Media Arts and Science students put on impressive demonstrations of digital prowess
December 8, 2008
It's called the Capstone - the final project that all graduating students in the IU School of Informatics at IUPUI must complete. On Friday, December 5, MAS students shared their Capstone projects with scores of visitors to the Informatics and Communications Complex.
As family and friends moved from workstation to workstation, 23 students demonstrated the functionality of their projects ranging from Web sites to Flash movies, to 2D sequential art and 3D animation.
"The Capstone is the pinnacle of a student's academic career here," explained Tony Faiola, interim executive associate dean. "It's their opportunity to demonstrate what they've learned by developing real-world examples of digital storytelling or other kinds of creative undertakings. Many of these projects are the kind of thing any one of the students might well be asked to develop for a future employer."
Indeed, several of those attending the Capstones event were members of the MAS Advisory Board, who own and operate digital companies in central Indiana, and who hire many MAS graduates.
"In a sense, this experience also serves as a kind of audition for students interested in landing a job with a local Web company or digital arts shop," said Faiola. "What's especially valuable is demonstrating competency with different software suites, and an ability to tell a story or create a digital asset that is both intuitive and reliably functional."
Among the most ambitious projects was "PIPE", a multimedia user experience combining 3D video with various scents. Created by Chauncey Frend, the large, three dimensional "theater" allowed for participants to sit in a controlled environment where they were exposed to visual images combined with related scents like dirt and grass.
Frend, who would like to commercialize the concept, believes that scent will be an increasingly popular addition to movie and home theaters.
"Right now much attention is being given to the development of 3D stereoscopic, surround sound movies," explained Frend. "It seems only logical to me that after the aural and visual, the sense of smell can be exploited to take our entertainment experience to the next level."
Dana McGrown put her creative abilities to work creating a new Web site for the Minority Health Coalition of Marion County. McGrown says it was her way of giving back to a community that embraced her when she relocated to Indianapolis from Champaign, Ill., to attend school at ITT and eventually IUPUI.
"My experience in the School of Informatics has been wonderful - a real blessing," said McGrown. "I've enjoyed tremendous support from many faculty members, notably Beth Lykins, my academic advisor. Sheila Morris-Watson, my student services counselor, also really took me under her wing."
And for McGrown, successfully completing the MAS program has already paid off, having been hired recently by the Kelly School of Business at IUPUI to be its Web specialist.
The Capstones presentations event is held biannually at the end of the fall and spring semesters.
