New Technologies and Horizons for Serious Games

1. New Technologies and Horizons for Serious Games University of Washington

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

3. CSE Faculty • Brian Curless • Barbara Mones • Zoran Popović • David Salesin • Steve Seitz • John Zahorjan • Rajesh Rao • CSE faculty

4. Faculty and collaborators Local affiliate faculty • Michael Cohen • Rick Szeliski • Aseem Agarwala • Steve Drucker • Simon Baker Remote affiliate faculty Three post-doctoral researchers • Maneesh Agrawala • Aaron Hertzmann • Sameer Agarwal • Eli Shechtman • Adrien Treuille

5. Faculty and collaborators • More collaborators from MSR • Hugues Hoppe • Sing-Bing Kang • Larry Zitnick • Chuck Jacobs • More collaborators from Adobe • Mira Dontcheva • Dan Goldman • Wilmot Li • Jue Wang

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

7. Industrial Lab Magnet • Microsoft Research • Intel Research Labs • Adobe Research Group • Google Seattle

8. 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

9. Phototourism video

10. Realtime Fluids

11. ESPN NASCAR coverage Nominated forSports Emmy in the Technical Achievement category

12. Transfer of Learning principles to Games

13. Learning Scientists John Bransford Philip Bell Reed Stevens Nancy Vye UW LIFE Center Largest NSF Learning Science Center

14. Incorporated: February 2006 HQ: Bellevue Series A : $7.1M (angels) First Product: “DreamBox K-2 Math” Launch Date: January 2009

15. 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 theme—Pirates, Dinosaurs, Pets, or Pixie

16. Adaptations Billy Lesson 2 Lesson 2 Lesson 2 Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 2 Jill Lesson 2 Lesson 2 Lesson 2 Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 2 Individual placement and customization Confidential

17. Adaptations Lesson 3 Billy Lesson 3 Lesson 2 Lesson 3 1 Lesson 3 Lesson 3 Lesson 3 Jill Lesson 3 Lesson 2 Lesson 3 1 Lesson 3 Lesson 3 Continuous product improvements

18. Itza Bitza

19. Turning the tables

20. Science discovery through Games

21. Protein Folding 1D Amino Acid Sequence 3D Structure

22. Rosetta@Home UW Biochemistry, Baker Lab

23. Proteins as Puzzles

24. Fold It!

25. Fold It! Funded by DARPA, NSFJoin in at: http://fold.it/

26. Future games DNA Manipulation Vaccines Biofuels

27. Rethinking Educationthrough Games

28. Institute for Learning Through Games

29. 1. STEM

30. Rising above the Gathering Storm ReportForemost objective: Improve K-12 STEM education • America COMPETES act passed by congress • National Mathematics Advisory Panel

31. 2. Focus on early education

32. STEM Practitioners Middle school Elementary STEM Potential K-2

33. 3. Scientific Approach

34. 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)

35. 4. Make games that “stick”

36. Learning takes time • Assessment of poor games leads to poor findings

37. Our Approach to Quality Games • Rapid prototyping • Continuous usability tests • Broad industry expert involvement

38. 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

39. 5. Comprehensive and innovative assessment

40. Think-alouds SchoolAge Transfer experiments Biophysiological High school Ethnography Middle school Built-in assessment Elementary K-2 Early Math Biochemistry Foundationalmath Physics ComputerScience Math Molecular engineering Topic Nanotech Creatures Algebra Academiceffect Molecularstructures Social identityeffect Social interaction effect Simulationgame Fractions Gendereffect Patterns

41. 5. Framework for Educators

42. 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

43. 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

44. 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 Multimediapublications Multi-MethodData Collection(LS) Publications on analysis and principles Headline grabbing Publications on methods and findings

45. Industrial Support

46. $170 mil in first 24 hoursHighest Grossing Product in Entertainment History Best FPS - IGN Best Action Game - PCGamer Best Action Game - Game Critics E3 Awards 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

47. Learning game companies

48. 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

49. 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

50. Policy Consideration I • Provide seed funding for Institute for Learning through Games • We have space, resources, connections, equipment donations