Computer game's high score could earn the Nobel Prize in medicine
The Foldit homepage, http://fold.it. Credit: University of Washington
Gamers have devoted countless years of collective brainpower to rescuing princesses or protecting the planet against alien invasions. This week researchers at the University of Washington will try to harness those finely honed skills to make medical discoveries, perhaps even finding a cure for HIV.
A new game, named Foldit, turns protein folding into a competitive sport. Introductory levels teach the rules, which are the same laws of physics by which protein strands curl and twist into three-dimensional shapes – key for biological mysteries ranging from Alzheimer's to vaccines.
After about 20 minutes of training, people feel like they're playing a video game but are actually mouse-clicking in the name of medical science. The free program is at http://fold.it/ .
The game was developed by doctoral student Seth Cooper and postdoctoral researcher Adrien Treuille, both in computer science and engineering, working with Zoran Popovic, a UW associate professor of computer science and engineering; David Baker, a UW professor of biochemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator; and David Salesin, a UW professor of computer science and engineering. Professional game designers provided advice during the game's creation.
"We're hopefully going to change the way science is done, and who it's done by," said Popovic, who presented the project today at the Games for Health meeting in Baltimore. "Our ultimate goal is to have ordinary people play the game and eventually be candidates for winning the Nobel Prize."
Proteins, of which there are more than 100,000 different kinds in the human body, form every cell, make up the immune system and set the speed of chemical reactions. We know many proteins' genetic sequence, but don't know how they fold up into complex shapes whose nooks and crannies play crucial biological roles.
Computer simulators calculate all possible protein shapes, but this is a mathematical problem so huge that all the computers in the world would take centuries to solve it. In 2005, Baker developed a project named Rosetta@home that taps into volunteers' computer time all around the world. But even 200,000 volunteers aren't enough.
"There are too many possibilities for the computer to go through every possible one," Baker said. "An approach like Rosetta@home does well on small proteins, but as the protein gets bigger and bigger it gets harder and harder, and the computers often fail.
"People, using their intuition, might be able to home in on the right answer much more quickly."
Rosetta@home and Foldit both use the Rosetta protein-folding software. Foldit is the first protein-folding project that asks volunteers for something other than unused processor cycles on their computers or Playstation machines. Foldit also differs from recent human-computer interactive games that use humans' ability to recognize images or interpret text. Instead, Foldit capitalizes on people's natural 3-D problem-solving skills.
The intuitive skills that make someone good at playing Foldit are not necessarily the ones that make a top biologist. Baker says his 13-year-old son is faster at folding proteins than he is. Others may be even faster.
"I imagine that there's a 12-year-old in Indonesia who can see all this in their head," Baker says.
Eventually, the researchers hope to advance science by discovering protein-folding prodigies who have natural abilities to see proteins in 3-D.
"Some people are just able to look at the game and in less than two minutes, get to the top score," said Popovic. "They can't even explain what they're doing, but somehow they're able to do it."
The game looks like a 21st-century version of Tetris, with multicolored geometric snakes filling the screen. A team that includes a half-dozen UW graduate and undergraduate students spent more than a year figuring out how to make the game both accurate and engaging. They faced some special challenges that commercial game developers don't encounter.
"We don't know what the best result is, so we can't help people or hint people toward that goal," Popovic explained. The team also couldn't arbitrarily decide to make one move worth 1,000 bonus points, since the score corresponds to the energy needed to hold the protein in that shape.
Almost 1,000 players have tested the system in recent weeks, playing informal challenges using proteins with known shapes. Starting this week, however, the developers will open the game to the public and offer proteins of unknown shapes. Also starting this week, Foldit gamers will face off against research groups around the world in a major protein-structure competition held every two years.
Beginning in the fall, Foldit problems will expand to involve creating new proteins that we might wish existed – enzymes that could break up toxic waste, for example, or that would absorb carbon dioxide from the air. Computers alone cannot design a protein from scratch. The game lets the computer help out when it's a simple optimization problem – the same way that computer solitaire sometimes moves the cards to clean up the table – letting the player concentrate on interesting moves.
Eventually, the researchers hope to present a medical nemesis, such as HIV or malaria, and challenge players to devise a protein with just the right shape to lock into the virus and deactivate it. Winning protein designs will be synthesized in Baker's lab and tested in petri dishes. High-scoring players will be credited in scientific publications the way that top Rosetta@home contributors already are credited for their computer time.
