Some MSU students get to call in their 'smart' class work

Contact: Robbie Ward

STARKVILLE, Miss.--Mississippi State and Cellular South are helping students in a university class create computer games for the Ridgeland-based wireless communication company's HTC Hero smart-phone devices.

Students in the game design course are learning this semester how to develop games on smart phone devices. Their training is provided through the Bagley College of Engineering's department of computer science and engineering.

The campus designers will have an opportunity to join others around the world in uploading their games composed of original artwork, music and compositions to the Google-operated Android market, where their creations may be downloaded to smart phones--models whose advanced capabilities rival those of personal computers.

Ed Swan, an associate professor teaching the course, said cell phones have "become, by far, the most rapidly disseminated technology in the history of mankind; almost half the world population has one."

Since one mobile phone is sold for every two people in the world, the college's incorporation of smart phone game design into its teaching curriculum "seemed like a no-brainer," he added.

"The partnership between Cellular South and the MSU class is good for a number of reasons," Swan said. Specifically, he cited the:

--Open-source Google Android operating system, which is available to any programmer at no cost.

--Cellular South-provided phones that allow the students to demonstrate their games on the devices.

Steve Davidson, Cellular South's manager of product development, recently spoke with the students about the mobile-phone market for game applications. He said the Android market has some 25,000 available applications, of which about 15.5 percent are games.

Also, about 4,000 new applications enter the Android Market each month, with games ranging in cost from free to only a few dollars per download.

"Mississippi State has a very good computer science department and a very good software engineering program," Davidson said. "The university supports the latest and best applications.

"A large part of the educational effort of the class is to teach students the business side of the applications," Davidson continued. "They will learn what it takes to make their games marketable."

Swan said class members will have opportunities to design two game applications for the Android phone.

Keni Steward of Jackson, a junior computer engineering major, is among nearly a dozen students in the class. He said he's happy--and a bit excited--to be contributing directly to the popular medium.

"I also enjoy watching the characters move, pressing a button and watching them react," Steward said, with a grin.

NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For additional information, contact Dr. Swan at 662-325-2756 or jes256@msstate.edu.

For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.