April 9, 2006
California Dreamin’
Quickly on the heels of my previous personal announcement, I have another one. This summer will be my last summer at Georgia Tech. Starting this fall I will be joining UC Santa Cruz, where I will help in building up their new, technically-focused undergraduate degree program in computer game design (here are some working papers describing the degree program), as well as help in building up a new game research lab. The last few years at Georgia Tech have been good ones; I will certainly miss my friends and colleagues here, though I’m sure we’ll continue to actively collaborate and will see each other on a regular basis.
It will be ten years ago this August since my wife and I moved away from the West Coast, first to Pittsburgh (CMU) and then Atlanta. It will be great to be back west, and to forge new and exciting relationships both with my new colleagues at Santa Cruz, and with colleagues in game studios, research labs and universities throughout the greater Bay Area. UC Santa Cruz, with its history as an alternative UC, and its culture of interdisciplinary work, will be a great place to pursue research and teaching in Expressive AI. And it doesn’t hurt that Santa Cruz is a drop-dead gorgeous place to live. So, starting next August, I’ll be in Santa Cruz. Till then I’ll be California Dreamin’.
April 9th, 2006 at 2:12 pm
Michael, congratulations! When this job at Santa Cruz was advertised, I thought you seemed the ideal person for it … I suppose they figured that out at Santa Cruz, too. Obviously your move will be a loss for Tech, but it seems like you’ve made several lasting contributions there via the Experimental Game Lab and the computational media class and degree program.
April 9th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
Michael, congratulations on your move. I know you and Anne will be happy to be near home base again. There’s so many great things happening at Santa Cruz and wonderful people, I expect you’ll be very happy there!
April 9th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
Congratulations on your new position. It is a beautiful place to live, it is like an ewok village. My wife and I make scuba diving trips in that area almost every month so I hope to see you more frequently now that you will be back on the left coast. I’ll second that it’s a big loss for Georgia Tech but I know you’ll forge new opportunities. I wish you and your family the best in your move. I can’t wait to welcome you to the Bay!
April 9th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Sung to the classic Beach Boys’ song, “California Dreamin'” (you know, “all the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray..”)
Pittsburgh gets me down, it’s so cold and gray
I’ve been down South with its humidi-tay
Gonna research games that I wanna play
California dreamin’ been waitin’ for the day
Logged in to my blog I surfed along the way
They tell me Grace just doesn’t listen, and that Trip is gay
You know that gamers like it old
They need Expressive A…
I… California dreamin’ been waitin’ for the day
Pittsburgh gets me down, it’s so cold and gray
I’ve been down South with its humidi-tay
Gonna research games that I wanna play
California dreamin’ been waitin’ for the day
California dreamin’ researchin’ games I wanna play
California dreamin’ PA‘s not far away…
California dreamin’ boogie boardin’ in the Bay
California dreamin’ lots of sun for my babay
California dreamin’ 10 years to the day…!
California dreamin’ been waitin’ for the day
California dreamin’ been waitin’ for the day
California dreamin’ been waitin’ for the day
April 9th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
Awesome Andrew! Thanks.
April 9th, 2006 at 4:22 pm
I thought the song was originally by The Mammas and The Pappas. If I’m not mistaken it was written by John Phillips.
April 9th, 2006 at 4:26 pm
You’re right… in fact here’s some excellent midi so you can sing along… :-)
April 10th, 2006 at 9:17 am
congratulations, which department?
April 10th, 2006 at 11:07 am
Its been fun this semester slashing our way through GBA hardware registers like a 16-bit Indiana Jones. The undergrad CM students will miss you! Good luck at UCSC!
April 10th, 2006 at 11:27 am
Congrats, Michael! It sounds like a lifestyle upgrade. California’s getting a great infusion of new media talent between you, Noah, and Talan.
April 10th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
congratulations, which department?
I’m in CS, though I’m sure I’ll be collaborating with folk in digital media, art, various humanities departments, etc. My friend Warren is there – I’m sure we’ll be cooking up something together…
April 12th, 2006 at 8:40 am
yes congrats michael. greetings all from sweden. andrew you failed to include a link to the mp3 version of your musical talents, i’m still waiting. . . ; )
April 16th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
Robin, over at Gewgaw, gives me a warm welcome to the Bay Area, while describing that she’s interested in students from programs other than the big three (CMU, Georgia Tech, USC). Interestingly, unlike the “big three”, UCSC is building an undergraduate program first (USC and Georgia Tech are developing undergrad programs, but they developed their masters programs first). As more game-focused undergrad programs devevlop, it will be interesting to see what pressures this puts on masters programs, which got to enjoy several years of being the only game-oriented academic programs in town. Much of what’s taught in game-related masters programs can be easily pushed into the undergrad curriculum. This will eventually force masters programs to really teach graduate-level game material, rather than patching curricular holes and integrating undergraduate-level interdisciplinary knowledge. We’ve already begun to feel this upward pressure at Georgia Tech with the undergrad computational media degree. Perhaps there will be two types of masters programs in the future, those designed for students who did disciplinary work in something tangentially related to games (e.g. art, film studies, literary studies, traditional CS) and are looking for a masters programs to retool them as game people, and masters programs designed for people who’ve already been through an interdisciplinary game-oriented program, and wish to truly do advanced, graduate-level work in games. From an admissions perspective, this will create chaos for the masters programs, as mixing the two types of students will generally be ineffective (boring half the students while drowning the other half).
April 19th, 2006 at 7:46 pm
Props to Andrew for the idea…
Well East coast schools are hip
I really dig “The Don’s” cool hair
And the Southern schools with the EGL
They knock me out when I’m down there
The Mid-West schools like MSU really make you feel alright
And the Northern schools like Algoma U
They keep their curriculum quite tight
I wish they all could be California
I wish they all could be California
I wish they all could be California schools
The West coast has the sunshine
And the devs all get so tanned
I dig a sushi meal with Mahk Leblanc
Chilled by a palm tree in the sand
I been all around this great big world
And I seen all kinds of schools
Yeah, but I couldn’t wait to get back to CA
Back to the coolest grads in the world
I wish they all could be California
I wish they all could be California
I wish they all could be California schools
I wish they all could be California
(Schools, schools, schools yeah I dig the)
I wish they all could be California
(Schools, schools, schools yeah I dig the)
I wish they all could be California
(Schools, schools, schools yeah I dig the)
I wish they all could be California
(Schools, schools, schools yeah I dig the)
Congrats Michael, just don’t like start saying “like” unless like you are making like a comparison or like you like something.
September 25th, 2006 at 12:52 pm
[…] ;. This project will be full-time for me, and part-time for Michael who is now a full-time assistant professor at UC Santa Cruz. For me it will mean […]
May 6th, 2006 at 7:26 am
[…] a, and that’s just the kind of position I was after — plus the UC system seems a hopping place for GTxA-style work these days. Also, beyond the trip to Brazil, I […]