Video games go viral at UW educational research lab

Ron Seely:

Upstairs in the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, scientists toil away in their labs researching everything from stem cells to viruses.

Downstairs, you'll find a very different kind of laboratory. In cubicles and makeshift computer labs, a number of people sit behind their screens -- playing games. They're not nerds, they're researchers.

OK, they are a bit nerdy and seem as glued to their screens as any game-crazed teenager. But there is science being done here, too. This is Susan Millar's computer lab, the Educational Research Integration Area in the Morgridge Institute for Research, where researchers design and build games that help teach and communicate science -- everything from the formation and perils of blue-green algae to the workings of viruses.

On a recent afternoon, in a darkened conference area, several programmers, designers and artists worked in the reflected blue light from their machines, racing to finish the newest version of one of the lab's most successful and popular efforts, a game called Virulent that can be found in the iTunes store and boasts 2,000 downloads.

And it's a game that doesn't involve guns or race cars or football players. It's about viruses.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 18, 2011 2:58 AM
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