University of Washington PhD Student Wins 2010 Penny Arcade Scholarship

Gaming webcomic and annual PAX convention organizer Penny Arcade announced that the University of Washington's Jeffrey Lin is the latest student to win the annual $10,000 Penny Arcade Scholarship. Lin, a PhD student in the University of Washington's Vision Sciences department, intends to use his experience in the field to improve game accessibility. "Vision scientists have the tools and skills to help developers tackle problems from how to reduce motion sickness some experience in FPS titles to how to make games more accessible to the color blind," said Lin. "My goal is to eventually prove to game developers that vision scientists would be a valuable member of any developer's team." Penny Arcade's scholarship program, originally established in 2006, awards a $10,000 tuition prize annually to exceptional students intending to pursue video game design and development after graduation. "Lin represents an intriguing future where an interdisciplinary approach to game design embraces professionals from vision scientists to economists, from city planners to linguists and everything in-between," said Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade. "As each successful generation of game development becomes more advanced, the ability to draw from diverse fields will become more important."