"Long-term, I'm hoping that we can get a significant fraction of the world's population engaged in solving critical problems in world health, and doing it collaboratively and successfully through the game," Baker said. "We're trying to use the brain power of people all around the world to advance biomedical research."
Foldit includes elements of multiplayer games in which people can team up, chat with other players and create online profiles. Over time the researchers will analyze people's moves to see how the top players solve puzzles. This information will be fed back into the game's design so the game's tools and format can evolve.
Source: University of Washington
Gaming helps students hone 21st-century skills
Environments such as Second Life can both stimulate and educate, experts say
By Laura Devaney, Senior Editor, eSchool News
Virtual worlds and games can help students develop necessary skills.Online gaming can help students develop many of the skills they'll be required to use upon leaving school, such as critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity, agreed educators who spoke during an April 16 webinar on gaming in education.
Sharnell Jackson, the chief eLearning officer for Chicago Public Schools and the webinar's moderator, noted that gaming and simulations are highly interactive, allow for instant feedback, immerse students in collaborative environments, and allow for rapid decision-making. The webinar was sponsored by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). Read full article at:
Students want more use of gaming technology
Tue, Apr 08, 2008
Results from Project Tomorrow's annual Speak Up survey reveal a disconnect between students', adults' views on technology in schools
By Meris Stansbury, Assistant Editor, eSchool News
More than half of students in grades three and up would like to see more use of gaming technology in their schools, according to a new survey.
Educators are largely missing out on what could be a huge opportunity to capitalize on their students’ appetite for electronic games and simulations to teach them about core curriculum topics, results from a new national survey suggest.
Project Tomorrow’s fifth annual Speak Up Survey, the largest annual survey addressing the attitudes and opinions of K-12 students, teachers, parents, and school administrators toward the use of technology in education, reveals that online or electronic gaming is one of the technologies that students use most frequently—and that educational gaming is one of the emerging technologies that students would most like to see implemented in their schools. Yet, only one in 10 teachers has adopted gaming as an instructional tool.
Project Tomorrow, a national nonprofit organization committed to supporting and promoting the effective use of science, math, and technology resources in K-12 education, collected the data through online surveys conducted last fall and verified the results through a series of focus groups and interviews with representative groups of students, educators, and parents.
During the past four years of the survey, the technology that students most wanted to see implemented in their classrooms was a personal laptop for each student. For the first time this year, laptops for students also topped the list of teachers’ and school leaders’ most desired technologies.
However, this year’s survey also reports that gaming is now listed by students as a classroom must-have.
In fact, 64 percent of students in grades K-12 say they play online or electronic-based games regularly. On average across all grade levels, students are playing electronic games about 8 to 10 hours a week. More than 50 percent of students in grades 3-12 would like to see more educational gaming in their schools—yet only 19 percent of parents and 15 percent of administrators favor that idea.
”What was really interesting to see in this year’s survey is how the pervasiveness of gaming has really taken a stronghold,“ said Julie Evans, Project Tomorrow’s chief executive. ”Students are really articulating their interest in gaming, as well as the many benefits educational gaming can provide, such as helping them to learn difficult math concepts. Even the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recognizes the huge potential for gaming technologies [in education].“
New York-based Tabula Digita makes a series of immersive educational video games, called DimensionM, designed to help students master key algebraic concepts. Three Florida counties—Orange, Seminole, and Volusia—have adopted this software in their middle school classrooms.
DimensionM embeds pre-algebra lessons within a three-dimensional virtual setting, so students can learn mathematical concepts by completing missions, or lessons, in a game-based environment.
Students can play in a single-player format or a tournament-style format with students in their class, district, or around the world. The software also correlates with both NCTM and state standards.
”When I first saw the DimensionM product, I thought the graphics were incredible and the idea of making math practice a part of a video-game format was brilliant,“ said Melissa Young, district mathematics specialist for Orange County Public Schools. ”As I’ve been working with the math teachers and students in recent weeks, I’ve realized why it works—because it gives kids a reason to want to learn math.“
She continued, ”We are witnessing a metamorphosis of sorts. Within the first few weeks, we saw students seeking assistance from their teachers before the scheduled time for math, so they could beat their friends. … It’s driving up math scores. When our students are experiencing success on the game, it transfers to success in the classroom.“
The Speak Up survey results support Young’s impressions by revealing that the No. 1 reason K-12 students like to play electronic games is the competition with other kids. For students in middle and high school, finding ways to be successful at the game and the high level of activity also are strong motivators.
