ETC Projects having Mike Christel as their instructor

Home Team, Fall 2024
Home Team developed "Torn Apart", a narrative game that sheds light on the loss of culture and legacy due to gentrification.
Student-pitch project; taught with Heather Kelley

Hycave, Fall 2024
Hycave created a 2-player experience "Shroom Hats" for the ETC's CAVERN that used head-tracking to support independent views and actions, and cooperative views and actions, in a 3D mushroom world. The CAVERN is a 270-degree circular screen with a 20-foot-wide play area.
Faculty-pitch project directed by Steve Audia; taught with Scott Stevens

AlighteR, Spring 2024
AlighteR developed a mobile augmented reality (AR) app leveraging Niantic’s Lightship ARDK 3.0. This AR app built an experience around one of Pittsburgh’s unique features, the bridges, to motivate players to move and explore the real world. AlighteR made use of Lightship’s newly updated AR features and designed an immersive experience for the nearby Hot Metal Bridge.
Faculty-pitch project, with Jake Jeffery of Niantic, Inc. acting as subject matter expert and client

AR Mixtory, Spring 2024
AR Mixtory used the CMU-developed Augmented Reality Edge Network Architecture (ARENA) to create an AR experience about Pittsburgh’s Chinatown. ARENA’s development aims to emphasize user experience design in mixed-reality storytelling by providing tools that allow users to interact with content. This project contributes to designing and developing a mixed-reality interactive environment using ARENA, taking inspiration from old Chinatown in Pittsburgh.
Client Anthony Rowe, CMU Electrical and Computer Engineering, WiSELab; taught with Scott Stevens

TrailblazAR, Spring 2024
TrailblazAR is developed mixed-reality prototypes to be used in conjunction with the ropes course at Dragon's Den Pittsburgh. This project used the Meta Quest 3 passthrough and depth-sensing technologies, as well as exploring other AR devices like XREAL Light.
Client Dragon's Den Pittsburgh; taught with Ricardo Washington

PicoLock, Fall 2023
PicoLock was a collaboration with picoCTF. The team crafted an open-world environment with three distinct levels of gameplay, interlacing real-world cybersecurity concepts within its puzzles. The game will eventually be hosted within picoCTF with a game link for now available within the project website.
Client picoCTF; taught with Jonathan Walton

INTENT, Fall 2023
INTENT, short for "Interactive Tool for Empathy in Neurotypicals", worked with researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Maryland to produce a web browser game where the player can choose to be an ally for autistic co-workers by working through realistic situations in an office setting. The prototype game, which may undergo further revisions by the research team and is meant to be part of a larger set of training materials, is available for play within the project website. This game was the winner of the Best Poster & Demo at the Joint Conference on Serious Games in New York in Nov. 2024 as presented by Morgan Evans; see the JCSG 2024 reference.
Client Andrew Begel, CMU Software and Societal Systems (along with his research team and partners); taught with Scott Stevens

Bridging Time, Spring 2023
Bridging Time produced a mobile augmented reality application to transport guests back in time to the era when the Eliza Furnace Hot Metal Bridge in Pittsburgh, PA served as a crucial connector for the Jones and Laughlin Steel Mill.
ETC faculty-pitch project to explore AR use with a physical site with a rich history; taught with Scott Stevens

Chillax, Spring 2023
Chillax is working with AHN under an NDA to create virtual environments pursuing client goals for a particular audience and purpose. Because of the non-disclosure agreement, no public website is shared for this particular project.
Client Allegheny Health Network

Experience X, Spring 2023
Experience X created an interactive kiosk to welcome guests into the Entertainment Technology Center, using a 3D floor map and emphasizing projects and hardware in the building. Two experiences with such hardware were also prototyped so that the kiosk and these experiences can inspire visitors to further explore the world of the ETC.
ETC faculty-pitch project; taught with Ruth Comley

Artisan, Fall 2022
Artisan designed and built a procedural generation pipeline with authentic historical data. Using Houdini FX and Unreal Engine 5, the pipeline allowed for building modules and parameterization in Houdini, generating single buildings, and implementing building clusters and placement using specific algorithms in Unreal Engine. The final deliverables were documentation that describes the entire pipeline, related tools, and source code, as well as an interactive demonstration of Tang Dynasty cityscapes.
Student-pitch project; taught with Jonathan Walton

