Showcase of UG Students Works

An event showcasing the works of VFX, Animation, Game Design and Game Development UG students was organized on 21 June, 2014, at the ICAT Chennai campus. The showcase held the works of around 40 students who are graduating this year. Each student’s work was visited by our chief guests from the University of Wales: Mr. Alen David Summers (External Examiners Professor) and Mr. Clive William Hickinbottom (University Moderator). They assessed the quality of the works to understand if they are in par with the university standards and guidelines.

Once the chief guests approved the standard of the works, the showcase was open to general public. The parents and relatives of our students were the major part of the visitors, who were enthralled to see their ward’s very own work. Most of the works were enjoyed and appreciated by the visitors, of which a short film titled ‘The Architect’ (by Suman Debnath) depicting a social issue was found more exciting. Also, the Ma(d)ash game by Mohamed Faez excited the audience with its candy bars all over the racing track.

The same evening, an Awards function was organized during which the best work, student, project and so on were appreciated. The Awards function started with a Welcome Address from Ms. Roshini, Design Lecturer of ICAT. Then, various awards including the following were distributed.

ICAT, Bangalore Hosted the 3rd Graduation Ceremony for the 2013-14 Batch

On 19 June, 2014, the 3^rd Graduation ceremony was conducted by ICAT, Bangalore at the campus. The ceremony was inaugurated with ‘lighting of the lamp’ by Prof. Clive Hickinbottom and Prof. Alan Summers,- representatives of University of Wales; Ms. Shaswatii Chowdhury, Academic Head of ICAT; and Ms. Varsha Shelar, Regional Academic Head - ICAT.

During the ceremony:

Game Carnival at Jal Vihar(Theme park),Hyderabad on 14 June,2014

"Life is more fun if you play games." - Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald

Games are brain wired within us ever since we evolved as civilized people. The cavemen devised strategies to survive, hunt and save his people from deadliest surroundings. He took challenges from every aspect of his life. Our lives will not be fun without challenges. That is why we play games. Games challenge each of us in every possible way we could imagine of.

We, the students of ICAT Design & Media College, Hyderabad know exactly how to design challenging games with an appeal to any kind of audience. As part of a module, which we study in our first year, we create games understanding human psychology and game grammar. To test these games with live audience, we conducted a mega event at a Theme park, "JALA VIHAR" at Hyderabad. There we exhibited various types of physical games designed by us. This event attracted nearly 1000 audience from all age groups.

Each game triggered the gamers to depict their memory power concentration, balance and so on. The entire site was filled with interesting emotions and scenarios like a father encouraging his daughter to finish the Gravity Ball level, friends cheering their guy to utilize his final chance to win the customized Golf game, and children showing off their prizes to their parents. A kid surprised her mom by winning the "Minute to Win It" game, which wasn't an easy one.

There were numerous beautiful moments at the carnival that turned the whole atmosphere in to a celebration. We received overwhelming response from the audience, who gave us the opportunity to understand them more closely and seek direct feedback from them.

We would like to thank our college for providing us the platform to learn and explore games from basics. We would also like to thank our seniors, who played a crucial role in organizing the entire show. We believe that ICAT Design & Media College has always strived to provide the best learning experience for the students by conducting various events like the game carnival and it will continue to do so for the best future of the students.

Green Carnival 2014 by ICAT, Chennai

As part of the World Environment Day celebrations, the Game Development students of ICAT, Chennai joined hands with the faculty members in hosting a variety of carnival games for the public. The students developed games with an effort to create awareness on environmental conservation. The games were presented to the public on 6 June, 2014, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Marina Beach. The games drew in an eager crowd of around 450 people belonging to the age group of 5 to 50. The event was graced by the presence of Inspector and Members from the Chennai Police Department, who also participated in the games with exuberance.

All the games were based on the theme, ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ and were designed with the purpose of educating people on environmental issues, rain water conservation, reducing pollution, methods of growing plants and the use of eco-friendly equipments.

The games presented at the event were:

1. Blind Sense
2. Crawl and Roll
3. Drip Irrigation
4. Eco Fishing
5. Hit and Heal
6. Memory Cubes
7. Pour and Pour
8. Rain the Grain
9. Trash it
10. Tin to Bin

During the event, rule books for each game prepared by the students were placed at the respective game stalls for public display in order to help the participants understand the concept of the game, the point system, game play and the rewards. Participants were keen on understanding the concepts of each game and gained new insights on environmental issues and solutions. The essence of each game was made memorable to the public by gifting eco-friendly rewards like potted plants, paper bags, cloth bags and seeds. Feedback forms were filled in by the participants that helped students make further improvement to their games.

Press coverage of the carnival was done by RAJ TV, who actively involved the public during the event, interviewed students who presented their games as well as the faculties on their motive for this event.

With its ‘edutainment’ factor, the Green Carnival was well received with a series of positive reviews from the public who felt encouraged to plant more trees, control pollution and acknowledge their duties of protecting the earth and environment.

Public Feedback:

Mr. A. Sathish Kumar:

The project titled “Drip Irrigation” is outstanding and indeed a creative concept for the 21^st Century.

G.A. Maha Siva Sankari

It is nice idea to create awareness among people. Big thanks to ICAT.

Ballabh

The experience was very good. Such events should take place every year here on.

T. Dilip Kumar

All the concepts were very unique in creating awareness.

ICAT Students Wins Several Positions in the IV International Photocross Contest 2014

Photocross is a prestigious contest for amateur photographers, conducted by the Russian-British Institute of Management, Russia. The objective of this contest is to identify talents, who can reflect a certain topic, show original ideas and creative vision of the object, use various photographic and post-processing techniques and apply artistic approach within a given timeframe.

The IV International Photocross contest started on 14 May, 2014, on which 10 topics were sent to all the participating teams through e-mail. The participating teams were required to submit one picture on each topic on 15 May, 2014. From 16 to 21 May, 2014, an international jury from Russia, UK and India assessed the students’ works and rated the best teams.

29 teams from 8 countries, including India, Australia, USA, China, Kazakhstan, Great Britain and Russia participated in the IV International Photocross contest. Of the 29 teams, 15 teams were from ICAT – 6 teams from ICAT, Chennai and 9 teams from ICAT, Bangalore. Of the 15 teams, 6 teams secured various positions in the contest, which is as listed below.