RSJ News
NASA to fund UNR's 'serious' games
01-14-2009
The electoral vote game was produced by Ben Deach and Baker Krukow in May, 2007.
An effort by UNR journalism, computer science and art professors to create an interdisciplinary minor in “serious” games will receive $20,000 from a NASA-funded Nevada program.
“Who said this isn’t rocket science?” said Larry Dailey, journalism professor and Reynolds chair of media technology. Interactive computer games can be much more than entertainment, Dailey said.
The image posted above is from Dailey's class on interactive game design for journalists. The simple game, involving placing states on a map in order of the number of each state's electoral votes, can be played here.
“Nevada’s already a state known for gaming,” Dailey said. “We hope to put that expertise to use in new ways, helping people to understand their government or their environment better. Play is one of the most powerful learning tools.”
Dailey, who has taught interactive game design to journalism students, joins computer science professor and evolutionary computing specialist Sushil Louis and associate art professor Joe DeLappe, whose online “dead-in-Iraq” project received national media attention.
“If you think about it, how different can you get?” Dailey said. “When we say ‘design’ we all mean something different. But frankly, we’re having a blast doing this and finding strengths by working through our differences.”
The Reynolds School will receive $10,000 and another $10,000 will be awarded to UNR’s computer science and engineering department. A third grant for UNR’s art department is pending.
The funds for developing the interactive game curriculum come from the Nevada NASA Space Grant Consortium. The group’s mission is to support Nevada university students, faculty and research in the science, technology, engineering and mathematic fields, said Leone Thierman, program coordinator.
One of the key factors in deciding to fund this project was the collaboration between the three fields.
“They’re creating interdisciplinary applications, involving students from different backgrounds and collaborating on a project that could have implications for space science,” Thierman said.
DeLappe’s work to date includes online gaming performance, electromechanical installation and real-time web-based video transmission. His efforts were featured in the exhibition Gameworld in Gijon, Spain. In 2008, he created “Reenactment: The Salt Satyagraha Online,” using a customized treadmill to walk his Second Life avatar, MGandhi, 240 miles in 26 days in the popular online game.
Louis’s projects include the study of computer programs that model human decision-making – a research area with applications in video game design. In 2006, Louis organized a symposium on computational intelligence in games.
Dailey, formerly a multimedia producer for MSNBC Interactive, frequently speaks to national media leaders about the potential of interactive games as useful journalistic tools.
“It’s great to see three disparate departments working together in a brand new field,” said journalism dean Jerry Ceppos. “I can’t imagine that many journalism schools get NASA grants.”
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