HAI, Fall 2022
HAI created a dual-agent cooperation game to support the research on Human/AI collaboration dynamics in CMU's Department of Psychology. The team mainly focused on asymmetrical gameplay where two agents (foraging and visual classification) are given different interactions/information to achieve a common goal. It allows both human and AI to act as each agent.
Clients Timothy Verstynen and Michael Tarr of CMU's Department of Psychology

STEMspire, Fall 2022
STEMspire created a game, alongside a teacher run workshop, to raise awareness among 8th graders about racial bias. The game, Power Core Values, seeks to engage the player in the story and puzzle while giving workshop facilitators examples of racial bias that can be pulled from the game and used as discussion points. This game is designed to be used in concert with a workshop to spark conversations about racial bias. See also a Joint Conference on Serious Games 2023 paper about such a workshop plus game offering.
Client CMU/Pitt Collaboratory Against Hate represented by John Balash; taught with Ricardo Washington

AI Auditors, Spring 2022
AI Auditors is a team partnering with CMU's Human Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) to aid in the research on fairness in AI toxicity models by developing a Game with a Purpose (GWAP). The project created an online game that engages players in collectively surfacing and making sense of questionable judgments in AI systems. It has been released to attract and support everyday users to play and generate usable data as a byproduct of gameplay.
Client Ken Holstein, CMU HCII (research into biases in AI)

Embrace, Spring 2022
The Embrace team created an interactive live orientation experience for incoming students to the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences at CMU. The auditorium experience runs on the audience’s mobile phones and the shared big screen, introducing the concept of cultural humility.
Client Ayana Ledford, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, CMU Dietrich College; taught with Ralph Vituccio

SciCom Center, Spring 2022
SciCom Center produced "Pitch Party": a mobile phone social game inviting in attendees at the annual ASTC conference (to be in Pittsburgh in September 2022) to play via posters and other materials at the event. Pitch Party gives ASTC members the opportunity to connect with their peers and to have authentic conversations on important critical topics relating to science engagement organizations.
Client Association of Science and Technology Centers; taught with Brenda Harger

Eye Deal, Fall 2021
The Eye Deal team created "SpaceBull Nova", a game that utilizes a Tobii eye tracker and a click mechanic to help the quadriplegic patients improve their eye tracking skills for precision, accuracy and reaction time. Each game session provides those analytics to the researchers to track the patient’s level of success with the eye tracking technology. The PC game has a mission mode for narrative engagement and an endless runner mode to encourage replay.
Client Putrino Lab at Mount Sinai; taught with Shirley Saldamarco

WanderMath, Fall 2021
WanderMath made an Augmented Reality (AR) experience inspired by Math Walks, to help 4th and 5th graders engage in open-ended math adventures. Apps were released to both the Apple and Google Play stores under student accounts with the AR experience having three activities and running on mobile devices (phones and tablets). The activities help kids "see math" and also engage them in play with math, in pursuit of a critical and conceptual math understanding.
Client West Liberty University; taught with Tom Corbett

Archive Dive, Spring 2021
The Archive Dive team delivered a visual, interactive, and playful web browser experience to attract the interest of new audiences and encourage them to learn about African American history from The HistoryMakers database of nearly 3000 notable African Americans. The team explored a variety of web technologies and designs to transform this large set of data into personally relatable content for any user, delivered in a fun but also meaningful way. The client endorsed the work before the semester ended and fielded it at www.thehistorymakers.org/archivedive for public use.
Client The HistoryMakers; taught with Ralph Vituccio

Blindspot, Spring 2021
The Blindspot team created an interactive transformational experience to raise awareness and inspire action to counteract the negative impact of microaggressions that emerge in everyday campus contexts. The deliverable is a 2D web-based game that tells a story of a Chinese girl new to the U.S. who experiences microaggressions in her college life. The game consists of a prologue that gives background information of the protagonist, three chapters that happen in different places, and an ending that summarizes points made with various minigames. The experience unfolds a story where the protagonist is hesitant at the beginning but becomes stronger and stays true to who she is in the end. See also a IEEE Conference on Games paper about the project.
Client Carnegie Mellon University Data-Driven Diversity Lab (Geoff Kaufman); taught with Shirley Saldamarco

Impacteers, Spring 2021
The Impacteers team worked with the co-founders of Toyz Electronics: Damola Idowu, and his son Wole Idowu. They built an Android app based on Damola's and Wole’s life experiences with the mission to inspire African American young adults ages 13-15 to pursue higher education in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics).
Client Toyz Electronics (Damola Idowu); taught with Brenda Harger

