USC designs ImmuneAttack game

THE UNIVERSITY of Southern California has announced that work has begun on its first project, a game to help biology students.

The University's GamePipe Laboratory announced last year that it had appointed Michael Zyda of America's Army fame to direct the project. It has since begun work on the project funded by the National Science Foundation to help improve K-12 biology teaching.

Zyda will collaborate with Chris Swain, a member of the faculty of the USC School of Cinema Television, as well as Victor LaCour, faculty member of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering department of computer science working with the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and Brown University.

The game aims to deliver scientific information on immunology through exploration, association and skill based game play. The aim is to act as a supplement to the immunology section of Biology (by Neil A. Campbell and Jane B. Reece) with an interactive medium that presents course material in an interesting and challenging way.

Zyda has been quoted as saying, "The vision for the project has been articulated by FAS and Brown," and went on to say that GamePipe and the School of Cinema's Game Innovation Lab will make the game playable, entertaining and fun. With two full levels expected to be seen in high schools by March we should soon see how thr project is progressing. Depending on the success of the project more of the curriculum could be extended to include interactive learning through games. Mind expanding stuff. µ