AMD and Learning Games Network Announce Winners of A-HA Moment Video Contest

Videos demonstrate that gaming breeds learning; winners reinforce AMD Changing the Game’s commitment to advance youth education through digital game development

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- AMD (NYSE: AMD) and Learning Games Network today announced the winners of the A-HA Moment video contest, a competition for students to demonstrate how video game play can result in serious learning.

Throughout the summer, middle, high, and post-secondary school students were invited to create short videos in two competition categories. The “A-HA Moment” category required contestants to create a video explaining how playing video games reinforced something they had first learned elsewhere; while the “My Dream Assignment” category asked them to describe a game that could be “required playing” for a class at school.

Winning entries ranged from a middle school student connecting her experience with Activision’s Guitar Hero with her growing ambition to learn how to read music and play the guitar, to a high school student discussing how games have enabled him to develop World of Warcraft game-like strategies to tackle class assignments.

“As we identify examples of how students use games for more than entertainment, we were impressed by the creativity, passion, and insight that contest participants demonstrated,” said Andrew Blanco, director of Program and Business Development for the Learning Games Network. “It’s important for parents and teachers to recognize the learning potential that active play in games can inspire in students.”

“Through their videos, the contestants demonstrated how gaming and game development can enhance education, especially in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math,” said Allyson Peerman, vice president of Public Affairs for AMD and President of the AMD Foundation. “Inspiring youth to learn through social issue game development is the mission behind AMD Changing the Game, and these contest winners represent this new breed of learners.”

Winners demonstrated a wide range of creativity in both their proposed designs and video production while sharing perspectives on games’ potential for learning:

“My Dream Assignment” Video: Post-Secondary
Ed Domich (West Dundee, IL)

“My Dream Assignment” Video: High School
Pindi Albert (State College, PA)

“A-HA Moment” Video: High School
Zach Law (Voorhees, NJ)

“A-HA Moment” Video: Middle School
Zoe Brouns (Cameron Park, CA)

People’s Choice: “A-HA Moment” Video: High School
William Brady (Alexandria, VA)

Ed Domich, Pindi Albert, and Zoe Brouns were also honored as “People’s Choice” winners in each of their respective categories. Winning entries may be viewed here.

Contest winners in each age group will receive a 16 inch HP Pavilion dv6 series notebook, powered by an AMD Turion™ X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile Processor model ZM-84.

AMD Changing the Game, the signature education initiative of the AMD Foundation, is designed to take gaming beyond entertainment and inspire youth to learn critical education and life skills by equipping them to create digital games with social content. The program’s purpose is to promote the use of youth game development as a tool to inspire learning, improve science, technology, education and math (STEM) skills. The initiative is rooted in AMD’s commitment to and experience in supporting education and the company’s passion and expertise in the graphics processor and gaming industries.

Launched in June 2008, AMD Changing the Game has:

* funded seven non-profit organizations that teach youth game development
* explored social issues in Teen Second Life and created a video interest area for students and teachers to use to explore how to create video games
* sponsored the 5th and 6th Annual Games for Change Festival
* funded an online toolkit to help non-profits create games on social issues
* funded the development of a youth game-development curriculum with PetLab and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA). PETLab, a collaboration between Parsons the New School for Design and Games for Change, recently finalized the curriculum, and the BGCA is expected to deploy a version made just for its clubs across their organization beginning in January 2010.

About LGN

The Learning Games Network is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, recently established to spark innovation in the design and use of games for learning. To join its network of scholars, teachers, producers and game designers committed to the development and distribution of new games informed by research in the learning sciences, visit http://www.learninggamesnetwork.org.
About AMD

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is an innovative technology company dedicated to collaborating with customers and technology partners to ignite the next generation of computing and graphics solutions at work, home and play. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.
AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Turion, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.