Category Archives: Students

News, Students

Goldsmiths students win Ukie games jam

trophyA team of Goldsmiths MSc Computer Games & Entertainment students have been awarded first prize at the Student Games Jam run by the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (Ukie).

The jam, which ran 15-16 April 2014, saw five teams from Ukie’s student membership competing against each other to create the best game possible in 39 hours.

The team’s winning game ‘Wisp’ will be an exclusive pitch on Square Enix’s Collective project and will receive a specially-made trophy for Goldsmiths. Each of the teams will also receive prizes from PlayStation First, and a published profile piece.

Leader of the Goldsmiths team James Gamlin said “I am ecstatic to be announced as the winners. The Ukie Student Game Jam has been an incredible experience. Me and the team (Tolga Zeren Kaçar, Madina Berkaliyeva, Chilun Liu and Arthur Wong) are so glad we took part. We loved developing Wisp, though at times we did think it was slightly too ambitious for a 39 hour jam, we did manage to get a lot done in the end. We can’t wait to participate again next year.”

ukie
Screenshot from ‘Wisp’

Judge Stuart Barnett, Senior Designer at SCEE said: “I was amazed at the quality of games created from the Ukie student game jam in just two days and it was a pleasure seeing how creative and talented the students taking part were. It’s a great indication of the health of the games industry in the UK if universities are producing such talented students and I look forward to seeing how they develop their ideas in the future given more time.”

Students, Women in Computing

Student profile: Sophie Pearce (BSc Computer Science)

Third-year BSc Computer Science student Sophie Pearce talks to us about her experience of studying at Goldsmiths, her work placements, and why she chose Computer Science.

SophiePierceWhat made you choose BSc Computer Science at Goldsmiths?
For me it was about employability and practicalities.
I wanted to focus on practical skills and choose something that would be challenging and interesting. Also I’ve always enjoyed using computers.

At school I’d studied Economics, English, Drama and Maths, but for my degree I wanted to acquire new skills, not just expand on what I’d been taught before (which was how to write essays, etc).

I came along to an Open Day at Goldsmiths, and I really liked the ethos on campus and the creativity. But most importantly I liked the way the course was set out and thought I could thrive in that kind of environment. There are few universities like Goldsmiths that allow you to be creative with a technical subject.

I started my degree in 2010. Originally, I studied BSc Creative Computing, but I quickly changed to BSc Computer Science, which matches what I want to do with my career – hopefully something in computer security.

What have you done in your three years at Goldsmiths?
I have learned a lot. I’ve acquired lots of programming languages, an understanding of algorithms, knowledge of discrete mathematics, databases, clients and servers, computer architecture… the list is endless.

With support from my tutors and lecturers, I’ve also added achievements to my CV such as work placements. Every year after exams, I’ve been encouraged to have some sort of placement during the summer break.

In the first year I worked at the 2012 Olympics. When I went along to the interview I found my course was my best asset. I was placed in a security team. I loved working with X ray machines and met lots of people who worked in IT and other backgrounds, which helped me build a contacts base.

In the second year I worked in India during the summer on an IT development project funded by the UK Department for International Development. This was incredibly challenging. I studied the digital divide between the rich and the poor, and assessed the IT infrastructure in the state I was working in. This meant using the skills and knowledge that I’d learned on my course: understanding data analysis, how the internet works, and how to store vast amounts of data.

In September I was accepted onto the Microsoft Student Partners programme. As an MSP my role is help people program software, acquire skills and attend events.

What are you currently working on?
I am currently working on my dissertation, which is about malware, social understanding and perceptions. Although it’s essentially a research project, I’ve still had to program and use skills I’ve learned from all the courses I have done throughout my time at Goldsmiths. It is without a doubt the most challenging project I have done to date!

You are finishing your degree in the summer. What are your plans, and how have Goldsmiths helped you prepare?
Goldsmiths have been brilliant in helping me prepare, there have been talks held by previous graduates, people in industry etc. The careers service have helped me put a CV together and given me lots of useful advice.

Like a lot of people, I am not sure exactly what I want to do next. I have such a wide variety of interests that I can see myself doing lots of things. I certainly intend to continue with programming, so I’m hoping to find work with a company that has real potential.

