This was the second year the Game Innovation Lab opened it's doors for the World Science Fair's Innovation Square.  Hundreds of guests visited our research space and got to play with the software we've been devolping over the past year.  We showed off our best games made by our lab researchers, NYU GameCenter grad students, and our artist in residence, Kaho Abe.  We featured PixelMotion, an interactive camera based multiplayer game currently also on display at Liberty Science Center.

from poly.edu:

More than 50 NYU-Poly faculty members and students were on hand to inspire and amaze the crowd, which included 13-year-old Isaac Solomon, an enthusiastic budding scientist who was able to take an attempt at creating an augmented-reality Death Star and controlling a flying drone, among other exciting activities. “It’s awesome what you can do just by pushing a button,” he said. “I might have to consider becoming an engineer, because it seems like they get to work on really cool things all day.”

Everyone at NYU-Poly would agree with that assertion; in fact, Professor Katherine Isbister, who holds a joint appointment in the Computer Science Department at NYU-Poly and the NYU Game Center, was one of the featured speakers at the WSF’s aptly named panel “Cool Jobs.”
Besides Isbister, other NYU-Poly departments and programs took center stage, including Mark Skwarek, the creator of the app that allowed for the creation of that Death Star; Maurizio Porfiri, whose robotic fish attracted virtually every pint-sized visitor to Innovation Square; and Jin Montclare, whose Lewis Dots app makes learning chemistry fun.

Festival-goers also enjoyed a rare opportunity to visit NYU-Poly’s Game Innovation Lab to check out games that have not even hit the market yet. And if that wasn’t enough gaming, the Square was also the site of a massive contest featuring YaMove!, a  dance-battle game that uses technology to augment face-to-face dancing.

For more information and media:

http://worldsciencefestival.com/events/cool_jobs2013

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelmotiongame/