During the November shindig and CGames Ernest Adams was in Ireland doing his highly popular workshops and he revealed that he had been appointed visiting professor at the University of Ulster, Magee based in Derry, Northern Ireland.

When contacted about the appointment the School of Computing and Intelligent Systems at Magee told us that they had been successful in obtaining funding, from the Royal Academy of Engineering, to appoint Ernest Adams as a Visiting Professor, under its Integrated System Design scheme.

As many of the gd.ie readers will know, Ernest Adams, is an author and games consultant with over 17 years experience working for companies such as THQ, Ubisoft, Elixir Studios and Electronic Arts. As part of the appointment he will deliver a number of workshops on games design and development from the perspective of integrated systems.

Professor Martin McGinnity, lead applicant on the funding proposal said:

“I am delighted that we have been successful in appointing someone of Ernest’s calibre and experience as a Visiting Professor to the School of Computing and Intelligent Systems and am sure he will make a significant contribution to the school over the next three years. He will bring a fantastic insight and experience to our students in terms of real commercial aspects of computer games development”

In September 2005 the School launched two new degree programmes focusing on computer game design and development. By gaining an appreciation of the technical challenges involved in the design of highly sophisticated integrated systems such as computer games, students are developing a range of skills which will greatly increase their employment opportunities within the sector”.

The first week-long workshop will begin on Monday 22nd of January, 2007 on the Magee campus. During this workshop participants will cover a range of topics including:

*An overview of the interactive entertainment industry,
*Fundamentals of game design,
*Balancing game mechanics,
*Principles of character design.

A second workshop is scheduled to run just before Easter with two further week long workshops planned for 2008 and 2009.

More information regarding these events can be obtained from: Dr. Shane Wilson (e-mail: s.wilson@ulster.ac.uk).

For more see
Press release on new courses at http://news.ulster.ac.uk/releases/2005/1794.html

Info on
BSc (Hons) Multimedia Computer Games
http://prospectus.ulster.ac.uk/course/?id=3712#4

BEng (Hons) Computer Game Development
http://prospectus.ulster.ac.uk/course/?id=3059