College of Engineering students will be encouraged to play video games as part of a new program designed by IBM called Innov8. The College of Engineering is one of over 30 colleges and universities worldwide that will implement the program, which was released Nov. 6.

Dr. Yannis Viniotis, an electrical engineering professor and associate department head, said he plans to utilize the Innov8 program during the upcoming spring semester in his design of information technology services and special topic in electrical engineering courses.

“The simulator is a helpful means to visually introduce business process management concepts to students,” Viniotis said.

According to Dave Daniel, a member of the Innov8 design and marketing team, the software was designed to bridge a skills gap businesses found to exist between employees possessing both business and information technology skills.

Innov8 is part of a new genre deemed “serious games” that are used as educational and training tools, according to an IBM press release. These games are designed to appeal to business and information technology students and professionals that grew up around video game technology.

“‘Serious games’ are a genre of games where the game’s intention is not to entertain but to educate. There is some entertainment value, but the main goal is education,” Daniel said.

Daniel said that flight simulators are also considered serious games and have been used by the military for flight instruction for years. Businesses have also used simulations for some time.

“The difference with Innov8 is its application of new 3D visual gaming technology,” Daniel said.

Viniotis said he thinks that students will be more motivated to study the business process management concepts because they feel they are “playing a game” instead of studying.

“We are using a medium that is perhaps more familiar to students and may prove more preferable to classroom standards,” Daniel said.

Innov8 is one program that makes up IBM’s Academic Initiative of which approximately 2,000 universities are members, according to Daniel.

“It is a program through which we provide free software, educational products and computing power to universities that have limited IT capacity,” Daniel said.

The Innov8 program targets those seeking an MBA, or Masters in Business Administration, or information technology programs where the objective is to give information technology students some experience in a business context, Daniel said. He also said that IBM uses the technology for its internal education and expects to acquire some corporate customers.

Viniotis said he thinks that other business process management courses and the College of Management could consider implementing the program.