It's a digital world
The Faculty of Arts and Science School of Computing recently held its Creative Computing Showcase, an annual celebration of different applications of computing. The students involved presented technological creations ranging from smart artworks to video games, to environmental and research projects.
The event also included a Twitch stream featuring interviews with select video game creators.
Second year students Ella St. John and Morgan Sirola presented a video game they created called If You Follow, a game loosely based on Little Nightmares. The students had the game available for play testing at the showcase.
鈥淎ttendance for us is optional, but we wanted classmates to see our work and showcase our game,鈥 Ella says. She came to Queen鈥檚 from the Toronto area and says her experience has been very positive. 鈥淲e receive a lot of support from the faculty, and we have the freedom to try new things.鈥
Third year student Arlen Smith attended the event representing the (QGDC). He and other club members had a few different games on display that students were interested in play testing.
鈥淚鈥檓 interested in game development as a career, so it鈥檚 great to get feedback from other students,鈥 Arlen says. 鈥淲e are also trying to grow our club which is another reason I鈥檓 here today.鈥
Arlen says he loves multiplayer games, platformers, and RPGs and is excited for fellow students to try his games out.
School of Computing Professor Sara Nabil says the event is a mix of students attending as part of their course work and other students attending on a voluntary basis. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a great opportunity for them to do an exhibition during their undergrad, especially since most of the projects have an artistic angle to them so it鈥檚 always helpful they have a place to display their designs. It's a fabulous opportunity.鈥
Dr. Nabil says the Showcase also helps students get out of their labs and classrooms and speak about their academic work in a public forum. 鈥淭hat is one of the main learning objectives and honestly it鈥檚 a great learning experience for them to be able to present their work, not just to their peers but also to a public audience including the Queen鈥檚 and Kingston communities.鈥 The annual event is open to the public and community members to attend and tour the presentations and exhibits.
鈥淪tudents and their parents also take the opportunity around scheduled campus tours to visit the Creative Computing Showcase and see what kinds of projects are going on in different courses. So, it鈥檚 lovely that it combines projects from other courses and other disciplines, it鈥檚 quite interdisciplinary.鈥
Dr. Nabil adds the students are excited for the annual Showcase and begin planning for it at the beginning of the term.
The winners from the event include:
Winners for Best Research Project
Advanced Computing Course Planning - Kaiwen Yao
ICAS (Instructor-Course Assignment Scheduler) - Ethan Chankowsky, Jacob Skiba, Jacob McMullen, Carter Gillam, Jacob Roe
Best Art Project
Music Composition with AI - Charlie Mayo
Best Videogame
If You Follow - Morgan Sirola, Ella St. John
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