Charles Sturt University (CSU) computer science student James Bekkema from Bathurst, NSW, has been awarded two Apple University Consortium (AUC) Innovation Grants in competition with computing students from universities around Australia.

 

Mr Bekkema was awarded one of three Innovation Grants to investigate and report on options and feasibility for running Microsoft operating systems and applications on Intel-based Macintosh computers.

 

In another announcement, Mr Bekkema received one of only ten Development Grants from the AUC Innovation Grants Program to continue work on the Multithreaded Game Engine (MTGE) which follows on from the Game Engine project that started with an AUC grant awarded to CSU in 2004.

 

“This is a real thrill,” said the CSU PhD candidate who received his Bachelor of Computer Science (Games Technology) with first class Honours at the University’s recent graduation ceremony in Bathurst.

 

“The grant will greatly assist my study and result in practical applications for the way computer games are created in the future, and the way computer gaming is taught in universities. This puts CSU at the forefront of computer game developments in Australia,” Mr Bekkema said.

 

“The programs developed as a result of this project are used to teach the structure and functions of games engines to the University’s games technology students and others.

 

“One of the MTGE’s main purposes is to help teach how to implement game engines. The teaching program is broken into modules which make it ideal for illustrating and implementing particular aspects of games programming. The multithreaded design demonstrates how to approach the challenge of developing a game engine while making the most of modern computer hardware,” Mr Bekkema said.

“Until now we have only had access to a dual-processor machine with two processing cores. However, with the AUC grant we will now have access to an eight-core machine. All modern consumer-level computing is moving towards four-core and eight-core machines.

 

“Access to the custom-configured eight-core Mac Pro worth around $9 000 means research for MTGE, as well as other research in the School including my PhD studies, will be ahead of the pack.

“The MTGE project is very relevant for teaching games technology courses that have proliferated in Australian universities in recent years. Our engine is well suited to provide a base for student game programming projects or for experimental work. We intend to make the project available as an open-source development project, available for free to interested games developers and teachers worldwide,” he said.