Qualcomm Establishes Augmented Reality Game Studio at Georgia Tech

PRNewswire-- Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) has joined forces with the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) to establish the Qualcomm Augmented Reality Game Studio, a research and design center aimed at pioneering new advancements in mobile gaming and interactive media. Located on Georgia Tech's Atlanta campus, the game studio will build upon Qualcomm's newly announced augmented reality platform and related graphics technologies to produce new application concepts and prototypes.

"Georgia Tech continues to be at the forefront of augmented reality innovation," said Matt Grob, senior vice president of engineering and head of corporate research and development at Qualcomm. "For more than 12 years, the university's Augmented Environments Lab has been researching ways to enhance a user's senses by creating interactive computing environments. Now, with Qualcomm's new augmented reality platform, we are working together to further advance the user experience by extending virtual gaming experiences into the real world."

The Qualcomm Augmented Reality Game Studio will be led by acclaimed augmented reality researcher and Associate Professor of Interactive Computing Dr. Blair MacIntyre, director of Georgia Tech's Augmented Environments Lab. The lab is part of Georgia Tech's GVU Center, a world-renowned research center that brings together students and faculty from across the university to study problems at the intersection of people and technology. In collaboration with students and faculty from the Savannah College of Art and Design, MacIntyre will combine the skills and creative insight of students with expertise in augmented reality technology, game development and the arts.

"Powerful processors and sophisticated graphics engines in today's mobile devices have only recently reached the point where they can meet the computing requirements for augmented reality," said MacIntyre. "By collaborating with Qualcomm, we'll have access to both the high-end hardware and core augmented reality technology that will enable us to push the envelope in game development. We are very excited to work with Qualcomm as we explore new frontiers in augmented reality gaming."

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Design showcase at University of Georgia Gwinnett Campus highlights students' multimedia projects

Graduate students in the learning, design and technology program at the University of Georgia Gwinnett Campus will present a Studio Showcase highlighting their multimedia projects at 5:30 p.m. on Dec.1.The showcase will be held in room 165 of the UGA Gwinnett Campus, located at 2530 Sever Road in Lawrenceville. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend.

The showcase will be co-sponsored by the Atlanta chapter of the International Society for Performance Improvement and will feature individual instructional technology projects covering a wide range of topics, as well as a joint volunteer service project for the National Gardening Association.

The heart of the learning, design and technology curriculum is an innovative learning community called The Studio, which meets on Tuesday evenings at the UGA Gwinnett Campus.The Studio involves students in multiple course levels creating various multimedia projects together in a shared learning space. The Studio courses provide an ongoing face-to-face anchor in a graduate curriculum where approximately half of the courses are conducted online.

Students in the two-year graduate degree program also are encouraged to pursue
professional networking opportunities, whether with K-12 education organizations or with business and industry groups more oriented toward training and performance, such as the co-sponsoring International Society for Performance Improvement (http://ispi-atlanta.org).

In addition to working on their professional knowledge and skills, members of The Studio community are also required to donate 10 hours of service to a non-profit organization where they can apply their technology expertise. This semester’s service project was conducted in collaboration with the National Gardening Association, a non-profit group devoted to education through working with plants. The NGA has two Web sites: one for everyone to learn more about plants (http://assoc.garden.org/) and the other targeted at people who teach kids (http://www.kidsgardening.com/).

The NGA previously did not have web-based play and learn experiences for children. Under the direction of UGA learning, design and technology program graduate Jennifer Lortz, the 29 students in The Studio each donated 10 hours of service to create the play and learn Web technology. Four different web-based activities were created. They can be used by the NGA to reach children and help foster greater interest in gardening and the care of plants. These four projects will be highlighted, along with other student multimedia projects, at the Studio Showcase.

For more information about the instructional design and development graduate degree offered at the UGA Gwinnett Campus, see http://www.coe.uga.edu/epit/idd or call Lloyd Rieber at 706/542-3986.

For more information on the UGA Gwinnett Campus and other programs offered there, see http://www.uga.edu/gwinnett/.

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