Just over half of the students surveyed (51 percent) said they’re interested in educational gaming because games make it easier to understand difficult concepts. Fifty percent said gaming would make them more engaged in the subject, 46 percent said they would learn more about the subject, and 44 percent said it would be more interesting to practice problems.
Yet, while more than 50 percent of teachers said they would be interested in learning more about integrating gaming technologies into their teaching and 46 percent would be interested in professional development on this topic, only 11 percent said they are currently incorporating some gaming into their instruction.
What’s more, there seems to be a disconnect between what students want from their own education and what the adults in charge think is best.
This disconnect extends beyond the topic of gaming and applies to many other educational technologies, too.
According to the survey, students’ frustration with school filters and firewalls has grown since 2003, with 45 percent of middle and high school students now saying that these tools designed to protect them inhibit their learning. And 40 percent of students in grades 6-12 cite their teacher as an obstacle to their use of technology in school.
Nearly two-thirds of middle and high school students said ”let me use my own laptop, cell phone, or other mobile device at school.“ Fifty percent would like to be able to access their school work and related software applications and projects from any computer on the school’s network and have unlimited internet access while on campus. Students also would like tools to help them communicate with their classmates (45 percent), their teachers (34 percent), and to organize their schoolwork (42 percent).
While 53 percent of middle and high school students are excited about using mobile devices to help them learn, only 15 percent of school leaders support this idea. Also, fewer than half as many parents as students see a place for online learning in the 21st century school. And even fewer teachers, parents, and school leaders want students to have access to eMail and instant-messaging accounts from school.
”The disconnect between what students want and what they’re actually receiving is significant,“ said Evans. ”Of course, there have been huge investments in technology, educators are receiving more training, and more policies are being implemented—but still, this student frustration is rising.“
She added: ”What’s strange is that, across the board with all technology, the educators and administrators who implement more technology for student use are also placing more limitations on student use.“
Keeping school leaders well informed is the first step toward helping to bridge this disconnect, Project Tomorrow believes—which is why, for the first time, the organization provided online surveys for school leaders (who were defined as principals, technology coordinators, district administrators, and school board members).
”Hopefully, the results of this survey will reach them. If school leaders become more familiar with student views, we’ll see practices and policies start to change in students’ favor,“ explained Evans.
As one high school student in a recent focus group told Project Tomorrow, his vision for the ultimate school is one where the teachers and the principal actively seek and regularly include the ideas of students in discussions and planning for all aspects of education—not just technology.
”This is our future, after all,“ said the student. ”Our ideas should count, too.“
Source: eschool news
Links:
Project Tomorrow
Tabula Digita
Orange County Public Schools
Intel and Epic Games Launch "$1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest"
Legendary Mod-Making Contest with More than $1 Million in Cash and Prizes to Spark Game Development
CARY, N.C. – April 3, 2008 – Epic Games, Inc., the award-winning developer of multimillion-selling games and the world's leading game engine, Unreal Engine 3, today announced plans to follow up the original "$1 Million Make Something Unreal Contest" with an all new competition to include esteemed sponsor, Intel Corporation. Winnings exceed $1 million in value, and consist of one coveted Unreal Engine 3 license as a grand prize and other cash awards and prizes, including Intel® Software Development Products and Velocity Micro PCs based on the Intel® Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform with two Intel® Core™2 Extreme quad-core processors. The 2008 "$1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest" will be judged in four preliminary phases and a grand final. Judging will begin in June 2008 and will conclude, with the grand final prizes being awarded, in fall 2009.
To participate, aspiring game developers create modifications ("mods") for the PC version of Unreal Tournament 3 in a wide range of categories including environments, characters, weapons, gameplay, tools, vehicles and more.
Through the contest, players can unleash their creative skills, make new content and game experiences using cutting-edge game technology, and reap rewards on many different levels. The content created for this contest will be freely available to players of the PC version of Unreal Tournament 3 worldwide. "To all you aspiring game developers out there – this is your chance to get in the big leagues. We have categories for all kinds of creatively talented people including programmers, artists, 3D modelers, designers and even aspiring film directors," said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. "You get to use the same world-class Unreal Engine 3 toolset we used to create Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War. Unreal Engine 3 is used by many of the industry's leading game companies, so this is truly a chance to prove your worth and get your foot in the door of the game business while having your work potentially exposed to millions. To get mod-makers started, the collector's edition of Unreal Tournament 3 includes over 20 hours of 3D Buzz's professional-level video training materials for the Unreal Engine 3 toolset."
