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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Atlanta, GA | Posted: March 12, 2019
Steven Norris
Institute Communications
Summary Sentence:
The idea for a gaming app came from an unlikely place – the American Dental Association’s national admissions test.
Full Summary:
The idea for a gaming app came from an unlikely place – the American Dental Association’s national admissions test.
2019 InVenture Finalist: Unfoldit
Unfoldit Team Photo InVenture Backdrop 2019The idea for a gaming app came from an unlikely place.
“We got our idea from the American Dental Association’s national admissions test,” explains Unfolidt co-creator and computer science student Jacqueline Elliot. Imagine folding a piece of paper in half. You then punch a hole in the corner of the folded piece of paper. When you unfold the paper there would be two holes – one in each corner. The game reenacts this folding and hole-punching and quizzes respondents on the positioning of resulting holes. The team developed an interactive version of this question and turned it into a 250-level game.
“Some people pick up the game and know exactly what to do without a tutorial,” explains Unfoldit developer Cliff Panos.
The brain-training game also has some slick design. “We use a lot of fun colors and there are a lot of interactive features. It will vibrate when you get an answer correct,” says Michael Xu, a computer science major.
In fact, everyone on the team is a computer science major. They built the game from scratch and spent a lot of time on user experience — “Even to the small details of how big the arrow was between stages,” says team member Max Brauer.
The programming minds behind Unfoldit are working on a way to automate the design of levels, in hopes of adding even more gameplay. You can currently find Unfoldit in the Android and iTunes app stores.
