New Technologies and Horizons for Serious Games

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New Technologies and Horizons for Serious Games

• University of Washington

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• Who are we
• The present
• The future
• Policy considerations

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CSE Faculty
Brian Curless
Barbara Mones
Zoran Popovic
David Salesin
Steve Seitz
John Zahorjan
Rajesh Rao
CSE faculty
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Faculty and collaborators

• Local affiliate faculty

Michael Cohen
Rick Szeliski
Aseem Agarwala
Steve Drucker
Simon Baker

• Remote affiliate faculty

Three post-doctoral researchers
Aaron Hertzmann
Maneesh Agrawala
Sameer Agarwal
Eli Shechtman
Adrien Treuille
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Faculty and collaborators

• More collaborators from MSR

Larry Zitnick
Hugues Hoppe
Sing-Bing Kang
Chuck Jacobs

• More collaborators from Adobe

Mira Dontcheva
Dan Goldman
Wilmot Li
Jue Wang
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Recent Faculty Alumni

• Noah Snavely, Cornell, 2008
• Adrien Treuille, CMU, 2008
• Karen Liu, Georgia Tech, 2007
• Li Zhang, U of Wisconsin, 2006

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Industrial Lab Magnet

• Microsoft Research
• Intel Research Labs
• Adobe Research Group
• Google Seattle

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Technology Transfer

• Realtime Fluids SIGGRAPH 2006
• Branded as DrafTrack in ESPN Live coverage of
  NASCAR
• Photo tourism, SIGGRAPH 06
• Licensed by Microsoft, released to the world as
  PhotoSynth
• Continuum crowds, SIGGRAPH 06
• Licensed to Electronic Arts
• Style-based IK, SIGGRAPH 04
• Licensed to Electronic Arts
• Interactive digital photomontage, SIGGRAPH 04
• Panoramic stitcher in Adobe Photoshop CS3
  Elements
• Microsoft Groupshot, demo-ed by Bill Gates at CES
  2006 Keynote
• Adaptive grid-based document layout, SIGGRAPH 03
• New York Times Reader, released by NYT
  Microsoft

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Phototourism

• video

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Realtime Fluids
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ESPN NASCAR coverage
Nominated forSports Emmy in the Technical
Achievement category
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Transfer of Learning principles to Games
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Learning Scientists
John Bransford Philip Bell Reed
Stevens Nancy Vye UW LIFE Center Largest
NSF Learning Science Center
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• Incorporated February 2006
• HQ Bellevue
• Series A 7.1M (angels)
• First Product DreamBox K-2 Math
• Launch Date January 2009

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Games That Put Math First

• Over 350 lessons for K-2 Math -- curriculum
  develops computational fluency, conceptual
  understanding, and problem-solving ability
• Students use virtual manipulative to develop
  solutions
• Student personalizes the experience by choosing a
  game character and a themePirates, Dinosaurs,
  Pets, or Pixie

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Adaptations

• Individual placement
• and customization

Jill
Lesson 2
Lesson 2
Lesson 2
Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 2
Confidential
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Adaptations

• Continuous product improvements

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Itza Bitza
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Turning the tables
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Science discovery through Games
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Protein Folding
1D Amino Acid Sequence
3D Structure
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Rosetta_at_Home
UW Biochemistry, Baker Lab
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Proteins as Puzzles
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Fold It!
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Fold It!
Funded by DARPA, NSFJoin in at http//fold.it/
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Future games
DNA Manipulation
Vaccines
Biofuels
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Rethinking Educationthrough Games
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Institute for Learning Through Games
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1. STEM
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• Rising above the Gathering Storm ReportForemost
  objective Improve K-12 STEM education
• America COMPETES act passed by congress
• National Mathematics Advisory Panel

