The final group shot for this semester.
It’s suddenly quiet here as Jiyoung and I finish up a few things (like grades!) before winter break. Final presentations were Wednesday — now everything is packed up and the students are gone. The members of Opsis2 are en route to China to present to their client, SuperD; the rest of the gang has headed in a dozen other directions.
Thank you everyone for another great semester! And now, the ‘After’ shots:
Team Arca
Coco & co
Opsis2
Final Presentations were on Wednesday, December 18th to a fantastic turnout of close to 50 guests. This is the teams’ opportunity to show off their final products, talk about the process they went through and share the lessons they learned along the way. Click through below to watch the videos.
Jessica tries out the Opsis games
Jessica Trybus, the Founder and CEO of Etcetera Edutainment, visited the Silicon Valley campus on November 30th. She gave us a lecture and showed us a demo of a few projects that Etcetera Edutainment developed. Jessica is an ETC alumni who is now also an ETC faculty member. Right after she graduated in 2005 she founded Etcetera Edutainment with one of her colleagues. She introduced her company as ‘a company that designs simulation safety content based on game mechanics that we all familiar with.’
She showed a live demo of an electrical safety simulation as one example of her company’s work. The purpose of this simulation training is to test professional electrical engineers by putting them in the drivers seat and letting them make decisions in virtual scenarios. The simulation is a very technical based game because the clients’ expectations are high over having proven and accurate facts. Thus, it is a very delicate game that is well built in a very realistic virtual environment. The simulation training is divided into different stages based on several tasks and difficulty levels. Since it is all about teaching them a lesson with accurate facts, when the player completes each examination and training, the program gives highly detailed safety ratings with a list of things that the player missed, such as forgetting to wear hearing protection. She adds that the key part of this engine is giving the tester a clear goal of this exercise and having very accurate information with a simple interface. Therefore, testing is always going on in every stage of development, and experts are brought in to ensure that every minor detail is accurate. She closed the talk saying that she feels like she is now on a mission to train and teach people to learn through interactive media by using the new tools that Etcetera Edutainment has developed.
For her last point, she said the key to being successful is to do what you want to do, and not to be afraid to start something you believe in. She also said, “Try to understand the market and figure out what market really wants and of course, most importantly, get the right people if you plan to run a business.”
It was very nice and inspiring having her here with us.
Getting a demo of Way from Coco&co
