When the games industry and academia collide: How we impact each other

What started as a list of suggested courses for students interested in focusing their Computer Science or Film degree on animation and games has grown into the #3 video game design program in the U.S. The key to this success has been directly involving the games industry in the Entertainment Arts and Engineering program. This program not only combined students and faculty from the arts and engineering, but spaned the public/private gap by actively including industry in the programs academic and professional mission. This paper extracts the impact we have each had on the other and lessons learned from not just collaboration across campus but across the city as we have partnered with industry.