ScottishGames.biz

Informatics Ventures Launches £150K Enterprise Education Competition

Edinburgh University's Informatics Ventures has launched a competition for start-up software companies.  While this not specifically games-focused, there's scope for companies within this sector (we'd imagine).  Or companies which create software for use within the games industry certainly (we have several including Codeplay, Waracle and possibly Metaforic, though we don't know anything officially about them as yet...)

There's a wide range of support on offer, from locations including Scotland, Cambridge and Massachusetts.

The competition is open to Informatics/Computer Science/Software Engineering students and staff from ANY Scottish university - excluding Highlands and Islands for some reason...

Applications close on Monday 3rd November at 12 noon.

You can find out more about the competition here.

Want To Work In The Games Industry?

Another fabulous announcement to round off a Wednesday afternoon.  As if you needed more proof that the games sector in Scotland is being taken seriously, we have an announcement about a new initiative to give people an academic AND hands-on entry into the development sector.

Dundee College is introducing a new one year National Qualification (NQ) course in game development.

The full time course will give students the opportunity to learn a number of skills relevant to the games industry, including Quality Assurance, Project Management, Programming, Testing, Game Design, and Team Work.

Sounds good so far.  However, there is another angle to this.

Every student will be offered a placement within an actual game developer.  Students will spend a year working two days per week with a development company.

If this sounds like something you'd be interested in - and if you're keen on a career in games, then you should be - then there's an open day early next week (16th June).

You can head along to the college's Kingsway Campus from 12pm - 4pm and speak to the people behind the course.

You can read the full announcement after the jump, or visit Interactive Tayside.

Games Courses In Scotland

With a new term looming, we've started to get a few requests and e-mail from people interested in the various games courses on offer at universities throughout Scotland.

So, if anyone from a university offering a games course, or any students who are on, or have finished such a course, please get in touch and let us know, or leave your comments below.

Abertay To Offer 'Ethical Hacking' Course

Abertay continues to expand into interesting places.  This story has appeared on ZD Net, Silicon.com and Boing Boing, amongst others

A degree course in computer hacking has been launched by a Scottish university in response to industry demand for IT security experts.

The University of Abertay in Dundee will run the Bachelor of Science undergraduate course in "Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures" starting in the next academic year in October.

Around 30 students will be enrolled in the course, which the university says will provide a graduate with knowledge of how illegal computer attacks can be performed and how they can be stopped.

The course catalog description says: "In the same way that police detectives need to know how thieves can steal, computer systems administrators need to know what hackers can do."

 

The university said it has launched the degree course in response to demand for people with the skills to test the security of corporate IT networks. "There are an increasing number of compliance regulations and insurance policies that insist businesses carry out security checks on their networks," a representative for the academic institution said.

The university also stressed it will be vetting students "very carefully" in accordance with Home Office guidelines and that they will be monitored closely throughout the course. "We are not going to give them the full set of tools on day one," the representative said.

Although many existing undergraduate computing degrees cover elements of this new course, Abertay claims to be the first U.K. university to offer a dedicated degree course in hacking.

There are also ethical hacking courses and qualifications offered by private sector IT training organizations such as the Training Camp, which launched a course two years ago.

This is another bold step forward from Abertay, which was also the first University to offer courses in gaming (and the co-creator of Dare To Be Digital).