Congratulations to Nicole Lane, ’17 (Computer Science), Ethan Fletcher, 16 (Emerging Media), and Yanming (Jimmy) Wang, ’16 (Emerging Media) for winning top honors for their poster publication at iConference 2016, a top international conference on information science and technology.
Working in collaboration with computer science professor Nathan Prestopnik, Nicole, Ethan, and Jimmy co-authored a research poster entitled “Arena: Designing an Adventure Video Game for Second Language Engagement and Acquisition.” Their work was presented at the conference by Nicole, a 3rd year computer science student and lead author of the poster. Ultimately, their submission was one of just 100 posters selected to present at the conference, and was one of only five nominated for the conference’s best poster award. Their work was ultimately selected as one of two winners of this prestigious award.
Nicole, Ethan, and Jimmy are part of a student-faculty collaboration to design and evaluate “games with a purpose,” which are games that accomplish some meaningful, real-world task through play. Their work was an examination of several design challenges that have defined the creation of the computer game Arena, a project developed and implemented by an interdisciplinary team of 14 Ithaca College undergraduates, including the poster authors. Arena teaches Spanish as a second language through game mechanics, story, and exploration, and it is a vehicle for scientific inquiry into play, engagement, motivation, and design.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20160401093933482