Last night the Piner community was treated to an inside look at the computer programming of video games. Keysight Engineers Raj Sodhi, Tim Griesser and Carson Schaefer discussed how math and physics play key roles in game design. This was delightfully demonstrated as student volunteers changed the code of the game ( hacking!) and then we saw the effect in the Angry birds game. For example, when the wind resistance was increased..the bird bounced ever so slowly and never made it to the pigs......and when gravity was eliminated the birds flew freely up, up and away!
Math was touted as the key behind manipulating the birds and Raj did a great job of breaking down the code showing how the coordinate system in video games is reversed, bird and pig positions are really ordered pairs and how velocity and vectors are used to provide the many different trajectories of the birds. Impressive are the applications and insight into algebra, geometry and trigonometry. Personally I feel that if I had been taught physics through computer games, I would have a better foundation ( and that was during the Pong era- how simple was that !)
The audience became enthralled with the concept of procedural generation. How random noise is put to work with simple algorithms to create crazy complicated ever changing animals and planets such as those in No Man's sky. The video clip at the end was fascinating to see how quickly programming is evolving.
Computer Engineering as a career was encouraged as the need for software engineers is in high demand and a survey from the National Associations of College and Employers put this career on top with a starting salary of 65K ( BTW- teachers were middle with $ 37K!!!!)
Pokeball cookies were served up for the cafe as students chose their level of engagement for programming exploration. Most of the youngers sat down and worked directly with some python manipulations, whilst the beginners played around in the Hour of code website doing some basic exercises.