Rebecca J. Finch, a Human-Computer Interaction Ph. D. student in the School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI, recently received special recognition for her work at the 2014 Indiana Celebration of Women in Computing (InWIC).
Rebecca J. Finch’s lightening talk “Investigating Immersion in Games” won the award for the Best Graduate Lighting Talk at the annual technology conference.
The lightening talk competition required participants to create and deliver five minute mini-presentations showcasing their work or insight they may have acquired either from a class or research project. The presentations could have covered topics such as how to survive a computing major, programming tips, ideas on how to create a successful women in computing group, and various other issues or subject matter.
Finch’s research for her talk involved the Return of Aetheria augmented reality game that was created by Media Arts and Science faculty and students and debuted at GenCon in 2013. She and her investigative team interviewed players at different stages of the game so that they could get an understanding of how players were responding to the different elem
ents.
“It was very interesting to see how players interacted or reacted to the various types of quests in the game and to learn what their preferences were,” she said. “It was difficult to summarize in five minutes all that I had learned, but I was up to the challenge!” she added.
The goal of the Indiana Celebration of Women in Computing (InWIC) conference is to provide a low cost, regionally tailored, small conference for women in computing. InWIC is a more intimate version of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, and shares the same philosophy, supportive environment, and goals.
The InWIC conference is open to people in industry and academic institutions in Indiana and surrounding states.
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