UK Academic Team Blog : XNA

Imagine Cup Registrations

ukacademia — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:44:17 GMT

Hello Everyone,

Interest for the Imagine Cup has been strong and we can confirm the various categories are now open for competition. From experience we know that the next couple of months will be key in getting great UK representation in the Imagine Cup.

Here are just a few of the reasons for encouraging your students to compete:

- PR: The Imagine Cup attracts the attention of both regional and national newspapers, together with technology and education press and news websites such as the BBC. Having students from your university compete in the Imagine Cup is great for raising the profile of your university in two important ways. Firstly it demonstrates the quality of your graduates to IT employers and makes them more attractive as employees (e.g. Dominic Green, UK winner of the 2008 competition) and secondly, it attracts new students to your university.

- Skills Development: Fundamentally the Imagine Cup is about helping students get real world experience with Microsoft technology. The skills learned during the various competitions compliment their studies and are invaluable when students apply for jobs with IT companies.

- Students Inspiration: With every technology interest area catered for, the competition is a great way to channel students’ passion for technology out of class.

We want as many UK institutions and students to get involved with the Imagine Cup as possible, and to help you participate we provide:

- Giveaways for students: Every week we give away web cams and Starbucks vouchers. We also hold a monthly draw for a Dell laptop, providing everything a student needs to see them through their studies and the Imagine Cup competition.

- Donation of an Xbox 360 gaming lab kit for your university: The university with the most registrations will receive 4 Xbox 360s, 8 wired controllers and an assortment of the latest Xbox 360 titles. You are free to use them for XNA development or as a social/recreation area for students.

If you would like to receive regular updates on the registration numbers from your university then please let me know and I will happily send them to you. You can contact me by telephone (0118 909 3409) or if you prefer by email (mailto:ukacinfo@microsoft.com).

And just to give you an idea of how we are doing so far, here are the top fifteen universities with the highest number of registrations:

University	Registrations
Brighton	89
Birmingham City	38
Cumbria	38
Bradford	37
Reading	35
Robert Gordon	35
Derby	31
Nottingham	24
De Montfort	23
Keele	23
Cambridge	20
Hull	20
Imperial College	20
Brunel	18
RHUL	20

If you would like to know more, them please email or telephone me. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.

Good luck,

Allison

Student Technology Day - Microsoft Research Talk on CS Inside Halo 3 True Ranking System

ukacademia — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:53:11 GMT

For those of you who joined us at the Royal Festival Hall on 1st October and, especially for those who were otherwise engaged, please find below the session by Thore Graepel, Joaquin Quiñonero Candela and Ralf Herbrich on Microsoft Research Talk on CS Inside Halo 3 True Ranking System:

If you are unable to view the above clip, please do let me know.

Best wishes,

Allison

Windows Embedded Seminars

ukacademia — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:58:02 GMT

Last week I posted news about the Windows XP Professional for Embedded Systems Event at TVP on 21st October.

Following on from that post, I’d also like to tell you about a series of online seminars relating to specific aspects of Windows Embedded technology. While not perhaps for those of you already teaching embedded technologies, the seminars may prove useful if you are considering future curriculum developments.

Windows Embedded and Gaming
16th September 2008
9:00 - 10:00

Windows Embedded and Kiosk Solutions
13th November 2008
9:00 - 10:00

Windows Embedded and Industrial Automation
19th February 2009
9:00 - 10:00

Windows Embedded and Medical Solutions
30th April 2009
9:00 - 10:00

If any of the above are of interest, you can get further information by clicking here.

Best,

Allison

remix UK – a 48 hour conversation

ukacademia — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:51:25 GMT

Hi Everyone

If you have been wondering 'where next for the web?' this event might just be for you and there is an early bird saving for the first three hundred people to book. Click here to reserve a place.

And if you have any ideas for a topic you would like to see presented at remix UK and have a good idea of just who you’d like to present it, there is a chance you can get it added to the mash up.

Best for the weekend,

Allison

XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP is here!

ukacademia — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:54:41 GMT

Go team XNA!

We're delighted to announce that the Community Technology Preview for XNA 3.0 is here.

Dave Weller has the full details on the release, on the XNA Team Blog.

For those of you that are still here, highlights include the ability to push games down to a Zune - hmm, OK so only a handful of us have them in the UK (new devices are awesome IMHO, and the new 2.5 software and firmware Just Plain Work - great stuff); but more importantly Visual Studio 2008 is now supported!

Andy

XNA Creators Club Codes are now in MSDN AA!

ukacademia — Wed, 07 May 2008 11:21:00 GMT

While students have been able to get their own codes through Dreamspark, we've not been able to get these codes out to whole departments until now!

So, if you're looking to get every single student, or every lab machine a Creator's Club subscription, and you have an MSDN AA account then I've got great news for you. You can now get 12 month codes as part of your MSDN AA subscription.

Currently, you can only get hold of the creator's club codes through the ELMS download service. But - let's be honest, this is a great facility, and you really should be using it already.

