Microsoft Academic Days Announces Top Papers

Author: by Beth A.

The 2nd Annual Microsoft Academic Days Conference on Game Development, which takes place February 22 - 25, 2007 aboard the Disney Wonder Cruise Ship, has announced its accepted papers and selections for journal publication in the theme of 'The Use of Game Development in Computer Science Education.' In the session theme "Interdisciplinary Collaboration," papers include "Combining games with theatre to create an interdisciplinary learning experience for Computer Science," by Joe Geigel and Marla Schweppe from Rochester Institute of Technology; "Teaching Game Design through Cross-Disciplinary Content and Individualized Student Deliverables," by Ursula Wolz, Christopher Ault, and Teresa Marrin Nakra from The College of New Jersey; "A Tale of Two Classes: On Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Games Education," by Arnav Jhala, Michael Young, and Timothy Buie from North Carolina State University; and "ARTS Lab and Game Technology," by Edward Angel, Thomas Caudell, and Eric Whitmore University of New Mexico. Under "Game Development Classes," papers include "Interweaving Game Design into Core CS Curriculum," by Bruce Gooch, Amy Gooch, and Yolanda Rankin from University of Victoria and "Integrating Video Game Development Experience in an Academic Framework," by Bernard Yee (Harmonix Music/MTV Networks), David Sturman (Massive Inc./Microsoft), and Steven Feiner (Columbia University). In "Games in Capstone Classes," papers include "Agent Augmented Game Development," by Zhiqi Shen, Chunyan Miao, and Yundong Cai from Nanyang Technological University and "Teaching Revulsion-Free Design Patterns through Game Development," by Randy Connolly from Mount Royal College in Calgary, Canada. From "Reaching out to the Community," papers include "Creativity in the Cane Fields: Motivating and Engaging IT Students Through Games" by Colin Lemmon, Colin Lemmon, Nicola J. Bidwell, Marion Hooper,Chris Gaskett, Jason Holdsworth, and Phillip Musumeci at James Cook University; "A Soft Approach to Computer Science: Designing & Developing Computer Games for and with Senior," by Vero Vanden Abeele, Jelle Husson, Luc Vandeurzen, Stef Desmet collaborated between e-Medialab and Group T – Leuven Engineering School; and "Middle-to-High School Girls as Game Designers - What are the Implications?" by Magy Seif El-Nasr, Ibrahim Yucel, Joseph Zupko, et al. from Pennsylvania State University. "Games in Traditional CS Classes" includes the papers "The Effects of Games in CS1-3," by Jessica Bayliss from Rochester Institute of Technology; "XYZZY: Finding New Magic in Text Adventure Games," by Brian Ladd from St. Lawrence University, "Using XNA-GSE game segments to Engage Students in Advanced Computer Science Education," by G. Michael Youngblood from University of Texas at Arlington; and "Using a simple MMORPG to teach multi-user, client-server database development," by Greg Wadley from The University of Melbourne and Jason Sobell from Philology Pty Ltd. "Game Degrees and Concentrations" features "Educating Game Programmers," by Timothy Roden and James Etheredge from University of Louisiana at Lafayette and "Design Issues for Undergraduate Game-Oriented Degrees," by Jim Whitehead and Michael Mateas from University of California, Santa Cruz. Finally, "Infrastructure" includes "SAGE: A Simple Academic Game Engine," by Ian Parberry, Jeremiah Nunn, Joseph Scheinberg, Erik Carson, and Jason Cole from University of North Texas and "Designing Shape-shifting Collaborative Laboratory Spaces to Facilitate Game-Design Education," by David Schwartz, Tony Cosgrave, and Steve Weidner from Cornell. The Journal of Game Development will publish "Teaching Game Design through Cross-Disciplinary Content and Individualized Student Deliverables," "A Soft Approach to Computer Science: Designing & Developing Computer Games for and with Senior," "The Effects of Games in CS1-3," and "Using XNA-GSE game segments to Engage Students in Advanced Computer Science Education." For more information, interested parties can visit Microsoft's Academic Days website to discover more about the papers and the conference.