Research Centers
ACTLab Program, University of Texas at Austin – Austin, TX
http://www.actlab.utexas.edu/
While not a degree program to date, the ACTLab offers two interactive courses each semester for UT students. Students and faculty spend their time researching mostly musical applications in technology and 3D virtual worlds. Guest lecturers are frequent and the center serves as a helpful resource for the university.
Applied Media & Simulation Games Center, Indiana University of Pennsylvania – Indiana, PA
http://www.coe.iup.edu/amsgc/
The Center’s goal is to research simulated games and applied media. Students are invited to join research teams at the facility. The simulation games center acts as a good resource for those IUP students enrolled in the Communications Media program, and that have a strong desire to enter the workforce as a game designer or animator.
Baell Center, UC Irvine – Irvine, CA
http://beallcenter.uci.edu/index.php
The Baell Center is a research facility that studies and promotes new forms of digital technologies. Works are showcased at the center in new, creatively distinct ways. The center is connected to UC Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts and is utilized by its visual studies program students.
Berkeley Institute of Design, UC Berkeley – Berkeley, CA
http://bid.berkeley.edu/
BID is a research group that focuses on a deeply interdisciplinary approach to design that includes human-computer interaction and mechanical design. Currently the group holds retreats and seminars to discuss its research findings.
Digital Games Research Center, North Carolina State University – Raleigh, NC
http://dgrc.ncsu.edu/
The center teaches approximately 15 courses which are available to NCSU students. The courses, which are developed in conjunction with the colleges of education, engineering, design, and humanities & social sciences, are concentrated in game development and game study. Masters and Ph.D. students can conduct their research at the center and internships are available.
Digital Worlds institute, University of Florida – Gainesville, Fl
http://www.digitalworlds.ufl.edu/
The digital worlds institute is a research facility that is open for use by any college or department at UF. The institute offers seminars for both undergraduate and graduate students, but primarily focuses on gathering skilled faculty and students to explore new interactive technologies that cannot be discovered in the conventional classroom.
Entertainment Technology Center, USC – Los Angeles, CA
http://www.etcenter.org/
The ETC, which was founded with the help of George Lucas, is a center run within USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. The mission of the center is to bring the newest technologies to the entertainment industry. USC students work on projects at the ETC and sponsors/partners help fund the center.
Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Center, Georgia Tech – Atlanta, GA
http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/
Focusing on multidisciplinary research, the GVU center is well known across GeorgiaTech’s campus for its work on developing “computer-based solutions to everyday challenges.” Outsiders can get involved by attending one of the center’s brown bag lunches or special events. Tours of the facility are available.
Hexagram, Institute for Research/Creation in Media Arts and Technologies – Montreal, Quebec
http://www.hexagram.org/spip.php?page=home&lang=en&sid=0
This institute for research is one of the leading research facilities for media arts in Canada. The institute works with various universities and organizations including Concordia, UQAM, Universite de Montrea, McGill, and Cirque De Doleil. Students, universities, and companies can get involved by applying to be a researcher/member on the institute’s website.
Institute for Creative Technologies, USC – Los Angeles, CA
http://ict.usc.edu/
The institute is known for its production of virtual humans and training simulations. Interactive digital media is the main topic of research. Students can get involved by applying for one of the institute’s internships online at: http://ict.usc.edu/internships
Media Research Lab, NYU – New York City, NY
http://www.mrl.nyu.edu/
Media Research Lab is an interdisciplinary facility that works with engineers, artists, and mathematicians at NYU. The lab’s major research areas include computer graphics, geometric modeling, simulation, visualization, computer vision, mobile robotics, digital libraries, human movement, motion capture, and human-computer interaction
PICET (Purdue International Center for Entertainment Technology), Purdue – West Lafayette, IN
http://picet.tech.purdue.edu/
PICET is a center that is devoted to research, development, education, and technological advancement. The center, which is supported by its members, holds an annual conference that showcases the center’s current projects.
Virtual Reality Lab, UC Irvine – Irvine, CA
http://imaging.eng.uci.edu/
Also known as the Creative Interaction Visualization Laboratory, this facility studies large-scale visualization, interactive rendering and virtual reality. The Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Department of Biomedical Engineering primarily use the lab.
Laboratory for Games and Intelligent Animation (GAIA) George Mason University - Fairfax, VA http://cs.gmu.edu/~gaia/
The laboratory for Games and Intelligent Animation (GAIA) focuses on research at the crossroads of animation, artificial intelligence, and psychology in the simulation of virtual humans for games, computer animations, and virtual environments.