August Wilson Cycle, Fall 2020
The August Wilson Cycle team created an exploration game with 2D scenes and a 3D augmented reality map that helped players learn more about, as well as connect with, the people and culture found in August Wilson’s works. August Wilson wrote nine famous plays taking place in Pittsburgh's Hill District in different decades of the 20th century. The developed app allows one to visit the Hill in two of those decades.
Client August Wilson House; taught with Ralph Vituccio

AI Playtesting, Fall 2020
The AI Playtesting team used reinforcement learning AI agents to solve card game balance for the "Slay the Spire" popular card game. They developed a three step approach of (1) training the AI agent using deep reinforcement learning algorithms, (2) having the AI agent play against itself repeatedly to generate large amounts of data, and (3) using the generated statistics to present information to a designer for identifying imbalance and updating the rules, card, and deck as needed. Details are at the team's documentation website.
Student-pitch project; taught with Scott Stevens

Voicers, Fall 2020
The Voicers team created an educational and promotional webpage to bring broader understanding to the public on black girls’ lived experiences. The page combined interactive story elements, graphs, a short game, videos, and an ending survey to educate the audience about such experiences and the BGEA client.
Client Black Girls Equity Alliance (BGEA); taught with Ricardo Washington

Giant Combat, Spring 2020
The Giant Combat team investigated how melee combat in Virtual Reality against a large-scale enemy can feel good. It built prototypes utilizing the Unreal game engine and Valve Index hardware, aiming to create experiences that make the player feel both powerful and small. The project website showcases prototype playthroughs and walks through lessons learned in its blog posts.
Student-pitch project; taught with Ricardo Washington

Neo Security Lab, Spring 2020
The Neo Security Lab team, in cooperation with the CERT Division of the Software Engineering Institute, created a web-based story and sequence of minigames encompassing a series of tasks that test its players’ degree of trust for AI systems. The experience was designed to entertain the player, while also collecting their choices to help with AI decision-making interface research in the future. Rotem Guttman will direct an SEI effort to expand on the students' work and finish the full experience with credible tasks. The project website includes a link to a minigame-only version where you can entertain yourself with progressively generated puzzles.
Client Software Engineering Institute at CMU (Rotem Guttman)

Techtile, Fall 2019
The Techtile team designed and built an interactive experience that merges technology with tactile play. They used Arduinos and RFID tags to control infinity mirror light effects in cubbyholes arranged in a display box fostering curiosity and encouraging investigation. They playtested with dozens of children throughout the semester, discovering the importance of onboarding, hinting/scaffolding, and surprising through visual rewards available with their system. As of December 2019, their work is installed at the MuseumLab, part of the Pittsburgh Children's Museum.
Student-pitch project; taught with Chris Klug

Fortitude, Spring 2019
The Fortitude team built an Android/iOS game application "BROKE: The Game" inspired from the existing board game "The Poverty Spiral" created by Dana Gold. The Poverty Spiral is a simulation for experiencing the challenges of making tough decisions when faced with few resources and competing priorities, to get a deeper understanding of living in poverty. The game is designed for 4-6 players and the goal is to reach and maintain Financial Stability before you run out of cards and choices. Each choice has a financial impact which makes the player experience the stress of how making the "right" decision is not always the best choice to get you out of poverty. The produced app keeps the same impact as the board game, but makes it more accessible in a digital form, promoting empathy for people living in poverty. Add-ons and app store links are at brokethegame.com.
Client Dana Gold; taught with Jessica Hammer

Another Alice Adventure, Spring 2019
The Another Alice Adventure team produced a 2D adventure game creation tool for people with little game design experience. Specifically, the team created a puzzle design system with state changes, verbs, and backward thinking; a game creation cross-platform application for Windows, Linux and OS X; a series of tutorials and text instructions; and detailed documentation. See the team's repository on GitHub, including this v. 1.0 release
Client CMU Alice Project (Eric Brown, Director); taught with Dave Culyba

Isetta Engine, Fall 2018
The Isetta Engine team built a new game engine from the ground up. Every step of the way they documented their progress through a dedicated blog in order to demystify the process. By recording their hands-on journey and conducting interviews with industry professionals, they are providing a valuable resource for programmers finding their way in game engine development, complete with the code repository. See isetta.io for a compendium of topics and more details. See also Behind the Black Box: Sessions with Game Engine Programmers edited by the students on this project.
Student-pitch project; taught with Ruth Comley

