Entertainment arts and engineering(or how to fast track a new interdisciplinary program)

  • Authors:

  • Robert Kessler;Mark van Langeveld;Roger Altizer

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA;University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA;University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 40th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
  • Year:
  • 2009

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

The Entertainment Arts and Engineering (EAE) program is a unique, new undergraduate interdisciplinary program at the University of Utah bringing together the School of Computing and the Division of Film Studies in an effort to teach both video game development and computer animation. Students pursuing a film or computer science degree may enroll in the program as a means of focusing their education on digital arts and entertainment. The key characteristic of the program is the shared classes where students from both Computer Science and Fine Arts study together and cooperate on game and animation projects. The program is highlighted by a yearlong capstone course in which the students work together to make a video game or animated short from scratch. This paper chronicles our efforts starting the EAE program and demonstrates how to create an interdisciplinary program that not only attracts students to CS, but also equips them for careers or research in video games and animation.