Students, Videos

Student profile: Ryan Singh (BSc Computer Science)

Third year BSc Computer Science student Ryan Singh introduces his current project, Ouroboros (named after the ancient symbol depicting a serpent eating its own tail).

img_meDuring the first term of my third year, I studied the Advanced Graphics & Animation and Physical Computing modules, which gave me a wider understanding of graphics, virtual environments and electrical prototyping.

I’ve always had an interest in virtual reality (I’m a big fan of The Matrix trilogy) and with new VR applications being released, I wanted to get involved and start developing. I acquired an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset and became interested in the translation of body movements within virtual environments.

If I wanted to control an object within a virtual environment (for instance a camera or a sword), I would use a controller. However I did not feel a sense of immersion, so I began to prototype a device that could translate the orientation of an object to manipulate an object within a virtual world. My project, which I’ve called Ouroboros, can currently translate its own pitch and roll to manipulate a camera within the Unity game development engine.

As it stands, Ouroboros only translates orientation in real time. To provide a truly immersive experience, linear (e.g. forwards and backwards) acceleration would need to be achieved. This will come with future updates to the firmware of the sensors.

I plan to release it as an open-source project so users can build their own homebrew virtual reality systems and – using a third-party software such as FreePIE – can control any game using Ouroboros as a controller instead of conventional joystick controllers.

My work with serial communication has also allowed me to contribute code to Unity’s Mono libraries, which are used for .NET Framework emulation.

How have your tutors helped you with this project?
Marco Gillies, who teaches both Computer Science and Creative Computing, is an expert on virtual reality and has provided a great deal of help into the fundamentals and theory of virtual reality. He has assisted me throughout the process and kept my project going in the right direction.

Brock Craft, a lecturer for Physical Computing, has also helped me throughout the electrical prototyping phases of my project. Without his insight into serial communication and general knowledge, the project would look a lot worse for wear.

Why did you choose to do BSc Computer Science at Goldsmiths?
I chose Goldsmiths because of its famous reputation in the world of the arts. I came from an art and design background and I only had a basic understanding of programming from my ‘A’ levels. Since I already possessed some form of creativity, I opted for the more technical BSc Computer Science.

The degree provides students with a mathematical foundation, the theory behind computer science and programming languages. You also gain a full and in-depth understanding of the requirements for developing software in a real-time environment.

I found that my passion for game development had a place within Computer Science and this allowed me to create virtual environments, particle generators and produce my own fully functional game engines. The course is extremely flexible and you can incorporate your personal interests to the technical assignments.

Inspiration, Students

Projects from Physical Computing

Here’s a round-up of projects from Brock Craft‘s Physical Computing course from autumn 2013. Click on the images to go to students’ project blogs.

 Maze robotmaze-wall-e  Invisible pianoinvisible-piano  Musical glovemusical-glove
 Project blinkyproject-blinky  Radio frequency finderradio-freq-indentify  Robot arm
robot-arm
 Weather stationweather-station  Obstacle racerobstacle-vehicle  Coin sortercoin-sorter

The Physical Computing course runs as part of a number of undergraduate programmes at Goldsmiths’ Department of Computing.

Students, Videos

Student profile: Ana Belén Alonso

Artist and Goldsmiths student Ana Belén Alonso describes a recent Computational Studio Arts project she’s been working on:

In this first term of MFA, my goal was to get to grips with the languages of programing JAVA and C++ by doing tutorials and viewing examples that had to do with my interest in knowing more about how humans interact with technology.

The idea of this project was to create a visual instrument. This instrument works using different eye expressions so you can play all the notes of a scale and also be able to change the scale and instrument.

I used the code ofxFaceTracker to extract the blink of the eyes. After this I connected a sound to the blink movement that is captured by a camera.

In this first gorilla-eyesstage of the project you can only see in the screen the two eyes with a graphic that shows how much you blink. But the idea is to create a very simple graphic visual interface that will be like an animal mask that just shows the user’s eyes.

News, Students, Videos

Google/Barbican digital art site headlines Goldsmiths Creative Computing student

A Goldsmiths Creative Computing student is featured on the front page of DevArt, the new digital creativity website from Google and London’s Barbican Centre.

DevArt is part of a new digital art installation for Digital Revolution, the biggest and most comprehensive exploration of digital creativity ever to be staged in the UK. After running in London, the exhibition will then go on tour to cities around the world.

