Class Lecture Sept. 16 / Academic Advisor

During this class we discussed virtual worlds and real life, the information systems concentration, Eric Tao's life story, and a bit about our academic adviser, specifically for capstone.

Ben came and talked to us about what he was interested in. He discussed ways that virtual worlds can improve real lives. He also said he was a meso-immersive kind of guy. Ben showed us a virtual world he created, called Cloverdale. It's main function is to increase ecological literacy and systems thinking. He showed us Cloverdale in a very basic program where you can see the repetition of the pattern on the mountains. He then showed us Cloverdale in Unity. Unity is a free program for people who are interested in video game development, where it does most of the javascript coding for you. When Ben showed us Cloverdale in Unity, it looked amazing. I was so amazed at what a free program can create.

After Ben finished, Eric Tao then talked about our academic adviser, and how we would go about choosing one. From the list, I would want my academic adviser to be Kevin Cahill. I am choosing him because he is the Program Lead, and also because I am really enjoying the way he is teaching web design. I always feel like every class is useful, and my thought process is changing because of this class, for the better. My second choice would be a  tie between Bude Su and Bobbi Long. I would probably end up choosing Bude Su if my capstone consists of only web or some sort of advanced program for the web. If my capstone consists of a little more print design, I'd go with Bobbi.

Eric Tao then discussed his life. He went to UC Irvine, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and the the National Sun Yat Sen University in Taiwan. He's gotten all the way up to his Ph.D in Computer Engineering. Kate Lockwood also spoke during this class time. I also was confirmed she was pregnant! I could kind of tell but not exactly. She graduated from the University of Michigan. Her emphasis she focuses on is information systems, which is a new concentration being offered.