The center’s goal is to expand campus-wide research activities that draw upon UCI’s strengths spanning the social and technological aspects of games and virtual worlds. Over 35 faculty from different fields of study, ranging from computer science, arts, humanities, social science, law, medicine and education collaborate in the center.

UCI was among the first major research universities to establish educational and research programs in computer game culture and technology. The UCI Game Culture & Technology Lab, launched in 2001, has attracted over $5 million in external funding. UCI’s undergraduate degree in Computer Game Science was launched in the Fall of 2010 with 43 students in its first year. The program is currently in its second year with 8 incoming transfer students and 60 incoming freshmen for 2011-2012, from a pool of 412 applicants.

On, April 2, 2011, approximately 200 students and their family members attended an afternoon of fun at the Computer Game Science lab at UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences. Current Computer Game Science students, professors, and members of our Computer Game Developers’ Club were on-hand to showcase games and virtual world technologies and to answer questions. To view the presentation given by Center Director, Magda El Zarki, click here.

On the research front, two of our center faculty Pierre Baldi and Crstina Videira Lopes have recently developed an infrastructure called the Universal Campus which allows, among other things, the organization and deployment of scientific meeting, conferences, classes, etc in a 3D virtual world.

For more information on the Computer Game Science major, visit our degree page.

Press release announcing the formation of the center.

Contact Us

• Magda El Zarki, Executive Director, Professor of ICS
• Walt Scacchi, Director of Research
• Venita De Souza, Center Administrator and Industrial Relations