Research & Development Overview

Mission:

In addition to the academic programs housed within the School, IGM is also the home of several research and development initiatives of the faculty and our student body. The research mission of the school is to support the research and associated projects that relate to the Game Design & Development programs (BSc, MSc) degrees, and the New Media Interactive Development degree (BS). Through exploration, collaboration and computational simulation in game worlds and virtual spaces, the creation of systems, prototypes, and interaction models for new and emerging media, and the production of public works and dissemination of our findings, the school investigates new means of shared experience and visualization in domains such as interaction, education, science, technology, and entertainment. Activities in the school range from experimental game design & development to exploratory research in visualization environments and integrated media frameworks, outreach efforts that surround games and underlying technologies, support of STEM learning through games and interactive entertainment, and the application of games and game technology to non-entertainment domains (i.e. “Serious Games”). Also of interest is the current phenomenon of small, discrete play experiences (i.e. “Casual Games”) and their growing impact on the day-to-day perception of games as a medium, and the current production issues surrounding the creation of "media rich" experiences in various forms.

Goals:

The overall goals of the school with respect to research and development are three-fold:

1. To facilitate cross-departmental and cross-college collaboration within the domains of Game Design & Development and New Media and related areas by providing (a) a conduit and meeting ground of faculty, students, and other researchers interested in scholarship and research related to media centric computing, and (b) an entity through which we interact with entities external to RIT in a variety of ways, including various forms of funded and unfunded collaboration.

2. To engage in internal and external outreach activities relative to the field with a particular emphasis on (a) the support of STEM learning through games, simulations, and entertainment frameworks, (b) the use of games and entertainment technology in application to other domains, (c) the exploration of media-rich computing and its impact on use-inspired software systems, and (d) the advancement of the state-of-the-art throughout the development process.

3. To support and extend the research and scholarship that relates to the academic programs in Game Design and Development and New Media Interactive Development through the continued interaction of faculty throughout the lab and in partnership with other units on campus (i.e. Academic Departments, Research Centers, etc.)

Partners:

The school interoperates and collaborates with several entities on campus to further its work in exploring media-centric computing, including:

The Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences (the “home” college of the IGM School and academic programs).

The RIT Laboratory for Social Computing (with a particular emphasis on the social aspect of game communities, guilds, guild leadership, and the transference of social capital in and between game worlds and the “real world”).  Dr. Elizabeth Lawley, Director.

The Albert J. Simone Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (with a particular emphasis on the incubator and entrepreneurship aspects as they relate to current practice in the games industry and student education).  Dr. Richard DiMartino, Director.

The E. Philip Saunders College of Business (with a particular emphasis on the creation of games and entertainment around business and economic simulations).  Dr. Ashok Rao, Dean.