"The ‘$1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest' demonstrates Intel's ongoing commitment to helping game developers harness the capabilities of the PC gaming platform," said Elliot Garbus, vice president, Software and Solutions Group, general manager, Visual Computing Software Division, Intel Corporation. "We are passionate about unleashing developers' innovation through our popular software developer tools, our Intel® Core™ 2 processor family, and high-performance platforms, like the eight core Intel® Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform, formerly codenamed ‘Skulltrail'. Combining Intel products with the Unreal Engine modding tools provides a wonderful opportunity for aspiring developers, machinima artists, and modders to jump in and truly change the game."
The last "$1 Million Make Something Unreal Contest" catapulted World War II shooter Red Orchestra to fame. Its development team, Tripwire Interactive, was awarded the grand prize, an Unreal Engine 3 license, for overall Best Mod and throughout the contest earned nearly $80,000 in cash and computer hardware prizes. Red Orchestra was later shipped to retail outlets worldwide.
"A few years ago, we were just a group of fans with an idea to make a mod that we would all like to play," said Tripwire Interactive President John Gibson. "The Unreal Engine and its mod tools were perfect for the game we wanted to make, and with the hard work and determination of our team we used those tools to create Red Orchestra and win the mod competition. Winning the ‘Make Something Unreal Contest' helped the Tripwire Interactive team realize our dream of founding our own development studio and bringing our game to retail. It is a real life 'Rags to Retail' story."
Universities and students can participate as well. "We were pleased to be a winner in the educational category of the first contest sponsored by Epic and look forward to being part of this year's competition," said Dr. Peter Raad, founder and executive director of The Guildhall at SMU. "Unreal Engine technology has been a cornerstone of our program and has been a big part of us sending more than 180 artists, level designers and programmers since 2004 to work at more than 70 video game studios around the world."
For more information about the "$1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest," visit www.makesomethingunreal.com
About Unreal Tournament 3
Published by Midway, Unreal Tournament 3 marks the return of the world's premiere first-person shooter to the PC, and its debut on the PLAYSTATION®3 system. Unreal Tournament 3 unleashes the full power of Unreal Engine 3, taking graphics, gameplay and challenge to a whole new level. Players engage in intense battles with other human players online, or against Unreal artificial intelligence that sets the industry standard. With the most powerful futuristic weapons and vehicles available, this is FPS action at its best! More information about Unreal Tournament 3 can be found online at www.unrealtournament3.com
About Unreal Engine 3
The award-winning Unreal Engine is known for cutting-edge graphics and its best-of-breed toolset. Unreal Engine 3 maintains those features while adding massive world support, multi-processor support, next-generation console optimizations, and one of the most mature tool pipelines in the industry. Unreal Engine 3's advanced toolset is designed specifically to accelerate developers' productivity for ultra-complex, next-generation content. Additional information on Unreal Engine can be obtained through the Unreal Technology Web site at www.unrealtechnology.com
About Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc., based in Cary, NC and established in 1991, develops cutting-edge games and cross-platform game engine technology. The company has created multiple million-selling, award-winning titles in its Unreal series, recently shipping Unreal Tournament 3 for PC and PlayStation 3. Epic's breakthrough game, Gears of War, sold over 4.5 million copies and was awarded overall Game of the Year for 2006 by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, Game Developers Choice Awards, GameSpot, GamePro and many others. Epic is also responsible for the Unreal Engine, which is the underlying technology for a wide range of games including the Game Critics Awards' Best Console Game and Spike TV's 2007 RPG of the Year Mass Effect by BioWare and the 2007 BAFTA Best Game and Spike TV Game of the Year BioShock by 2K Games. Epic's Unreal Engine 3 is the current holder, and three-time consecutive winner, of Game Developer magazine's Front Line award for Best Engine. Epic was also recognized as 2006 Studio of the Year by Spike TV, 2006 Developer of the Year by Official Xbox Magazine and 2007 Large Company of the Year by the North Carolina Technology Association. Additional information about Epic can be obtained through the Epic Games Web site at www.epicgames.com
About Intel
Intel, the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional information about Intel Software is available at www.intel.com/software. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom and blogs.intel.com
Epic, Epic Games, Unreal, Unreal Tournament and Gears of War are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere.
