Friday, May 25, 2012

Pokemon – A discussion with Dr. Ken Perlin



Some background for those less experienced: The concept of the Pokémon universe, in both the video games and the general fictional world of Pokémon, stems from the hobby of insect collecting, a popular pastime which Pokémon executive director Satoshi Tajiri-Oniwa enjoyed as a child. Players of the games are designated as Pokémon Trainers, and the two general goals (in most Pokémon games) for such Trainers are: to complete the Pokédex by collecting all of the available Pokémon species found in the fictional region where that game takes place; and to train a team of powerful Pokémon from those they have caught to compete against teams owned by other Trainers, and eventually become the strongest Trainer: the Pokémon Master. - Wikipedia.org


Today, Friday May 25th, we are fortunate to have a distinguished guest at Western for the morning through lunch. Dr. Ken Perlin is an internationally recognized game development expert and university professor who has won an Academy Award for his accomplishments (see below). 

He'll be spending Friday morning working with a group of students on an inventive Pokemon tournament in the IDEA Space.  During lunch, Ken will be available to meet with interested staff and students in Room 387, so feel free to drop by if you would like.

And thanks to Kaelan Myerscough for helping to organize this.

Play on!

                


Dr. Ken Perlin is a Professor at New York University, an Academy Award-winning inventor (for Tron), a SIGGRAPH Lifetime Achievement Award winner for computer animation, and was the Keynote Speaker at SIGGRAPH Asia this year. He is also Director of the Games for Learning Institute at NYU. Ken is widely recognized for his many achievements, and a sought-after international speaker.  He agreed to volunteer at Western because of his great respect for WTCS student Kaelan Myerscough’s contribution to the Games for Learning Institute.   Check out the following links.