I am a graduate student in the Visualization Department. I am interested in working on game design/development as well as visual effects. I had been a computer science student in my undergrad and am more interested in the programming/scripting aspect of visualization and especially in interactive systems.
For my thesis I am currently working on creating a game design framework for specific learning needs in educational games / interactive programs etc. For the same reason, I am also interested in physical systems that can be used to form a mode of basic learning through interaction between humans and the machine.
A few links I like:
1. http://web.media.mit.edu/~cynthiab/outreach/outreach.html
The main page of Cynthia Brezeal, the creator of first emotion-exhibiting robot, 'Kismet' (http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/humanoid-robotics-group/kismet/). All her projects and work by the department on this page are very interesting to keep up with.
2. http://beatbots.net/
How a simple interactive robot design can become a tool for helping children's social development.
3. http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/projectnatal/
I'm really interested in finding out more about Xbox's Project Natal - how it will work and when they'll be releasing the new console with all the features mentioned on this site.
4. http://faculty.css.edu/tgibbons/Gamemaker_Tutorials/Gamemaker_Tutorials.html / http://www.udk.com/download
These are both free game developing tools; the first, a very basic start-up game development program, and the second, a complex game engine which recently became available for free download, and has been used for several RPG's, MMO's as well as stealth games till now.
5. http://projecteuler.net/
I try a problem or two every now and then from this site.
