unity. Experience with asset development, pipelines, event scripting, particle effects, animation. Languages such as C++, Python, Blueprints, and Java is a plus. Experience with film and/or television, 360 video, augmented reality, and virtual reality is a plus.

Human Computer Interaction: Experience in human computer interaction, artificial/augmented intelligence, human robot/machine interaction, and ubiquitous computing as well as in affiliated areas such as machine learning and deep learning algorithms employed to understand problems and create solutions.

Kent State is a comprehensive graduate and undergraduate, residential, Carnegie Doctoral Research Extensive University. Founded in 1910, the university is the third largest in Ohio, with an enrollment of approximately 39,000 students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries. The Chronicle of Higher Education identifies Kent State as one of the Great Colleges to Work For (2017). The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching ranks Kent State among the nation’s top 74 public high-research universities, and U.S. News & World Report ranks Kent State in the coveted top-tier of Best Colleges (2018).

Kent is a small but vibrant college-town with close proximity to the cultural, dining, and professional sports activities of major cities, along with the recreational opportunities of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the many lakes in the region.