Areas of Expertise

Zoonotic Diseases

Zoonotic diseases are diseases caused by infectious agents that can be transmitted between (or are shared by) animals and humans. Many diseases from influenza to strep to the plaque can be transmitted between the species. With statistics showing that more than half of US households keep pets and/or livestock, its important to have an understanding of the kinds of diseases that can be spread, how they are spread, what took look for and how to protect yourself.

Influenza in humans, pets, and food animals

Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by a virus of the family Orthomyxoviridae (the influenza viruses), that affects birds and mammals. The name influenza is Italian and means “influence”. The disease certainly does influence the body and the world. The ecology of influenza virus is complicated and involved. The Influenza A is the genus that is of most concern. Occasionally, viruses are transmitted to other species and may then cause devastating outbreaks in domestic poultry or give rise to human influenza pandemics. The type A viruses are the most virulent human pathogens among the three influenza types (Influenza A, B, and C) and cause the most severe disease. Your cat, dog, ferret and horse can get the disease. Food animals like chickens and turkeys and pigs can also contract the disease. And our friends in the ocean, whales and other marine mammals can also contract the disease. So, who gets the flu and what does it mean to us – people?

War of the Worlds: Our Worlds are Colliding and Infectious Disease is Winning

Collectively, infectious diseases are the second leading cause of death globally, following cardiovascular disease, but among young people infections are overwhelmingly the leading cause of death. As we eradicate diseases such as polio and smallpox, something else emerges and takes their place. This is the nature of the perpetual challenge of infectious diseases. We now combat newly emerging diseases, 75% of which are associated with animals – zoonoses, and many are of our own creation. Multiple factors, including economic development and land use, human demographics and behavior, and international travel and commerce, contribute to the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases. Almost all of these factors reflect, in some measure, the encroachment of human civilization on the environment and on the microbial species that inhabit our environment. We have perturbed the balance…run…or join the battle.

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Q: Can I play “Pressure Switch” now, and how? Will people be able to play the game at PAX?

A: Pressure Switch will be exhibited and released for the first time at PAX East 2013. It will be showcased to play on the gaming stations at the Becker College booth.

Q: What makes “Pressure Switch” stand out from other games?

A: Pressure Switch showcases a student developed game engine using C# and XNA libraries with an emphasis on the 3D rendering pipeline and shaders. The game play focuses on the inherent choices gamers face often unconsciously – risk and reward, but in Pressure Switch, the choice is dramatically demonstrated with the very balance of life and death constantly being juggled. Rather than develop your character as a hero through moral choices, you must make strategic choices that reveal your nature as either a live for the moment or more defensive creature.

Q: What is your goal for the game—sale to a game company, creation of a new company, sell direct to consumers, mobile app?

A: The goal is to sell direct to consumers as an indie-developer. One of the many advantages of the Becker College program is that it provides not only the education required to succeed, but also the resources and opportunities that might otherwise be sacrificed in order to complete one’s four year undergraduate degree. The resources to complete a game title and the opportunity to release at PAX East are tremendous stepping stones for any up and coming game designer/developer, and to be able to make that part of your degree is a significant advantage.

Q: What is behind your decision to make the game’s hero suffer as he attempts to achieve his goal?

A: The reality is people make sacrifices, big and small, and in the game world, that choice is always integral, but not always at the forefront of play. Pressure Switch forces the player to be fully aware of the consequence of a double-edged decision, to face a constant sense of unease with each use of the game mechanic. This brings about a unique style of play and in a sense, provides a psychological assessment of the player that he/she cannot ignore but perhaps had never taken a close look at before.

Q: What makes playing “Pressure Switch” fun?

A: The high tension level throughout as well as the self-revelations that occur as you play, make the game exciting to play and increases replay value as the player may wish to have a heroic do-over!

Q: What was the inspiration for “Pressure Switch”?

A: The concept that having multiple lives in a game is so unnatural and takes away from the sense of competition and tension that it begs the question, what if you pushed that idea further and basically forced loss of life in order to play and ultimately ‘win’.

Q: What do you want players to learn from “Pressure Switch”?

A: Players should learn a bit more about themselves as gamers and as humans. At your core, are you frugal, an adrenalin junkie, optimistic? Your score in Pressure Switch should tell you quite a bit.

Q: Is there any educational value to the game?

A: Every game is educational, but the unique take-aways for Pressure Switch are about your individual sense of balance and risk management.

Q: How hard is it to make a video game?

A: There are any number of areas of focus within game development which provide challenges and no one has ever described the process of completing a game as easy. The number one component to successfully making a video game though is passion, which makes all of the difficult tasks labors of love and not just hard labor.

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“Pressure Switch,” is an unusual first-person shooter, which features a super soldier who shoots to heal. His mission is to reverse a viral infiltration in a military complex, and the purpose of shooting enemies is to “recode,” or cure them, not to kill them. Yet, each shot from the prosthetic arm weapon with which surgeons fit him exacts a price in his own life energy.

Senior Anthony Botelho, of Dighton, Mass., is the lead developer on “Pressure Switch.” Botelho built the game “from scratch,” instead of using a game engine. A game development and programming major, Botelho has been working on “Pressure Switch” with three 2012 Becker game program graduates who are currently adjunct faculty at Becker.

