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TMCNet: Some Mississippi State University Students Get to Call in Their ‘Smart' Class Work

[February 26, 2010]

Some Mississippi State University Students Get to Call in Their ‘Smart' Class Work

STARKVILLE, Miss. --(Business Wire)-- Mississippi State University and Cellular South are helping students in a university class create computer games for the Ridgeland-based wireless communication company's HTC (News - Alert) Hero smartphone devices.

Students in the game design course are learning this semester how to develop games on smartphone devices. Their training is provided through the Bagley College of Engineering's department of computer science and engineering.

The campus designers will have an opportunity to join others around the world in uploading their games composed of original artwork, music and compositions to the Google (News - Alert)-operated Android Market, where their creations may be downloaded to smartphones - models whose advanced capabilities rival those of personal computers.

Ed Swan, an associate professor teaching the course, said cell phones have "become, by far, the most rapidly disseminated technology in the history of mankind; almost half the world population has one." Since one mobile phone is sold for every two people in the world, the college's incorporation of smartphone game design into its teaching curriculum "seemed like a no-brainer," he added.

"The partnership between Cellular South (News - Alert) and the MSU class is good for a number of reasons," Swan said. Specifically, he cited the: Open-source Google Android operating system, which is available to any programmer at no cost.

Cellular South-provided phones that allow the students to demonstrate their games on the devices.

Steve Davidson, Cellular South's manager of product development, recently spoke with the students about the mobile-phone market for game applications. He said the Android (News - Alert) Market has some 25,000 available applications, of which about 15.5 percent are games.

Also, about 4,000 new applications enter the Android Market each month, with games ranging in cost from free to only a few dollars per download.

"Mississippi State has a very good computer science department and a very good software engineering program," Davidson said. "The university supports the latest and best applications. A large part of the educational effort of the class is to teach students the business side of the applications," he added. "They will learn what it takes to make their games marketable." Swan said class members will have opportunities to design two game applications for the Android phone.

Kenny Steward of Jackson, a junior computer engineering major, is among nearly a dozen students in the class. He said he's happy - and a bit excited - to be contributing directly to the popular medium. "I also enjoy watching the characters move, pressing a button and watching them react," Steward said, with a grin.

NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For additional information, contact Dr. Swan at 662-325-2756 or jes256@msstate.edu or Steve Davidson with Cellular South at 601-974-7581 or sdavidson@cellularsouth.com.

About Cellular South Cellular South is a privately-owned diversified mobile communications company passionately committed to helping customers get the most out of their wireless devices and services. The company accomplishes this goal by providing the most reliable and advanced 3G nationwide wireless voice and data network, offering industry-leading family and unlimited flat rate voice, text and mobile web plans, and through its online and in-store Discover Centers, which give customers easy, simple and convenient tools, tips, advice and information to get the most out of their mobile phone. For more information, visit www.cellularsouth.com.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6195614&lang=en

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