Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Zyda.
I am a Professor of Engineering Practice in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Southern California. At USC, I founded the Computer Science Games Program and the year-long advanced game projects course that forms the core of USC Games. I have had over 2,700 students in my classes over the last 14 1/2 years at USC.
So, what does a Professor do? Is the most often asked question. The role of a professor is to communicate knowledge to students and mentor them and light the fuse on their career, is what I believe. And for most professors, this depends on where they are in their career. Early career professors have to focus on creating new knowledge and advertising that to the professor community that will draft them letters of support at promotion time.
I have had a sufficiently great career in computer science that my focus now is mostly on making my students great. I am connected to most of my current and past students on Facebook or Linkedin and when they post about getting their first job at a game or computing company, that gives me the greatest joy. When they then post they have shipped their first game or their first major piece of hardware or software, that is even more exciting.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Founding programs at universities is always a challenge, but I had great support from the students who understood that creating a games program at USC was something they wanted to be part of. The students from the first ten years of growing the program from small weeds poking out of the concrete to the fully in bloom garden today will always be close to my heart.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about the University of Southern California – what should we know?
Michael Zyda is the Founding Director of USC’s Computer Science Games Program and a Professor of Engineering Practice in the USC Department of Computer Science. At USC, he founded the B.S. in Computer Science (Games), the M.S. in Computer Science (Game Development), and the USC Games joint Advanced Games course and took that program from no program to the #1 Games program in the world. That program has been rated #1 by the Princeton Review for nine of the last ten years. His alums have shipped games played by over 2.5 billion players, about $100B in revenue.
From Fall 2000 to Fall 2004, he was the Founding Director of the MOVES (modeling, virtual environments, and simulation) Institute located at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, and a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at NPS as well. At NPS, Zyda’s NPSNET Research Group built the first networked virtual environment with fully instrumented body suits that played across the Internet. His work on the networking of virtual environments contributed to the development of the IEEE 1278.1 standard for distributed interactive simulation.
He helped found the subspecialty in modeling and simulation for the United States Navy, the simulation operations functional area (57) for the US Army and the simulation operations area (MOS-9625) for the US Marine Corps. While at NPS, Zyda was Associate Editor and then Senior Editor for the MIT Press Journal Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments from 1993 – 2004. With Fred Brooks and Henry Fuchs, he co-founded the ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics in 1990.
He was a member of the National Research Council Committee that put out the report “Virtual Reality – Scientific and Technological Challenges.” He chaired the NRC Committee that put out the study “Modeling and Simulation – Linking Entertainment and Defense.” That NRC report changed the entire Department of Defense towards the usage of games and entertainment technology for its future modeling and simulation systems. From that report, Zyda wrote the operating plan and research agenda that founded USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies.
For the National Research Council, he has served on committees for the Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education Commission, the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, the Mathematical Sciences and Their Applications Board, the Naval Studies Board, the Air Force Studies Board, the Army Research Laboratory Technical Assessment Board, the Board on Higher Education and Workforce, the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences, and the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources.
Zyda holds a lifetime appointment as a National Associate of the National Academies, an appointment made by the Council of the National Academy of Sciences in November 2003, awarded in recognition of “extraordinary service” to the National Academies.
In November 2018, he was promoted to IEEE Fellow with the citation “for contributions to game design and networking.”
In May 2017, Zyda was appointed a member of the National Academy of Inventors in recognition of advanced technological development and innovation as issued by the United States Patent & Trademark Office.
In March 2017, Zyda was awarded the IEEE Virtual Reality Technical Achievement Award for fundamental work in virtual reality networking, body tracking & institutionalizing the application of virtual reality.
Zyda is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. He served as the principal investigator and development director of America’s Army PC game funded by the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.
He took America’s Army from conception to three million plus registered players and hence, transformed Army recruiting. The creation of America’s Army game founded the serious games field. He co-holds two patents that form the basis for the nine-axis sensor in the Nintendo Wii U.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I swim 2,000 yards every morning, seven days per week, to clear my head – in Februaries, I swim 5,000 yards every day seven days per week – I swam 75.51 miles this February. I always have a clear focus and know what I plan to do next.
Contact Info:
- Address: 746 West Adams Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0781
- Website: http://mikezyda.com
- Phone: 310-463-5774
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: mikezyda
- Facebook: mikezyda
- Twitter: mikezyda
- Other: https://viterbi.usc.edu/directory/faculty/Zyda/Michael
Image Credit:
Michael Zyda, S. C. Mero
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