BotLab, Fall 2018
BotLab worked with the National Robotics League (NRL), a program in which high school students design and build remote controlled combat robots, or “Bots”. The team created a tablet-based augmented reality (AR) experience that parallels the process of researching, building, and battling Bots. This AR experience serves as an introduction to the NRL program.
Client National Robotics League; taught with John Dessler

Prism, Spring 2018
Prism helps neurotypical people to empathize with those on the autism spectrum. Working initially with 3rd and 4th graders at the Beech Bottom Primary School in Brooke County, West Virginia, the team created a forest game (titled "Prism", also available as an iOS and Android app). The game is designed to be played by children, and then a follow-up discussion run with a moderator (teacher) to connect the forest animals to autism topics; see the Prism project website (Teacher Resources) for the discussion guide and more details. See also a Serious Games conference paper about the project. Prism was awarded the Gold Medal for student work at the 2018 International Serious Play Awards.
Client Beech Bottom Primary School (via foundation funding); taught with Scott Stevens

NeuroAct, Spring 2018
NeuroAct created a number of demonstration prototypes and documented progress in working with a neural-interface armband that uses Electromyography (EMG) to measure the electrical activities produced by skeletal muscles. Three experiences of note were a snowboarding game (using continuous gestures for steering), a cake-making game (using continuous squeeze force for input), and an interactive music experience using an amalgam of technologies.
Client CTRL-labs; taught with Heather Kelley

CryptoKnight, Spring 2018
CryptoKnight worked with Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab and CMU's Hacking Team the Plaid Parliament of Pawning with respect to picoCTF 2018, a cyber security competition. The team produced a robot world game where missions introduce hacking concepts and hopefully keep picoCTF participants interested in the competition longer, completing more questions. Full integration with picoCTF 2018 and that competition will be run after the project concludes its work on the game.
Client Carnegie Mellon University CyLab; taught with Shirley Saldamarco

Alice's Adventure, Spring 2018
Alice's Adventure created a 2D Adventure Game Maker for teenagers. I was not an instructor for this project: Ruth Comley and Dave Culyba were. However, I made a vulture experience that some at the ETC asked to see. For the curious, here is my vulture experience built with this project's game maker. The team notes the output works best in Microsoft Edge or Mozilla Firefox.

Flower Power, Fall 2017
Flower Power worked with Steenrod Elementary School, Wheeling, WV to create a game to help teach 4th and 5th grade students about recycling. The team created a networked iPad game about sorting and recycling for 4-16 players, played across 4 iPads, that sat in the center of a lesson plan about how to be more sustainable in everyday life. The game, Trash Traders, has each iPad become a recycling center at which trash of that center’s specific type - paper, plastic, metal, or glass - can be turned into a processed material that can be used to help create green products for the city and lower pollution. Players need to cooperate across centers to succeed.
Client Steenrod Elementary School (via foundation funding); taught with John Dessler

Mocking Birds, Spring 2017
Mocking Birds created an interactive HTML5 web experience dealing with racism. Collaborating with students and administrators from the main campus of Carnegie Mellon University, the students created an interactive video experience, Mind Field, which raises awareness to more subtle forms of racism and their impacts. Players are able to discover different points of view affected by the diverse backgrounds of the university's student body, learning about microaggression and stereotype threat in their explorations. Mind Field is a free online experience targetting undergraduates that takes about 15-20 minutes.
Client Carnegie Mellon University; taught with Ralph Vituccio

ArithMagic, Spring 2017
ArithMagic created a math-based educational iPad app: Robo Repair: Addition and Subtraction. This app focuses on practice of addition and subtraction exercises for kindergarten to second grade students. The various robots in the game are meant to boost confidence and provide motivation. The game is instrumented with digital manipulatives in the form of bolts on numerals to facilitate counting, with regrouping shown as well to scaffold the learning to higher order mechanics of tens/ones manipulations. At project completion date, the app was available for free download: Robo Repair: Addition and Subtraction on App Store (iPad).
Client Pennsylvania Intermediate Unit 1 Educational Campus at East Franklin; taught with Shirley Saldamarco

