Dean Yannis Yortsos of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering announced today two new degrees: a B.S. in Computer Science (Games) and an M.S. in Computer Science (Game Development). The Viterbi School is the first engineering school to offer both.
The Viterbi School's Information Science Institute has long been intimately involved with the effort to develop games research and education at USC.
"These are timely specializations in important areas,
including the
growing field of serious games. We have been very pleased
with the
reception we have received so far," said Yortsos.
Computer Science Department Chair Gérard Medioni
explained the
background. "Beyond their creative element, videogames
offer a major
challenge in bringing together numerous core areas of
advanced computer
science, including artificial intelligence, graphical interfaces,
modeling, algorithm design, and of course programming," he
said. "These
programs are good academics."
Medioni worked for more than a year to shepherd the new degrees through USC curriculum committees and on to final approval by USC Provost C.L. Max Nikias. "Training curricula increasingly exist in academia in the dramatic and artistic aspects of games, but remain extremely scarce for the nuts-and-bolts coding that make games work," he commented. "We know we have students who want this training, and we know that a $45-billion industry is looking for these skills."
Mike Zyda, director of the Viterbi School's GamePipe
Laboratory ,
which already offers 15 computer science game courses,
points to a
recent analysis of skill demand in the industry.
Zyda is the author of an article, "Educating the Next Generation of Game Developers ," in the current (June) issue of IEEE Computer Science, which details the lessons learned in GamePipe's recent experience offering computer science-oriented courses in games.
The article speaks of existing relations to other USC schools that will continue. "The new Viterbi School B.S. and M.S. degree programs will interact synergistically with the B.A. and M.F.A. game degrees now offered by the USC School of Cinema-Television Interactive Media program, with engineers taking CNTV courses and vice- versa," Zyda said.
The syllabus also looks forward to increasing ties with the USC Roski School of Fine
Arts' developing programs in game art and design, as
well as the USC Annenberg School for
Communication's substantial work on
the social, communications and other impacts of games upon
society and media, carried out in its Annenberg Studies on Computer
Games (ASC) center.
"Because USC places such emphasis on multidisciplinary
cooperation, it
is the ideal place to pioneer tthese computer science
degrees," said
Yortsos. "I look forward to a commencement soon when I
will hand the
first CS (Games) graduates their diplomas."
This day will come much sooner than 2010
because games CS
course have been offered through GamePipe for several
years. Medioni
estimated the first B.S. and M.S. degrees would be
forthcoming by 2008,
or possibly even sooner.