Intel, Intel Core and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.
* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Educational Games Outreach Program at Nobelprize.org
Nobelprize.org has a unique way of introducing the Nobel Prize that goes beyond the mere presentation of facts. These introductions, aptly called 'educational', are made in the form of games, experiments, and simulated environments ready to be explored and discovered. The productions are aimed at the young, particularly the 14-18 age groups, who may know about the Nobel Prizes and the Nobel Laureates, but often lack a deeper understanding about the Nobel Prize-awarded works.
These educational productions do not require previous knowledge. A central thought or issue is explored during 10-20 minutes of activity, using a specific Nobel Prize-awarded work as a springboard for the whole exercise.
The productions offer an excellent way of using the Internet for homework, or just plain, wholesome entertainment. The high level of interactivity and the sophisticated illustrations ensure an enriching time spent in front of the computer.
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Watch the presentation movie about Nobelprize.org. http://nobelprize.org/nobelweb/edu_program.html Play games at |
Learning Nanotechnology :: NanoMission
Action Adventures in the Nano world.
NanoMissiontm the world's first scientifically accurate interactive 3d learning game based on understanding nano-sciences and nanotechnology.
More... http://www.playgen.com/home/content/view/30/26/
The players are challenged in imaginative environments that promotes learning about: Molecular building, Nano-Imaging, Creation of Nano-devices, Nano-medicine, Quantum Behaviour, Manipulating Electrons and Nano-Materials.
Primarily focused on 12-18 age range - the game is also a valuable and fun way to learn about nanotechnology irrespective of age. Available online for the PC and through retail for PlayStation Portable.
PlayGen are seeking sponsorship to complete the PC version of the game. Sponsor(s) will get in-game advertising and tailor made version of the game for distribution.
Founded in 2001 by gaming industry experts, PlayGen is a London based game development studio with a strong and growing track record in developing serious games for training and learning purposes. See http://www.playgen.com
Download Research files on Games for Education and contact us as consultants on your project.
Computer Games Can Make Kids More Social, Not Less
Contrary to common education wisdom, computer games and other technologies can foster community-building, a strong sense of identity and higher-level planning even in very young students, UC Davis researchers report.
"There is a lot of hemming and hawing among educators about the introduction of technology in the early grades," said Cynthia Carter Ching, associate professor of education at the University of California, Davis. "But the worst-case scenarios just don't pan out. Technology can facilitate creativity and social awareness, even when we don't design the use of it to do so. And when we do design technology activities with these things in mind, the possibilities are endless."
According to Ching, early childhood educators often argue that technology can squelch young children's creativity and social interaction in the classroom.
But in two recent studies of kindergarten and first-grade students, Ching has observed that children find ways to transform their experiences with technology into fun, highly organized group activities. She also found that technology-based activities can be explicitly designed to foster social reflection and advanced planning among young children.
Ching and her collaborator, X. Christine Wang from the University at Buffalo, SUNY, will presented the research today at the annual meeting of the American Association of Educational Research in New York City.
In their first study, Ching and Wang observed children who chose to play a computer game during their free time. Though only one child could play at a time, the children negotiated turns and gave each other advice about how to play the game.
"Though this is hardly the ideal setting for social interaction and higher-level thinking, the children exhibited a great deal of executive planning skills and complex social negotiations without any guidance or interference from adults," Ching said.
In the second study, children were given digital cameras and told to create digital photo journals. The students displayed creativity and engaged in complex planning at every stage of the assignment, from how they framed their shots to how they chose to organize them to tell a story, Ching found.
"This study shows that rather than technology being something that children merely use, it can be a creative tool for increased reflection on social networks, friendships, relationships with teachers and a sense of self within the world of school," Ching said.
Ching and Wang received the Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies at last year's AERA meeting.
Source: UC Davis
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The NanoTechnology Group Inc. is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization incorporated in Texas with an international group of partners and welcomes collaboration in the United States and all countries. Supporting education projects that lead to better informed public awareness and formal and informal education in all schools. There are no membership dues, just an exchange of ideas and partner support which involves lending your skills and expertise for project development to reach these goals.