Fanfare, Spring 2017
Fanfare explored the use of handheld mobile technology in a sports venue that complements the game and enhances the fans' experience in the stadium in innovative ways. After initial explorations the student team settled on baseball, and created three prototype experiences: a between innings "connect the dots" group experience with broad appeal, a prediction game for avid fans and those that like to compete for high scores, and a collection game for more casual fans motivated by a collection mechanic. Multiple playtests informed the iterative development of these three experiences.
Client Verizon; taught with Scott Stevens

Cozplay, Fall 2016
Cozplay worked with Anki to design and develop games for the newly released Cozmo consumer robot. Over the course of the semester, the team experimented with a variety of game concepts in order to hone in on those most suited to this cutting edge robotic companion. At project completion date, 18 experiences were documented in the Cozmo SDK Forum: see results from a Forum search on "cozplay" for more details.
Client Anki; taught with Brenda Harger

OnTrack, Spring 2016
OnTrack worked with representatives of the United States of America Track and Field Foundation (USATFF) to develop Run with US!, an app promoting track and field as well as general fitness. The goal of this project was to create a high-energy, interactive track and field game that enables kids of all ages to compete in various track and field events against/with current Olympic athletes as well as their peers. At project completion date, the app was available for free download: Run with US! on Google Play and Run with US! on App Store (both iPhone and iPad).
Client USATFF; taught with Shirley Yee

True North, Spring 2016
True North created A Fine Line, an interactive experience for students at Carnegie Mellon. It addresses academic integrity, on and beyond campus life. In partnership with students and administrators on main campus, the ETC student developers aimed to create a tool for the university to educate and speak to both the practical and moral implications of academic integrity. Presented in the form of a web-based, illustrated world, the experience gives players the ability to navigate the story, and make impactful decisions within it. It creates an environment where students confront true-to-life scenarios involving academic integrity, and reflect on how they would navigate these challenges in real life.
Client Carnegie Mellon University; taught with Ralph Vituccio

ArchiTek, Spring 2016
ArchiTek produced a story-driven online experience centered on map design exercises to be used in conjunction with a GIS class taught by Prof. Kristen Kurland at Carnegie Mellon University. Prof. Kurland sought an experience more interesting to students than just text questions, but also with remediation to help students to appreciate the finer points of map design and improve their learning of the topic. The experience is available on the project website, and will be tested in future offerings of Prof. Kurland's courses.
Client Kristen Kurland, Carnegie Mellon University

Inksmith, Fall 2015
Inksmith worked on translating pre-reader children's storybooks from paper to touch screen. Rather than keeping to fixed format e-books that simply mimic the static page-flipping ability of paper storybooks, Inksmith implemented seamless transitions over lines of the story, incorporated game elements into various events of the plot, and created sequences of scenes driven entirely by child interaction.
Client Pixure Books Publishing; taught with John Dessler

Lotter-E, Fall 2015
Lotter-e developed an Android game in the Unity Engine, Air Sweeper, incorporating transformational game elements to appeal to a new generation of players. Lotter-e researched what millennials look for in a game and in a social cause, and developed a game experience that could raise money, raise awareness, and encourage players to create changes in their own life.
Client National Association of State and Provincial Lotteries; taught with Drew Davidson

Fear and Freedom, Spring 2015
Fear and Freedom produced the Unity game Jayu (meaning liberty/freedom in Korean). North Koreans are portrayed as victims of propaganda, rather than strong individuals living within the regime. Jayu is about living in a small North Korean town near the border of China. The player experiences the unusual regulations of North Korea, and learns how people confront or circumvent these restrictions. The game portrays North Korean life realistically, excluding the censorship of North Korea and the patronization of foreign media.
Student-pitch project; taught with Brenda Harger

Legato, Spring 2015
Legato was a large student team working with another student team located in Redwood City, CA. They jointly created a connected game experience: handheld device interaction along with common large screen (e.g., television). Legato targeted players who don't fall in the category of "core gamers" through simple mechanics that allow for an easy-to-learn and fun experience for the whole family in a relaxed living room setting. They developed Jelly Pirates in Space.
Client Electronic Arts; taught with Salvador Barrera

Stratos, Spring 2015
Stratos worked toward a mobile app to support health education and socialization of children with asthma. Its audience is children ages 7-11 and their parents or caregivers from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The app will help such children and parents understand they can live life normally such as attend school regularly, play sports, and socialize. The client is a part of the Allegheny Health Network's STARS /CAReS* projects which aim to determine the prevalence of asthma in this region as well as treat and educate asthmatics.
Client Allegheny Singer Research Institute/Disruptive Health Technology Institute; taught with Shirley Yee

