Dr David Walton
Course Leader in the Game Programming
David is course leader for BSc (Hons) Game Programming at the BCU Games Academy, and leads the Computer Graphics and Games Programming courses, in addition to participating in research as part of the Games and Graphics group.
Biography
I'm David Walton, Lecturer in Graphics and Vision and the course lead for Game Programming at the games academy.
Expertise
My expertise is mainly in Graphics, Computer Vision and the technology that enables games to be created, look great and run smoothly. I have also worked as a researcher looking at a range of topics in Augmented Reality, 3D capture and human perception of Computer Graphics, working at UCL and in industry at a graphics hardware development company.
Industry Connections
The course team work to get industry partners involved wherever we can, through industry talks in lectures, industry verification of modules and industry judges at events like the Global Game Jam.
Former students
We have of course had students going to a range of roles in the games industry, working as programmers, artists and designers. We also always say that games technology is critical far beyond games - for example one of our students is now working at Jaguar Land Rover, who make use of VR to preview and design new vehicles, letting them see them as if in the real world.
Studying Games in Birmingham
I think there's a real sense of community at the games courses here, with students working together and supporting each other through the courses and having fun and playing games together outside the class hours. The fact we have a range of courses focussing on different games roles also lets us run modules where students work together to make larger games and see the full development process.