Games and Media Integration (GMI), ME MC

One of the most exciting aspects of the GMI degree program is the combination of a set of required courses that ensure that all students develop a firm foundation in the basics of design and development of games and media integration products, and the opportunity for students to pursue their special interests through several elective courses and portfolio development.

Objectives

Program graduates will demonstrate and be able to perform to professional standards in the following areas:

A broad understanding of the entire spectrum of media convergence, games and media integration (GMI)
A thorough understanding of the process of creating, designing, product development and deployment of a game, animation and movie, or a wearable computing product
Proficiency with many of the tools and techniques for implementing game and media integration product for the industry.

Admission Requirements

A Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts, or Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
Considerable computing experience and promise of ability to pursue advanced study and research.
An overall undergraduate grade point average of 3.0 on a scale of 4.0. Applicants with a grade point average of less than 3.0 may be provisionally admitted on a case-by-case basis.
Completed Admission Forms, including two copies of official transcripts and three references sent to the Computer Science Department.

Program Prerequisites

The equivalent of the following UCCS courses:

Note:

A student who lacks one or more of the above courses may be admitted, but would still be required to satisfy the above requirement after admission. Students with considerable knowledge of programming and/or mathematical experience in the industry are encouraged to apply.

Degree Requirements

A student will earn a Master’s of Engineering degree in Media Convergence, Games and Media Integration consists (GMI) after completing 30 hours of graduate work, as follows:

Required Core Courses (9 Credit Hours)

The following three courses or their equivalents are required (if they were not previously taken as undergraduate courses):

Note:

Students who have had advanced undergraduate courses in these exact areas will not be allowed to take these courses for graduate credit, but instead are required to include other graduate level computer science courses in their Plan of Study from the list of elective courses.

Required Portfolio (Up To 6 Credit Hours)

GMI students are required to develop an industrial portfolio with an interdisciplinary focus. Through the portfolio, the student shows an ability to completely realize their individual contributions, resulting in possibly a high quality exhibit, movie, or game.

The interdisciplinary nature of the GMI program provides all students with extensive knowledge in the widely-varied aspects of Games and Media integration. In turn, this provides students with the chance to integrate technical and artistic ideas in their portfolio.With the portfolio requirement, students carry out a concept to completion: a story would be conceived and then animated; a quest imagined and then fulfilled; or a wearable computing product imagined and implemented, for example.

Suggested applications with strong GMI emphasis areas include but are not limited to the following: applications integrated in TheatreWorks Productions, Digital Animation Movie Production and/or Production of Games, applications coordinating with the Center on Aging, work with visual and performing arts, and disability applications.

The student’s portfolio advisory committee will consist of three faculty members, including at least one CS graduate faculty member and, if applicable, one faculty member from LAS. The third member should preferably come from a local industry, representing for example the SigGraph, IGDA community with major portfolio development experience. Dr. Semwal initially would be the CS portfolio advisor.

Completed works are expected to be submitted to SigGraph Animation and Film Festival, International Symposium on Wearable Computing, a variety of virtual reality and HCI interaction conferences, Game Developers Conference, or other related venues around the world.

Thesis or Project (3 to 6 Credit Hours)

Students are required to complete a project (three credit hours) or a thesis (up to six credit hours). A maximum total of nine credit hours of thesis or project, and portfolio is allowed, ensuring that students have sufficient course work in the games and media integration areas. Students will be expected to work with an advisor in the GMI area of concentration following the guidelines of MS Thesis or Project work in the CS Department.

Elective Courses

The remaining credit hours will be from the following set of 3 credit hour elective courses. Note that some courses have prerequisites as noted. New courses are identified by *.

C S 577 - Computer Graphics Animation & Scientific Visualization Techniques
C S 677 - Virtual Reality and Computer-Human Interaction
C S 571 - Evolutionary Computation
C S 575 - Computational Geometry
C S 581 - Topics in Computer Graphics
C S 678 - Advanced Digital Effects and Olfactory applications (*)
C S 579 - Wearable Computing and Complex Systems
C S 589 - Computational Linguistics (prerequisites)
C S 525 - Multimedia Computing and Communications
C S 526 - Advanced Internet and Web Systems
C S 584 - Computer Vision (prerequisites)
C S 505 - Selected Topics in Computer Science (prerequisites)
ECE 5530 - Multivariable Control Systems II (prerequisites)
ECE 5520 - Multivariable Control Systems I (prerequisites)
C S 587 - Introduction to Artificial Neural Networks
C S 551 - Distributed Systems (requires CS550—Operating Systems)
C S 522 - Computer Communication

Transfer Credit

Up to 9 hours of graduate work may be transferred from an accredited graduate program, provided:

Course work has not been used for any other degree.
Grade earned for the course(s) is B or better.
The course work has been taken within past six years.
The course coverage is equal in level, content, and depth to the course for which it is being substituted.

Additional Graduate Degree Requirements

See also Graduate Degree Requirements for EAS and the Graduate School Requirements.

Further Information

Call (719) 255-3544, visit http://eas.uccs.edu/GMI or e-mail prea@eas.uccs.edu, or write the Department of Computer Science.