The Department of Emerging Technology in Business + Designs (ETBD, formerly AIMS) was founded in 1996 by a multi-disciplinary group of faculty who worked in digital media and recognized that a new horizontal organizational structure was needed — a structure not present within the vertical silos in higher education.
Since its inception, ETBD functions and exists in the “transdisciplinary” spaces between and above the various university divisions. This allows ETBD to work on hands-on, client based, interdisciplinary projects and courses. Cross-functional student teams engage in front-line research, working to solve real world problems of corporations and non-profits while leveraging cutting-edge interactive media.