Looking back International Summer and Winter Schools

From 28th August to 8th September, the School of Computer Science and Information Technology ran yet another successful “Serious Games” Summer School. For the first time, the two-week summer school was run on two campuses; the School for Computer Science and Information Technology in Zug-Rotkreuz as well as the School for Design and Arts in Emmenbrücke and was led by a four-person team from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

In addition, the following guests made valuable contributions: Arne Beuzijen from The Barn (The Netherlands), Michèle Müller and Céline Neubig from Enigma, Immersive Games & Exhibitions, Dr. Sandy Louchart from The Glasgow School of Arts, Ralf Mauerhofer from Koboldgames, Johan Jaquet and Loîc Hans from Entrée de Jeux as well as André Thomas from Texas A&M University. We would like to thank all of these guests for their invaluable contributions to the summer school. It was also extremely gratifying to have students from our partner universities in attendance. The mix of students from Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Canada and the United Kingdom added significant value to our summer school!

In August 2021, the Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology organized another successful international Summer School on the topic of "Designing Serious Games". The Summer School 2021 was led by Prof Dr Richard Wetzel and co-facilitated by the following guests: Dr Caspar Harteveld from Northeastern University (Boston), Michèle Müller and Céline Neubig from Enigma, Immersive Games & Exhibitions and Prof Dr Peter Gautschi from the Lucerne University of Teacher Education. We would like to thank the guests very much for their contribution to the program. We were very pleased that three students from Amsterdam travelled to Switzerland despite the ongoing pandemic. In addition, two students from Oxford took part online and contributed to internationality in this way as well. A total of 17 students took part.

Read even more about the content of the block week in the blog post.

In August 2020, the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts - Computer Science and Information Technology held the first Summer School on Designing Serious Games.
A total of 15 students from the Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology, the Lucerne School of Art and Design and from an international partner university got to know different types of "serious games" during this block week and developed prototypes themselves. The following partners, whom we would like to thank warmly for their commitment, were guests and contributors:

• Prof. Dr. Peter Gautschi, Lucerne University of Education, on the topic of location-based games
• Michèle Müller and Céline Neubig, Enigma Games, on the topic of Escape Games
• Roche Diagnostics International on the Gamification of Digital Learning Materials
• Sandy Louchard, Glasgow School of Art, with an online lecture on the topic of serious games board game

The block week was designed and led by Dr. Richard Wetzel and Dragica Kahlina. 
Many thanks to all participating students and companies who made this possible and made it an enriching experience.

Read more about the contents of the block week here (only German).

The benefits and uses of virtual technologies are much discussed. How will this technology be used by companies in the future? The participants of the two-week block course dealt with this question in February 2019 on specific practical projects of Roche Diagnostics.
During the first week, students familiarized themselves with the basics of virtual and augmented reality. They learned how users move in immersive environments and how they interact with them. In addition, the students learned what differentiates virtual reality applications from classic 2D applications and what their advantages and disadvantages are. During the second week, the students applied what they had learned in small projects and gained hands-on experience with augmented and virtual reality hardware. The projects were provided by Roche Diagnostics, which had taken over the key partnership of Winter School 2019.

15 local and international students have worked on five cases on Artificial Intelligence provided by Swiss companies. The Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology thanks all participating students and companies who made this happen and an enriching experience.