Year 2 student Terence Broad has developed a project that enables people to experience augmented reality by donning a virtual reality headset – the Oculus Rift. This uses two cameras to replicate the user’s normal vision (see video clips below) – and then allows others to distort and manipulate it.


Initial testing

Using the Google Hangouts API, people online can choose and link up sets of triggers and responses that control the perceptual experience for the user. Triggers can include motion detection, face detection, head movement, pitch, loudness and brightness. Responses can include image manipulation such as colour shifting, wobble and morphing effects, blurring, chromatic abberation and temporal layering (see video clips below).


The affect of Radiohead on visual perception. Low, medium & high audio frequencies control colour shifting, wobble, blurring and temporal layering.
The user experience: “This is awesome.”

Goldsmiths’ BSc in Creative Computing prepares students to take an active role in the creation of computational systems in arts, music, film, digital media, and other areas of the software industry that require creative individuals. About Creative Computing at Goldsmiths

Students

Student profile: Terence Broad (BSc Creative Computing)

Terence is in the second-year of BSc Creative Computing at Goldsmiths. His project, Mediated Perception, is currently shortlisted for DevArt, a competition run by Google and the Barbican Centre to source the best new digital art for the Digital Revolution exhibition.

How did you arrive at Goldsmiths?
After my art foundation in Newcastle I studied sculpture at Camberwell College of Arts, but I dropped out after a year. I was getting really interested in programming, and was frustrated with what I was being taught at college. I felt they were only teaching us about sculptors who made sculptures about sculpture. It was such a relief to come to Goldsmiths because I just wanted to get on and do stuff. In first year we made our own versions of Pong – it’s great that you can just get on with designing stuff that’s interesting.

What are you studying?
BSc Creative Computing is a combination of lectures and labs on core computer science (learning how to programme, and to build databases and websites) and creative computing, which is all about experimenting with graphics and audio. Things like building your own synthesiser and creating 3D graphics, but also looking at the maths behind how people perceive images and sound. I’ve always been interested in Photoshop, so in my first year at Goldsmiths I wanted to learn more about manipulating images, and ended up creating my own version of Photobooth for my end-of-year project (see video).


Terence’s Photobooth project

Tell us about your current project
Over the summer me and my flatmate got really excited about a new virtual reality headset called the Oculus Rift. They’re not available to the general public, so we had to pretend to be games developers to be able to get hold of one. My flatmate, who’s studying Photography at London College of Communication, wanted to use it to create a virtual art gallery. But I was more interested in discovering what it would be like if you could mess with people’s perceptions.

Instead of the user seeing a virtual reality, I attached two webcams to the front of the headset. By feeding these onto the VR screen the user gets a replica of their normal vision. And then once you’ve sorted that out, you can distort and manipulate the ‘reality’ that they see. I’ve been experimenting with using it as a synaesthesia simulator – using music to trigger visual effects like colour shifting, wobble, blurring and temporal layering. But you can also trigger perceptual distortions using head movement, changes in brightness, or the detection of motion and faces.

The low, medium & high audio frequencies control colour shifting, wobble, blurring and temporal layering.

Are there any real world uses for this?
I want to keep an open mind. There’s a lot of people working on augmented reality but it’s mostly about adding information like Twitter feeds, which isn’t that interesting. I’m much more interested in building things and then experimenting freely.

I saw a BBC documentary called The Creative Brain: How Insight Works that features a Dutch researcher who puts people in virtual reality environments where weird things happen, stuff that’s impossible in the real world, like objects floating. Then when the users do a creativity test afterwards, they score much higher than average. So letting people experience things differently for a short time could be beneficial. Maybe my mediated perception project could be a valuable experience. But, as I say, I really don’t know yet.

Have your tutors been supportive of your project?
Mick Grierson, who teaches the Creative Computing course, has been really supportive. He’s encouraging me to make the craziest things I can.

I’ve been working non-stop on this project for the past month or so, but three weeks ago I got very close to giving up. I broke the cameras by accidentally ripping a load of electronics of a circuit board with a hacksaw, and I just went crazy. I’d been working incredibly hard but I had nothing to show for it, so I was completely ready to give up. When I told Mick, he was really distraught and encouraged me to keep going. I pulled myself together, got back to work, and then two weeks later my project was chosen to feature in the DevArt competition! If I win first prize, Google and the Barbican Centre will give me £25,000 to develop my project for an exhibition that tours around the world.

www.terencebroad.com