What does Nevada’s Michael Higdon think he is? A rocket scientist?
University of Nevada student journalist Michael Higdon isn’t working for the school’s student newspaper this year.
He’s been there and done that, serving as design editor and public journalism advocate for The Sagebrush. In fact, Michael was named SND’s student designer of the year for 2006-07 and served a Pulliam Fellowship internship last summer at the Indianapolis Star. He was also a presenter during the student sessions last fall at SND/Las Vegas.
What’s he doing this year to top all that?
Oh, just a little side gig he lined up… Working for NASA.
Michael explains:
It’s a teaching assistant-type job.
I’m to sit in and observe/participate in the regular undergraduate class as well as the interdiscplinary class (Journalism Game Theory and Serious Game Design). I will be getting paid instead of receiving credit for these.
My job is to provide feedback to [professor] Larry Dailey about his teaching methods, exercises and overall curriculum for the Journalism Game Theory class. On top of that, I’m to help other students in the journalism class by providing Flash help as well as design guidance for their individual projects.
Now, if you’re like us, you’re wondering: What the hell is Journalism Game Theory? Our guess is that it refers to the roulette wheel editors and publishers use to decide who they’ll lay off next.
Nope. It’s a serious subject with serious repercussions to the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. And journalism, of course. The grant to pay for this comes from the Nevada NASA Space Grant Consortium, says a press release from Nevada’s Reynolds School of Journalism:
“They’re creating interdisciplinary applications, involving students from different backgrounds and collaborating on a project that could have implications for space science,” [said Leone Thierman, program coordinator].
Art professor Joe DeLappe, and computer science professor and evolutionary computing specialist Sushil Louis, for example, received national media attention with their online “Dead-in-Iraq” project, the release says.
DeLappe’s work to date includes online gaming performance, electromechanical installation and real-time web-based video transmission. His efforts were featured in the exhibition Gameworld in Gijon, Spain. In 2008, he created “Reenactment: The Salt Satyagraha Online,” using a customized treadmill to walk his Second Life avatar, MGandhi, 240 miles in 26 days in the popular online game.
Louis’s projects include the study of computer programs that model human decision-making – a research area with applications in video game design. In 2006, Louis organized a symposium on computational intelligence in games.
If all this is starting to make your brain ache, then join the club. It doesn’t seem to phase Michael one bit. He writes:
At the end of the semester I am to create a journalism game prototype for NASA, which will serve as one aspect of validating the grant and also as a design template for further web-based games they plan to design (either in future classes or at NASA).
My games are for web users while the Serious Game Design games are more simulator-based and realistic. I’m the only journalist in that particular class.
Michael’s already started working on the project, observing the class and helping the instructor. The prototyping and Flash-based game building won’t come until later, he says.
And, like any sharp college student, he’s keeping an eye on what’s really important:
I should start getting paid in about two weeks.
A few examples of Michael’s old-fashioned, print newspaper work:
Find more in his NewsPageDesigner gallery and at his personal web site.