The idea originated from a discussion in the Mechanics and Physics of Cells course taught by Ashutosh Agrawal (AA) in Spring 2015. The focus of the discussion was to identify mechanisms to excite students towards STEM. During the discussion, Andres Soto (AS) made the mistake of suggesting that games are not so hard to develop. AA took the opportunity and asked AS to prove his claim in the form of a class project. AS took up the challenge and surpised everyone with his creativity and skills by developing the first game on viral infection. Next AA and AS consulted Navin Varadarajan (NV), an expert in immunology. Not only NV gave suggestions to improve the game, he proposed a new game on proteolysis which he had been wanting to develop for some time. A game on proteolysis was developed next. Finally, based on AA's lecture on electrical signaling in brain, the third game on brainwave propagation was developed.
This is just the beginning, the goal is to build a repertoire of games and reach out to a large audience. Please feel free to contact AA (ashutosh@uh.edu) with ideas and suggestions. Thanks a lot!
The Team:
Ashutosh Agrawal
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engieering, University of Houston
Ph.D.- U.C. Berkeley
Andres Soto
The real guy- our nerdy and creative game developer
Systems Engineer, Infosys
B.S.- Mechanical Engieering, University of Houston
Navin Varadarajan
Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engieering, University of Houston
Ph.D.- University of Texas at Austin