Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science announced the launch of the Center for Transformational Play (CTP) to better synergize the various game design and development efforts underway by researchers across the higher education institution's Oakland campus.
Jessica Hammer, the Thomas and Lydia Moran associate professor of learning sciences at CMU's Human-Computer Interaction Institute and its Entertainment Technology Center, will serve as the new center's director. She'll be tasked with bringing about collaborations relating to these efforts between faculty, staff and students.
"Carnegie Mellon already has people across the university working in these fields," Hammer said in a prepared statement. "The goal of the Center for Transformational Play is to bring them together to unlock their brilliance and create games that change people’s lives.…We want to be a hub for game research and development. Transformational games can have a real impact on the world, and I want to make CMU the best place in the world for designing, studying and building these games."
In addition to unifying research efforts across campus, the center will also look to create games of its own and promote the ones made by others on campus, though it's not limiting its efforts to the borders of its property. The center has tapped Pittsburgh-based educational games company Simcoach Games to serve as its first sponsor, which will allow CTP to collaborate with others beyond those who work in academia.
"At Simcoach, we see firsthand how games can change the way people think, behave and act toward others and the environment," Brian Kaleida, CEO of Simcoach Games, said in a prepared statement. "We look forward to collaborating with the CTP to expand the power of games to make a real difference in how individuals learn, explore, discover and transform."
Work at CTP has already begun.
It's working with CMU’s Software Engineering Institute to develop games that teach cybersecurity to adults and children. It has also teamed up with the University of Pittsburgh and San Fransisco-based Swissnex to help scientists and artists use games to help find solutions that will address challenges like climate change.