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2. Focus on early education
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STEM Practitioners
Middle school
Elementary
STEM Potential
K-2
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3. Scientific Approach
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Game Development(CS, GD)
Game Design (CS, GD, LS, SE)
Learning Sciences (LS)Computer Science (CS) Game
Developers (GD)STEM, School Community Experts
(SE)
Game User-drivenRefinement(CS,GD,LS)
Analysis of STEM Learning(LS, SE)
Multi-MethodData Collection(LS)
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4. Make games that stick
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• Learning takes time
• Assessment of poor games leads to poor findings

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Our Approach to Quality Games

• Rapid prototyping
• Continuous usability tests
• Broad industry expert involvement

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Industrial Expertise
Bungie ValveMonolithHidden Path Dreambox
Headsprout
Bungie ValveMonolithHidden Path Dreambox
Headsprout
Game Development(CS, GD)
Game Design (CS, GD, LS)
Learning Sciences (LS)Computer Science (CS) Game
Developers (GD)STEM, School Community Experts
(SE)
Game User-drivenRefinement(CS,GD,LS)
Microsoft Dreambox
Analysis of STEM Learning(LS, SE)
Multi-MethodData Collection(LS)
K12 Dreambox Microsoft
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5. Comprehensive and innovative assessment
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Nanotech
Creatures
Algebra
Academiceffect
Molecularstructures
Social identityeffect
Social interaction effect
Simulationgame
Fractions
Gendereffect
Patterns
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5. Framework for Educators
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Framework for Educators

• Fellowship program for learning game development
• Web community around principles for learning
  through games
• Tools for educator-authored games
• Self assessment checklist
• Assessment Consortium

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STEM, School, Community Experts
Game Development(CS, GD)
K12 School systems
Game Design (CS, GD, LS)
Learning Sciences (LS)Computer Science (CS) Game
Developers (GD)STEM, School Community Experts
(SE)
Game User-drivenRefinement(CS,GD,LS)
K12 NC school system Community colleges Bellevue
schools
Analysis of STEM Learning(LS, SE)
SLCs
Multi-MethodData Collection(LS)
School systems K12Dreambox SLCs
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Outcomes
Publications on merging learning and game design
Game Development(CS, GD)
Game Design (CS, GD, LS)
Broadly distributed STEM games
Learning Sciences (LS)Computer Science (CS) Game
Developers (GD)STEM, School Community Experts
(SE)
Game User-drivenRefinement(CS,GD,LS)
Learning game design and assessment framework
for educators
Analysis of STEM Learning(LS, SE)
Educational policy Press outreach Multimediapubli
cations
Multi-MethodData Collection(LS)
Headline grabbing Publications on methods and
findings
Publications on analysis and principles
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Industrial Support
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35 Game of the year awards in 2004Half-life and
Half-life 2 top two most played online
games(not counting MMORPGs)
GDC 2008 Game of the year
800-pound gorilla
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Learning game companies
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In Short

• Games are a vehicle that can revolutionize
  education (and science)
• UW Institute can lead this revolution with
  groundbreaking research
• We can establish Washington as a leader in this
  new industry

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Why Seattle is the best home

• state-of-the-art scientific methods for
  developing, assessing and analyzing the
  principles of successful learning games
• We have a strong record of highest-quality
  research in science of learning as well as game
  technology and science game design
• strong connections with all major institutions
  and influential governmental policy agencies
• Strong groundings in issues of diversity
• Unique strength in interactive physics-based
  simulations for games
• Strong connections with local game industry as
  well as learning game industry

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Policy Consideration I

• Provide seed funding for Institute for Learning
  through Games
• We have space, resources, connections, equipment
  donations

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Policy Consideration II

• Enhance state support for public research
  universities
• UW is top public recipient of federal research
  dollars
• Engine of the innovation economy
• Ranks 47th in the nation in per capita state
  support
• State support is vital for future research
  enterprise and provide educational opportunities

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Thank you

• Zoran Popovic
• zoran_at_cs.washington.edu
• http//www.cs.washington.edu/homes/zoran