- University News Archive - 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock /news-archive/tag/kyle-hooks/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Thu, 08 May 2025 20:10:30 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Milanova named NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute University Ambassador /news-archive/2019/06/11/milanova-nvidia-deep-learning-institute-ambassador/ Tue, 11 Jun 2019 13:11:58 +0000 /news/?p=74518 ... Milanova named NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute University Ambassador]]> A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor has been selected as a teaching ambassador and has been granted essential resources and tools to teach deep learning skills to students, researchers, and professors in Arkansas.聽 Dr. Mariofana Milanova, professor of computer science, has joined NVIDIA鈥檚 Deep Learning Institute (DLI) University Ambassador Program. Ambassadors are a select group of DLI-certified instructors committed to teach free instructor-led workshops at universities, academic conferences, and events exclusively for academic students, staff, and researchers. Deep learning is a branch of artificial intelligence covering a spectrum of machine learning research and industrial innovation that provides more efficient algorithms to deal with large-scale data over a broad range of fields, including neurosciences, computer vision, speech recognition, language processing, human-computer interaction, drug discovery, biomedical informatics, healthcare, robotics, cybersecurity, and games. As an ambassador, Milanova will receive free cloud-based training platform and lecture materials for workshops and events, reimbursement for travel and catering expenses, and early access to new training materials. Ambassadors are required to hold two workshops per year, but Milanova plans to hold at least six trainings or more per year based on demand. Since becoming an ambassador in April, she had already held a training on April 26 and May 14. Milanova thinks the high demand for the workshops is due to the fact that potential employers are looking to hire students who have these skills. 鈥淲e had 40 participants for each workshop, and there is still a waiting list,鈥 Milanova said. 鈥淭his is one way students can be prepared for future jobs. Hiring companies constantly ask if students have skills in Python and deep learning. Many companies require these skills from our computer science, information science, and engineering students. Students need to know what industry employers want and how to use those skills with real-world applications.鈥 The experience has also been beneficial to her teaching assistants for workshops, Suzan Anwar, Lamarcus Coleman, Kyle Hooks, and Esther Mead, who are graduate students in the Department of Computer Science. 鈥淭he benefits are tremendous because the students can learn the advanced techniques in deep learning,鈥 Milanova said. 鈥淚 would like to say thanks to all my TAs for their wonderful support. They are all applying to become university ambassadors as well.鈥 Anyone who completes the workshop will earn a certificate in deep learning from NVIDIA. ]]> Game design enthusiasts develop 5 games in 48 hours at Global Game Jam /news-archive/2018/02/09/game-design-global-game-jam/ Fri, 09 Feb 2018 14:17:50 +0000 /news/?p=69331 ... Game design enthusiasts develop 5 games in 48 hours at Global Game Jam]]> Ten game lovers got down and dirty during the 48-hour Global Game Jam event held Jan. 26-28 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. 

Those two days were marked by tears, anger, frustration, and little sleep, but the end result was a moment of triumph as the participants, some who had no previous game development experience, banded together to complete five creative games in a short time period.

鈥淚t was exhausting, but incredibly rewarding,鈥 said Olivia Dunlap, a 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock senior and co-founder of Little Rock Game Designers who led the event. 鈥淚 was able to stay up for 36 hours straight without dying. Everyone was very energetic and positive, but there were a few tense moments as the clock started to run out.鈥

This is the first time 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock has participated in Global Game Jam, which is similar to a hackathon but is focused on game development. Nearly 43,000 people participated in Global Game Jam 2018, resulting in 8,597 games developed at 803 sites in 108 countries. Participants were given a theme and then had 48 hours to create a game.

The participants included 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students Zach Bolt, Olivia Dunlap, Kyle Hooks, Tanner Marshall, co-founder of Little Rock Game Designers, Geoffrey Townsley, and Loren Snow, as well as Alex Barton, local artist, Robbie Hunt, 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock alumnus and co-founder of Little Rock Game Designers, Joe Williams, associate professor of rhetoric and writing, and Jason Zak, lead artist at the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Emerging Analytics Center.

鈥淭his year鈥檚 theme was transmission,鈥 Dunlap said. 鈥淚 feel like it was a good theme because it allowed for some good interpretations and some very interesting stuff came out of it. Across the world, people made car-driving games; some interpreted it as a transmission of information or the transmission of disease. There was a lot of variety.鈥

You can check out the games on the. They include:

  1. 鈥淎辫耻蝉鈥 by Zack Bolt, Geoffrey Townsley, Loren Snow, and Jason Zak

A small, fast-paced strategy game where players have to simultaneously bring peace and balance to four planets by transmitting heat, cold, life, and technology among them while managing breakouts of war and disease.

  1. 鈥Chaotic Good鈥 by Joe Williams

A narrative game where players converse with people to determine if they have contracted a mysterious disease while trying not to be infected. Players must choose the fate of the people, and the disease in question isn鈥檛 quite what it seems.

  1. 鈥颁丑谤辞尘补迟颈肠颈迟测鈥 by Olivia Dunlap

A short narrative cyberpunk game with many beginnings and one ending. Color is indicative of your android鈥檚 archetype. Players choose a palette, and see how their  choices can affect it while following a mysterious call toward the center of a sprawling city.

  1. 鈥淕ot a Moment?鈥 by Kyle Hooks and Alex Barton

An old man is tasked with imparting his wisdom to a young girl struggling with life. Players give her advice to influence her choices in a balancing act of managing logic, empathy, selfishness, and compromise in a volatile relationship.

  1. 鈥沦补濒驳谤别产鈥 by Robbie Hunt and Tanner Marshall

A card-matching puzzle game with a twist; players must answer the mysterious Salgreb鈥檚 questions, and the cards seem to move. Players must figure out the patterns  to succeed.

While many people assume that art, design, and coding skills are needed for game development, Dunlap hopes to show people that anyone can help create a game.

鈥淭he cool thing about game design is that there are some really accessible tools,鈥 she said. 鈥For example, there is a tool called Twine that is a text editor that allows writers to easily create branching stories. It’s a robust tool, but is also easy to pick up for first timers or anyone who isn’t programming-minded. There are a lot of options for people who can鈥檛 do art or code. Anyone who is interested in game design can come to an event like this and learn a lot.鈥

糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 event was sponsored by the Department of Rhetoric and Writing, Little Rock Game Designers, and Little Rock Games. For more information about other game design events in central Arkansas, email Olivia Dunlap at playlittlerockgames@gmail.com.

In the upper right photo, participants in the 2018 Global Game Jam brainstorm ideas for new video games. Back row (L to R): Zack Bolt, Tanner Marshall, Geoffrey Townsley, Alex Barton, Joe Williams, and Kyle Hooks. Front row: Olivia Dunlap, Robbie Hunt, and Loren Snow.

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