Y.E.T.I., Fall 2014
Y.E.T.I. (Youth Experience Tundra Initiative) created an educational game transporting its players to the arctic tundra. YETI worked with Mountainview Elementary School (Morgantown, WV) to give its students an immersive experience to make them feel as if they are encountering the biome firsthand and familiarize them with the area's ecosystem. The goal is to give players a feeling of discovery, a sense of the types of life inhabiting this unique biome. The game should not only excite the players but also encourage them to explore and find out more about this amazing habitat. The students (via Xuyan Ke) released Arctic Stars: The Far North as a free app in 2014.
Client Mountainview Elementary School (via foundation funding); taught with Jessica Trybus

Bowtie, Spring 2014
Bowtie worked in collaboration with CMU's Personal Robotics Laboratory to help fulfill HERB (Home Exploring Robotic Butler) the robot's dream of becoming an actor. The Bowtie team worked toward an interface that enables his operators to manipulate various parameters of HERB's movement in real time to improvise and fine-tune his dramatic performance. The team created animations illustrating subtle changes in body language.
Client Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute; taught with Shirley Saldamarco

Imagica, Spring 2014
Imagica aimed to bring in a whole new dimension to classroom learning in creating interactive and immersive experiences for the students of Mountainview Elementary School (Morgantown, WV), supporting collaborative learning about the amazing world biomes. The team created an aquatic experience to introduce the children to the wonders of coral reefs, giving the students a sense of touch and feel, transporting them into the virtual world of aquatic biomes. The students (via Imagica) released Hello Ocean as a free app in 2014.
Client Mountainview Elementary School (via foundation funding); taught with Jessica Trybus

Transcendence, Spring 2014
Transcendence augmented Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) with the creation of a mobile game that teaches traumatized children about the cognitive triangle of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, as well as how to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Traumatic experiences can lead to recurring negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in children. Child psychologists in the Allegheny Health Network address this problem through TF-CBT. The team's work led to the release of the app TF-CBT Triangle of Life by Allegheny Health Network in 2014.
Client Allegheny Singer Research Institute/Disruptive Health Technology Institute; taught with Scott Stevens

GameGrid, Fall 2013
GameGrid worked with Creative Labs at Indiana University to promote system thinking design through an educational game for upper elementary and middle school youth. They developed Water+, an educational game helping children gain understanding about how systems work and encouraging creative expressions of colored water in 3D pipes. This game was taken to commercialization and released as an App Store app, Water Bears by Schell Games in 2015.
Client Creative Labs at Indiana University; taught with Salvador Barrera

PlayStation Ignite, Fall 2013
PlayStation Ignite worked with Sony Computer Entertainment to produce five prototypes of innovative new game ideas over the course of the semester. The students had only three weeks to develop each prototype from conception to realization. The goal of this project was to discover new and interesting ways to think about games, be it through character, story, and mechanics, as well as documenting the development process as it relates to rapid game design and implementation.
Client Sony Entertainment Corp. of America; taught with Dave Culyba

CardioActive, Spring 2013
CardioActive produced an exergame, a unique yet fun and rigorous game promoting exercise. This game, Webz of War is deployed in a demonstration center by TATRC, who is researching exercise games that people will actually use and want to keep using.
Client Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center

Impact!, Spring 2013
Impact! was a project working towards inspiring young minds to pursue science and engineering as a career. Initiated by DARPA, this is a multi-year project working in conjunction with many different institutions and organizations. The end product will be a series of multiplatform games for Pre-K to third graders that inspire interest and teach basic concepts in the field of science. This team created the HTML5 game Helios.
Client DARPA ENGAGE; taught with Scott Stevens

neuraltone, Spring 2013
neuraltone worked with Dr. Lori Holt of the Center for Neural Basis of Cognition. Dr. Holt is conducting research about how the brain categorizes complex audio patterns and how that process relates to perceiving linguistic sound categories. A simple video game, developed in-house, can be used to train players to better recognize different sound categories far more effectively than traditional explicit feedback-based training. This project created a new game with which to conduct this training research, a game with greater engagement, while retaining the effect of implicit sound categorization learning that occurred in the original game.
Client Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition