Prof. Sen, Students Aim to Sell Games to Xbox

ECE Professor Pradeep Sen and five of his computer gaming students have been selected to receive Creative Awards from STC.UNM.

The students conceived and developed simple versions of computer games, and Sen is working with STC.UNM to help them navigate the legal hurdles involved in copyrighting their games. One of the games is now in Beta testing with Xbox, and development is proceeding with the others.

The sudents receiving awards are Justin Kellogg for "Missile Defender," Jeremy Wright and Craig Vineyard for "Buccaneer Bonanza," John Harger for "Toybox Racing," and Guanyu Wang for "XTank."

STC.UNM's Creative Awards will be presented during a reception on April 13 at 5:30 p.m. in the Science and Technology Park Rotunda, 801 University Blvd. SE on UNM’s south campus. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

Xbox allows players to develop games and submit them to the playing community on the Xbox site. Players critique them and offer suggestions, which can be used to improve the game until the playing community deems it ready, Sen said. At that point the game can be offered on the site either for free or a small amount of money. If a game makes it to that final stage, the developer of the game will make royalties, and the university, through STC.UNM, will also make money from sales.

Sen would like to take each group of students in his computer gaming classes through the copyright stage because he believes it will help them understand the legal process needed to protect their intellectual property if they want to develop games professionally. He says it will also help develop UNM's reputation as a welcoming place for gamers to perfect their skills.

"I would like to see UNM develop the reputation for supporting game development," Sen said. "This allows students to do complex problem solving in a context they understand." This is the first group of gamers to have copyright projects through the university.

"The games created by the talented students in the class are a welcome addition to the STC Intellectual Property portfolio," said Lisa Kuuttila, president and CEO of STC.UNM, the wholly owned corporation that patents and markets intellectual property at UNM. "STC is a technology leader in technology transfer and used a variety of tools, including its online end-user licensing mechanism called foliodirect, to transfer copy materials."

Story by Karen Wentworth, UNM Today