On the IGF front page today:

The IGF Organizers have announced the 12 receipients of the 2008 Independent Games Festival Student Showcase awards, from a field of over 125 entries, including USC Interactive Media Program’s quirky The Misadventures of PT Winterbottom [sic], Sheridan Institute’s stylish booger-busting Gesundheit!, and The National Academy of Digital Interactive Entertainment’s dual-perspective Half-Life 2 modification Flipside.

Check out the other showcase winners here.

Congrats to the PB Winterbottom team for making it in!

Some VCs that will be represented include:
Tech Coast Angels
Pasadena Angels
Zone Ventures
CalCap Partners

To get involved email Chris Pankiewicz-Nohr(C.PankiewiczNohr.2008 [at] marshall.usc.edu) with what program and year of studies you are in by Nov 5th.

USC Marshall's VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTMENT CHALLENGE

The Venture Capital Investment Challenge is an annual event hosted by USC's Marshall School of Business and the Entrepreneur and Venture Management Association (EVMA) for the purpose of exposing USC students to the world of Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship. As USC students, you will play the role of venture capitalist and participate in live presentations made by real-world entrepreneurs who will be pitching their business ideas and their strategic initiatives. Real-world Venture Capitalists will also be brought in to observe and judge the students on how well they evaluate and analyze the different Entrepreneurs and their business pitches. Teams of USC students will then present their recommendations to a panel of VC judges in a round-robin competition format.

Logistics

Date: Nov. 10th

Time: All day (tentative 8am - 5 pm depending on number of students interested)

Location: JKP

Training Session: Mandatory (strongly advised to attend) Nov. 5th Room 104 4 pm to 6:30 pm

Prizes

· 1st place -- $500 (must be split evenly by whole team).

· 2st place -- $200 (must be split evenly by whole team).

· 3st place -- $100 (must be split evenly by whole team).

Event Details

· Each team will consist of 6-8 MBA and Engineering students.

· Teams will be assigned at random (or you can make one).

· Student teams will listen to presentations made by 3-4 real-world entrepreneurs who will be pitching their business ideas, products, and strategic plans.

· Each student team will have individual Q&A sessions with each entrepreneur in order to perform a thorough analysis of the different businesses.

· Student teams will then be given time to complete their analyses of the different business and prepare a presentation summarizing their key insights and recommendations on whether an investment should or should not be made.

· Each team will present to a panel of venture capitalists who will evaluate each team on the nature of their insights, the analysis performed, and their understanding of the critical issues.

· Venture capitalists will be sitting in on all Q&A sessions and will judge all the team presentations.

· The competition will be in a round-robin, single-elimination format.

Enrollment

* If you would like to participate, please email Chris Pankiewicz-Nohr at C.PankiewiczNohr.2008@marshall.usc.edu

* In your email, please specify whether you are full-time, PM, IBEAR or Engineering student. And specify whether you are a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd year MBA(if applicable)

* There is only space for 8 teams which will be assigned at random. Enrollment will be on a first-come, first-serve basis.

* Enrollment will be open to full-time, PM, and IBEAR MBAs as well as engineering/med school students.

* This event is a Marshall-only event, however it is identical in format to the National VCIC MBA competition held in the spring. If you aspire to be part of the Marshall VCIC team that competes in February, your participation in the internal VCIC is strongly encouraged. Check out www.VCIC.org for more generic info.

other stuff:
finish taxes
grade research papers
finish zemeckis animation
finish portfolio for summer internships
email klima
buy silicone for gummy bear project
sketches...

For the one week curiosity cabinet...
Scrolling text is projected onto the back of the cabinet. The scrolling text was achieved by running a small camera over printed text using a motor and old printer chassis. The direction of the motor was controlled by an Arduino, some switches, and relays.

This project is a prototype for a larger piece where the concept relies on motion controlled cameras and video switchers to create continuous scrolling text. The basic idea is illustrated below.