If you want to learn more about ELMS, then it's worth checking out the home page. One of my colleagues (hat tip: Hillary) has also posted a couple of short videos explaining how easy the system is to operate - which I've included below...

Andy

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Coming soon - the ability to publish your XNA game on Xbox Live Marketplace

ukacademia — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:23:00 GMT

We are excited to announce the impending release of XNA Games Studio 3.0 this summer giving (among other things) the ability for all XNA authors to publish games to Xbox Live Marketplace and in the process, to earn reputation, fame and even income. This represents a huge opportunity for your students. You can read all about this on the XNA Team Blog and also FAQ on the XNA forums.

To compliment this new development we have opened out access to the XNA Creators' Club via DreamSpark. This new programme gives access to key developer tools for all students (and academics). In addition, the XNA Creators Club website is going to get a bunch of new features too.

Finally, start saving up, XNA Game Studio 3.0 will also enable multiplayer gaming on the Zune over a wireless link. The Zune has not yet hit the UK market but we know you will want one when they arrive.

Claire

Only 4 days left to claim your early bird 10% discount off the Games Development in Computer Science 08 conference

ukacademia — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:06:14 GMT

The UK has a well deserved reputation in the field of Games Development and yet so far is not well represented at this world-class conference aboard the luxury Celebrity Century cruise ship, . It promises to be a very informative and fun event and will provide an excellent opportunity for networking too. If you have any questions then please let me know.

Claire

General session and tech talk speakers include:

Henry Kelly, President, Federation of American Scientists

John Cash, Technical Director, Blizzard Entertainment

Sam Glassenberg, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft

Steve Seabolt, VP, Global Brand Development, Electronic Arts

Colleen McCreary, Director of Corporate HR & Diversity, Electronic Arts

Matt Brown, Design Director, Sims Label, Electronic Arts

Andrew Brownsword, Electronic Arts, Senior Software Engineer – could be a tech talk.

August De los Reyes, Sr. User Experience Designer, Microsoft

Dennis Wixon, User Research Manager - Halo, Microsoft

Randy Pausch, CMU, Alice Project

Wanda Dann, CMU, Alice Project

Cory Ondrejka, Linden Lab - 2nd Life

Ben Sawyer, Serious Games

Raph Koster --Designer of Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies

Steve Theodore, Bungie, Technical Director

Chris Hoffman, Purdue

Mark Overmars, Utrecht University

Academic papers accepted through a peer review process include:

Game2Learn: Improving the motivation of CS1 students

Game Design and Development Students: Who are They?

Bringing a pioneer games project to the next level.

Adding Handheld Game Programming to a Computer Science Curriculum.

Gaming for Middle School Students: Building Virtual Worlds.

Group Interactions in a Game Engine Class.

Impact of Game Design on Students' Interest in CS.

A Hybrid Approach to Projects in Gaming Courses.

A Game Framework to Enhance Stem Pipeline.

The ETH Game Programming Laboratory: A Capstone for Computer Science and Visual Computing.

Assessing Game-Themed Programming Assignments for CS1/2 Courses

Integrating Games and Machine Learning in the Undergraduate Computer Science Classroom

Introduction to Game Design in the Large Classroom

Games, Robots, and Robot Games: Complementary Contexts for Introductory Computing Education

Operating A Computer Science Game Degree Program

XNA Games Studio 2.0 released

ukacademia — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:51:17 GMT

Great news, XNA 2.0 is now available. Find out all about it on the XNA team blog.

I still have a few "Getting Started with XNA" DVDs left so if you are a UK academic please get in touch and let me know how many you would like.

Claire

Inspiration Tour Update

ukacademia — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 18:12:52 GMT

With 17 dates behind them and another 37 yet to come, Ed and Ben are having a great impact on the students that they present to as part of the Inspiration Tour. We love to get feedback, both good and bad but our favourite so far is:

The talk you gave today was absolutely awesome, as were the demos. Loved every minute of it from the front row. You even had me crying when you were talking about the opportunities - everything I dreamed about. Thanks to both of you.

All dates are now booked but if your university has missed out then please get in touch and we will see if we can fit you into an additional slot.

Claire

XNA v2 Beta - ready to download.

ukacademia — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:00:00 GMT

Ed Dunhill is on the case again and today blogged about the XNA v2 beta which is now ready to download. His post gives all the detail you need to get started and you will be pleased to read that it is free and no uninstalling of v1 is required.

Let us know what you think!

Claire

Technorati Tags: XNA, Beta, Teaching. Academic, Games

What's new with XNA v2.0?

ukacademia — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 22:33:55 GMT

Ed Dunhill, Academic Developer Evangelist, answers just this question in his blog and links you to the XNA team blog too. There is still massive interest in XNA v1 and so we have produced some more of the popular 'Getting started with XNA' DVDs. If you are a UK Academic then please let me know if you would like some and how many (max 50).

