Certification - July 2008 - (Page 6)

DATA STREAM News & Notes for Certiﬁed Professionals NJIT Provides Gaming Students With Technical, Hands-On Training It isn’t often that parents root for their kids’ “Guitar Hero” skills or encourage them to devote more time to video games, let alone inspire them to focus on gaming as a career path. Students who select the recently developed videogame programming concentration at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) develop a background in computer science theory with the practice of applied programming, allowing them to become well-versed in multimedia, including graphic design, game design, level editing and 3-D modeling. They graduate with a greater advantage than their peers in an industry that is growing quickly, even in the face of a potential recession. Donald J. (D.J.) Kehoe, adjunct professor and assistant to the director for IT at NJIT, heads a game-programming concentration that the school officially launched this past fall. According to Kehoe, one of the basic skills required of a game programmer is software design. Higherlevel programming skills include problem solving, analytical thinking, dealing with target hardware and target markets. Kehoe designs his classes to give students a command of programming in C and C++, as well as other scripting languages such as UnrealScript, XML, Lua and Python, all of which are commonly used in game development. He also teaches them to write their own programs using programming language C and development libraries. Students edit existing games, such as one of id Software’s “Quake” games, and make their own 2-D and 3-D games. The more artistic or design-oriented students opt for courses in 3-D modeling animation or level-editing world creation. The school hosted its semi-annual “Game Expo” in April, giving students a chance to show off their proficiency in video-game development, as well as their skill at playing popular video games such as “Guitar Hero” and “Smash Brothers.” And the job opportunities abound. One alum is a game designer for Gameloft, a subcompany of Ubisoft, which made “Splinter Cell” and “Assassin’s Creed.” Another is programming-embedded software for surveillance cameras, while others are working in the media industry. “We’re not just giving our students a degree in game design; we’re giving them a Bachelor of Science in infor- “We’re not just giving our students a degree in game design; we’re giving them a Bachelor of Science in information technology, which they can then take to the gaming industry or another traditional industry.” mation technology, which they can then take to the gaming industry or another traditional industry,” Kehoe said. Access to Quick, Reliable Resources Increases Productivity With March Madness come and gone, employers can rest easy knowing the basketball contest will not drain employee productivity again until next year. However, a more chronic factor for companies striving for highperforming IT workforces is the immediacy of access to learning resources for their professionals. “Productivity is lost when employees spend hours sifting through mountains of information,” stated a Ridge Group study titled “Information Gathering in the Electronic Age: The Hidden Cost of the Hunt.” This can have a direct impact on businesses’ bottom lines, since “performance metrics for technology departments are based on time,” said the study. And time is indeed lost to searching: Another Ridge Group survey from 2002 found that 100 percent of IT professionals interrupt their work flow at least once a day to look for answers to questions regarding their tasks. According to Dennis Kilian, vice president of Safari Books Online, this is time that a worker is not busy solving a problem, but rather looking for resources to help solve it. The lack of a good source for immediate answers creates a drain on productivity for workers such as programmers, Web designers and system administrators. Typical places workers go to find on-the-job answers include the Web, colleagues, books and trade publications. Each has its own drawbacks, including the overabundance and varying levels of reliability of 6 CERTIFICATION MAGAZINE July 2008 http://www.njit.edu/ http://www.njit.edu/ http://www.safaribooksonline.com/ http://www.safaribooksonline.com/

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Certification - July 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Data System Virtual Village Tech Careers Dear Techie Academic Connection Look Ahead Troubleshooting Testing Your Foot in the Door: Certification at the Entry Level Analyzing the Societal Effects of YouTube Interface Spread the Knowledge: Becoming an IT Trainer Inside Certification Ad Index What We Like Endtag

Certification - July 2008

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