Enhance CS
John Nordlinger
Program Manager
Microsoft Research
External Research & Programs

Where’s my food?
Problem of declining enrollment in CS
Perspective: Computer Gaming
How computer gaming can inspire CS
Review of MSR / ER&P funded projects in enhancing CS curriculum with computer gaming

The Games Marketplace Of 1995
Writing and Selling games in 1995 was straightforward
Retail was a well understood norm
“Online games” meant they were ordered by phone and delivered via mail
Shareware games on floppies were the demo’s of the day
“Streaming media” was fifteen
3.5” floppies

The Games Marketplace Of Today
Multiple sales and distribution vehicles in 2005
Retail
The Internet
E-commerce for direct sales
Games on-demand
Subscription-based games
Multi-platform (handheld, PC, console)
The Internet provides developers the tools and means to build community with their customers
Mods, user created content, forums and betas help game vendor bond with your current customers
Websites, demos, trailers and previews help game vendor reach new customers

Worldwide Retail Revenue
Worldwide Online Revenue
$695M
$2.0B
$2.35B
$6.86B
$2.3B
1995 2004 2009
Sources: NPD Data, DFC Intelligence and Themis Group
WW retail revenues for
Windows games tripled in a decade
The online
Windows gaming market has exploded
Projections put total WW
Windows games revenue over
$9B in 2009

Multi-disciplinary – better communication
Security emphasis
Graphics intensive
Larger scale, Team emphasis
Some examples…

Randy Pausch
Jesse Schell
CMU ETC
At Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center ( etc.cmu.edu
), we are creating two tools for broad distribution:
Alice ( www.alice.org
) is intended for introductory computer programming courses, providing a revolutionary video-game authoring approach.
Panda3D ( www.panda3d.org
) is a high-end, commercial-grade game engine originally developed by Walt Disney Imagineering and now under joint development with Carnegie Mellon. It is suitable for use in higherlevel CS courses.

No Alice
Class
Prior to CS1
Alice Class
Prior to CS1
CS1 Grade Take CS2?
C 47%
B 88%

Alice and Panda3D
Josh Yelon
CMU

Andrew Phelps
Rochester Institute of technology.
Visual programming
Normal
IDE
Currently supports
Java, OpenGL etc.
Being redesigned to support to support
DirectX and .NET!

Reality And Programming Together
Develop and run pilot courses in game oriented CS2 and CS3 utilizing C#.
There will be teamwork and projects to teach software engineering concepts coupled with audio and graphics introductory material.
Course will allow students creative expression as well as bring the importance of human factors and game play into the classroom.
We will use C#/DirectX coupled with real, multidisciplinary applications
Jessica Bayliss, PhD
Rochester Institute of Technology
Department of
Computer Science

Game Production And Development
For Multiple Hardware Platforms
Developing a 5-quarter curriculum what will combine computer science with visual design, sound design, and narrative theory.
The curriculum will form the backbone of a new, interschool major, Animate Arts and
Science to be offered in collaboration with 4 major
Colleges at Northwestern.
This curriculum will incorporate more than
4000 students.
Bruce & Amy Gooch, Phds
Northwestern University
Department of Computer Science
Bruce & Amy Gooch, Phds

A suite of advanced courses in the contributing disciplines of
Communication Studies, Computer
Science, Digital Art, Interactive
Multimedia, Music and
Professional Writing.
We propose to create a learning environment in which crossdisciplinary students collaborate on developing a 3-D, virtual reality, multi-player game.
Ursula Wolz , Computer Science and
Interactive Multimedia,
Anita Allyn , Art
Terry Byrne , Communication Studies
Jikai Li , Computer Science,
Miroslav Martinovic , Computer Science
Robert McMahan , Music
Kim Pearson, English and
Interactive Multimedia
The College of New Jersey

Design and construction of an instructional 3D game engine intended as the core of a game programming curriculum for undergraduate computer science students.
The game engine will be constructed in a sequence of incremental steps. Code will be written using Visual C++ using the latest version of DirectX.
A set of integrated tutorials will be created as part of this project.
Ian Parberry
University of North Texas

Organization of a specialized laboratory devoted to computer games. The initial goal of this laboratory is to prepare material for specialized courses on computer games, which emphasize the application of academic material taught in “traditional” disciplines such as data structures, computer graphics, and artificial intelligence.
These specialized courses shall function as motivation for students to focus on their studies, as well as independent assessment of how well students are doing in their studies, and of how broad, modern, and accurate their
“traditional” course is.
Flavio Soares Correa Da Silva
University of San Paulo

An architecture for building 3D augmented reality and virtual reality applications and games.
Written in C#, using
Managed DirectX.
Leverages .NET to support innovative application features, including Edit-and-
Continue and Aspect-
Oriented Programming.
Steve Feiner, PhD
Marc Eaddy
Columbia University
Department of
Computer Science

MSDN Academic Alliance
Developer Center’s
Curriculum Repository. http://www.msdnaa.com
http://msdn.microsoft.com/academic/

John Laird’s update to DX framework
Curriculum from Digipen, UNT, NWU,
TCNJ and RIT
Engines and environments coming from
UNT, TCNJ, Columbia and CMU

MSR Faculty Summit – July 17- 20 th
( 3 sessions on gaming and CS)
DirectX
VC++ and Halflife(2)
Academic BOF
Microsoft Meltdown – July 26, 27th
BOF for academia

Questions ?
Johnnord@microsoft.com
Program Manager – Microsoft Research

© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.