Interdisciplinary EE
Computer science combined with another DP subject. It replaces the old world studies essay.
What it is
- You integrate two DP subjects, and both stay visible in the essay.
- You register it under one of five frameworks. The framework helps you shape the idea and helps the IB find the right examiner; it is not assessed.
- Same criteria A–E, applied to both subjects. An essay that doesn't really connect the two subjects penalises itself.
- One supervisor; they may consult a colleague in the other subject.
- It's strongly recommended that you study at least one of the two subjects. Written in English, French or Spanish.
Real life: interdisciplinary research wins prizes The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry went partly to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper for AlphaFold, an AI system that predicts protein structures. Neither the computer science nor the biology alone could have done it.
Is interdisciplinary right for you?
✗ Weak
CS used only as a tool: “I wrote a Python script to calculate statistics for my economics question.”
That's an economics essay. Or a CS question with a bit of maths decoration: that's a CS essay.
✓ Strong
Each subject brings something the other can't: the physics tells you what “correct” is, the CS explains why the simulation drifts from it and how to fix it.
If looking through the second subject adds little, choose the subject-focused pathway.
Interdisciplinary or subject-focused? Self-check drill
Would each idea really need two subjects?
The five frameworks, with CS examples
| Framework | Typical areas | Example idea |
|---|---|---|
| Evidence, measurement, innovation | The natural home for most CS combinations: models, simulations, data and how we trust them. | Mathematics + CS: how accurately do numerical methods for solving ODEs predict a projectile's path as step size changes? |
| Sustainability, development, change | Environmental, economic or social sustainability. | Geography + CS: how effective is a route-optimisation algorithm at reducing delivery distance in a real road network? |
| Movement, time, space | Networks, travel, virtual communities, migration. | Physics + CS: how does time-step size affect energy conservation in an n-body orbital simulation? |
| Culture, identity, expression | Identity, the arts, music, gaming, language. | Music + CS: to what extent can a Markov-chain model reproduce the harmonic patterns of a composer's chorales? |
| Power, equality, justice | Fairness, access, health, education. | Economics + CS: how does a dynamic-pricing algorithm's design affect price fairness for different groups of buyers? |
The example ideas are ours, not the IB's. A topic can touch several frameworks; you choose the best fit when you register.
Match the framework Self-check drill
Which framework fits each idea best?
Doing it well
- Use the concepts and methods of both subjects: for maths + CS, error analysis and convergence and algorithm design and floating-point representation.
- Use sources from both subjects.
- Balance doesn't have to be 50/50, but the integration must be what lets you answer the RQ.
- In your conclusion, say what each subject contributed.