by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
Sony announced its partnership with UNM on Feb. 2 to provide students with the skills they need to be ahead of the game in graphic and animation design.
Imageworks, the division of Sony that makes movies, needs graduates with a wide range of skills, said Christopher Mead, dean of the College of Fine Arts.
Imageworks started a program called IPAX, the Imageworks Professional Academic Excellence program, to work with colleges.
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Its goal is to break students out of their molds, Mead said.
He said Imageworks became interested in UNM when it found out about the University's initiative to develop a film and digital media program.
One of the University's legislative priorities is to get $4.7 million for the program.
Sande Scoredos, chairwoman of IPAX, said UNM's film and digital media program stood out from the rest.
"It was very robust, and it included a few different departments that are good building blocks," she said.
There are nine other members of IPAX, including Stanford, the Michigan Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon.
In the partnership, IPAX will provide curriculum support to ensure students learn what they need to.
Scoredos said it helps students to get information from people working in the field.
"We do review curriculum and look at the content and see where we can help augment that," she said. "Students like to have a knowledge of what's going to happen in the real world, so we like to get them as much real world (experience) as we can to put into their curriculum."
IPAX has a fellowship program for faculty, where teachers will visit a studio and learn about whatever project is going on.
Scoredos said that is why IPAX was started.
"It's been very beneficial for them (faculty) and for us," she said. "They take that information back to the classrooms, so it has a more lasting effect."
Faculty members will refresh their skills and learn new things to teach students when they return.
IPAX has scholarships and internships for students, which may help them get jobs at Sony when they graduate, Mead said.
Jim Linnell, associate dean of the fine arts college, said internships allow students to experience the world of computer graphics and animation they can't get in a classroom.
"Students should not be the victims of this technology," he said. "They're going to have an inside view of what this world is like and how they can get into it."
Mead said that UNM has an advantage over the other members of IPAX, because the film and digital media program hasn't been established.
The other colleges already have programs in place, he said.
"We're creating a program right now," he said. "They (IPAX) can come in at the ground floor and start building the program, rather than trying to change an existing program."
Linnell said students need to combine science and technology to be successful. The film and digital media program along with IPAX will show them how to do that, he said.
"It is breaking through the boundaries that typically separate the academic disciplines," he said. "It has many rich aspects for UNM in the future."
Mead said the program will give students many job opportunities, including video game development and scientific visualization.
"You can take a picture of a tornado, but you won't know what's going on inside," he said. "Some of the great future advances in the 20th century are going to need a collaboration of art and science."