“As the faculty mentor, exhibit designer, and booth game developer for four years now, I have been fortunate enough to witness first-first-hand the increasingly positive impact Becker College’s presence at PAX East has had on the program,” said Professor of Game Design Terrasa Ulm. “While initially we were encouraged by the networking opportunities within the industry and the large number of prospective students who approached our booth, eager to learn more, we have discovered even greater benefits follow us back to campus. Students are coming into the program freshman year, and working to hone their game development skills, select their concentrations, network with their peers, and seek out mentorship from faculty and MassDigi from day one! This level of passion, dedication, and focus from underclassmen is something which is difficult to inspire with coursework alone and strengthens our program as whole, ten-fold.”

2013 is the fourth year that Becker College has been one of only a few colleges exhibiting at PAX East (since its first year in 2010), The College has constructed an elaborate booth—which draws visitors into the world of “Pressure Switch”—complete with a number of flat screens to play the featured game; computer stations to play additional student-built games and view other student work; and a live interactive version of “Pressure Switch” for visitors to play with students and faculty at the booth, and each other across the exhibition floor, and win prizes.

Becker College and the students and faculty of its game programs have received much recent recognition, from The Princeton Review (ranked one of the “Top Schools to Study Game Design” for four consecutive years), Animation Career Review (ranked 23 on the Top 100 schools for game design and animation) and Game Players Review (ranked number 7 in North America). In addition, four Becker student teams earned top placement in the 2013 MassDiGI Game Challenge, and Becker students were on the development team for the emergency room simulation game, “On Call,” which was awarded Best in Show at the Serious Games and Virtual Environments Showcase at the 2013 SSIH International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare.

A leading advocate for the Massachusetts video game industry, Becker College was designated the home of the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (MassDiGI) in 2011, a first-in-the-nation, statewide center that creates opportunities for industry-leading game design companies to work with Massachusetts faculty and students on game development projects and curriculum enhancements.

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Diossa graduated from Becker in 2009 with a degree in criminal justice. Read more.

Diossa wins in landslide, elected new mayor of Central Falls

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Becker College has increased enrollment, expanded its curriculum, and acquired a new building to house its students, academic program, and the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (MassDiGI), since it first appeared on The Princeton Review’s inaugural video game list in 2010.

“Recognition by The Princeton Review confirms our belief that Becker College’s computer game design program offers excellence in course work and real-world preparation that creates value for students and employers,” says Becker College President Robert E. Johnson. “We are confident that partnerships created through our affiliation with the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (MassDiGI) will build on our success and continue to set the standard in digital games education.”

“Becker College is consistently updating and upgrading its computer game design program,” says Paul D. Cotnoir, Ph.D., director of design programs at Becker. “This year we have added significant physical assets including motion capture and 3D printing facilities as well as the ground-breaking association with the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute. This has allowed Becker College to be the only Massachusetts college to maintain a top-ten spot on The Princeton Review listing for the last three years. We are extremely proud of our students, faculty and staff.”

Said Robert Franek, Princeton Review senior vice president and publisher, “It has long been our mission to help students find – and get into – the schools best for them to pursue their interests and develop their talents.  For the burgeoning number of students aspiring to become game designers, we highly recommend Becker College as one of the best and most innovative institutions to study and succeed in this exciting field.  We also salute the faculty and administrators at Becker and the other schools on our 2012 list for their extraordinary programs and commitment to students.”

Becker College students have ample opportunities to build portfolio experience. As part of MassDiGI’s Reverse Sabbatical program, a team of Becker College student game developers will apply techniques found in video game play to develop new tactics that will evolve and enhance the chat feature of Simon & Schuster’s Pimsleur Unlimited foreign language courses.

Becker student-created games are in use by the UMass Medical School-City of Worcester Mobile Safety Street Bus, Old Sturbridge Village, and the Danforth Museum, with similar projects in the works for the Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester Youth Center, and the Why Not Stop Project. Students have also shared their skills with the Easter Seals and Center for Living and Working’s Tech Savvy Group and helped build game development communities in local public high schools.

Student work will also be showcased at the Becker College booth at the game conference and exhibition, PAX East, now in its third year in Boston, April 6-8 at the Boston Convention Center.

“Being recognized by The Princeton Review as the number two undergraduate video game design program in New England, after MIT, reinforces the value Becker College places on our video game programs,” says Terrasa Ulm, professor of game development. “In addition, each year Becker College presents at PAX East, among such companies as Electronic Arts, Bethesda, and Rockstar Games, where we exhibit and release a senior-level game, providing real-world experience for our students.”

Alumni of the video game programs at Becker have gone on to work for numerous entertainment companies such as Harmonix, Blizzard, and Blue Fang Games, as well as in other digital technology applications for John Hancock, the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Army.

The Princeton Review, one of America’s best-known education services companies, compiled the 2012 list, which names 10 undergraduate and 10 graduate schools in ranked order (1 to 10) and 22 undergraduate and 8 graduate schools as Honorable Mentions.  The list is published on The Princeton Review’s website at http://www.princetonreview.com/game-design.aspx. Criteria for The Princeton Review’s school selections covered the quality of the curriculum, faculty, facilities, and infrastructure. The company also factored in data it collected from the schools on their scholarships, financial aid, and career opportunities.

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