Claire

XNA at Gamecity, the follow up

ukacademia — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:05:54 GMT

Hi everyone,

We held our events at Gamecity Nottingham last week and were delighted by the enthusiasm of everyone who attended. The afternoon saw the academics eating popcorn while hearing about:

XNA Game Studio 2.0
the XNA User Group,
Rare's 2008 lecture programme
and the experiences of students at Huddersfield, Nottingham and Nottingham Trent.

Delegates also received an Imagine Cup brochure and an XNA CD. We are having more of each made so if you are a UK academic and would like some, let me know (full name, job title and university postal address please)

In the evening we all decamped to Bluu and were joined by hundreds of students for a games party like no other. The video of the party can be found on Channel 10 soon.

Thanks to the Xbox team for the equipment, Rare for the Games and Gamers, the Frag Dolls for being great fun and everyone else who helped and played. The next step is to have all those students and many others enter the Game Development category of the Imagine Cup. If you need info about this then please get in touch.

Claire

The Rare 2008 lecture series

ukacademia — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:01:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce the 2008 lecture series offered by our colleagues at Rare. These free talks can be delivered to degree students in the UK. If you would like to book one then please let me know. We will try to satisfy all requests but recommend that you book early to avoid disappointment (the speakers have to write some games too!)

The titles are:

Pre-Computed Global Illumination in Games

Real Time Graphics for Computer Games: A Primer

Creativity and Design

Smoke and Mirrors: The True Art of Game AI

Games with Character

The Past, Present and Future of Computer Games Development

Retro Revisited

The Development Process

An Insight into the Shared Technology Group at Rare

Never work with children or Pinata

Claire

The Imagine Cup 2008

ukacademia — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 15:02:00 GMT

Those of you who have already hosted the Inspiration Tour will know that the Imagine Cup is a really exciting opportunity for students this year and includes some great new categories. In the UK we are even adding extra value. The key points are:

1. There are 9 competitions for all interests and skill levels and in the UK we are providing life-changing prizes for each UK category winner in addition to them winning a trip to the global finals. See prize table below.

2. It is really easy to register this year and fun too! Have your students take the online quiz and get your university at the top of the leader-board. Each registration is automatically entered into a monthly prize draw where the prize is an Xbox 360 Elite. As last year, registration is not a commitment to enter so EVERYONE should have a go.

3. Software Design has been split up into 3 sections –

The Idea; spend the time between now and Christmas on the this
The Innovation Accelerator; A unique opportunity for the students to learn entrepreneurship and higher level technology skills while developing their idea in the form of a 3 day event at our offices in Reading lead by business partners and key Microsoft staff . Think ‘Dragons Den’ meets ‘The Restaurant’ meets Silicon Valley!
The Code Submission

4. The UK Imagine Cup culminates in a celebration day in London in June for the top competitors in all 9 competitions to meet and hear from leading industry speakers and employers to talk jobs. There will be a prize giving ceremony and maybe even a party at a club in London.

We know that students aren't always easy to motivate so here are some ways to help get them engaged:

Point them to these URLs http://www.microsoft.co.uk/uk/academia/imaginecup/2008/quiz/default.mspx and www.imaginecup.co.uk
Order a box or two of glossy guides which explain all of the 'invitationals' (an invitational = a competition category)
Download the guide
Use our sample emails and other resources including graphics

Software Design Challenge	2 week work placement in Seattle with the Popfly team	Prizes of Xbox 360 Elites, MP3 players for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place teams
Embedded	2 week UK work placement with specialist Microsoft embedded partner
XNA	2 week work placement with UK Microsoft Game Studio	Xbox 360 Elite pack
Project Hoshimi	2 week placement at UK MGS	Xbox 360 Elite pack
Algorithm		Developer PC (top spec, e.g. Quad core, 24” LCD monitors)
IT Challenge		Windows Home Server
Photography		Digital SLR camera, lens, bag and tripod
Short Film		HD video camera, accessories and tripod
Interface Design	2 week work placement with major UK creative agency	Designer PC (top spec, e.g. Quad core, 24” LCD monitors)

(Note: Prize list was changed from the published list above. Please refer to the About section of the Imagine Cup UK website)

As always, if you have any questions then please get in touch

Claire

UK Academic Team Blog : XNA

Imagine Cup Registrations

Student Technology Day - Microsoft Research Talk on CS Inside Halo 3 True Ranking System

Windows Embedded Seminars

remix UK – a 48 hour conversation

XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP is here!

XNA Creators Club Codes are now in MSDN AA!

Coming soon - the ability to publish your XNA game on Xbox Live Marketplace

Only 4 days left to claim your early bird 10% discount off the Games Development in Computer Science 08 conference

XNA Games Studio 2.0 released

Inspiration Tour Update

XNA v2 Beta - ready to download.

What's new with XNA v2.0?

XNA at Gamecity, the follow up

The Rare 2008 lecture series

The Imagine Cup 2008

Point them to these URLs http://www.microsoft.co.uk/uk/academia/imaginecup/2008/quiz/default.mspx and www.imaginecup.co.uk

Order a box or two of glossy guides which explain all of the 'invitationals' (an invitational = a competition category)

Download the guide

Use our sample emails and other resources including graphics