Who said you couldn’t learn from playing with online games?

TWO students had a brainwave for their video game business idea.

Jake Spanswick, 25, and Quinn Byron-Dyer, 22, studied computer games design at the university before setting up their company, Blank Pixel Games, last November.

And, the two University of South Wales graduates are bringing together the worlds of neuroscience and computer games after taking part in the first inter-university bootcamp hosted by UNpreneur.

Their business specialises in instructional and educational video games, with their maiden product focusing on the workings of a neuroscience laboratory for high-school and undergraduate students.

Working with contract research organisation Neurosolutions Ltd, the duo has been able to source technical demonstrations and the necessary supporting theoretical material to create lab simulations.

After securing £2,000 from the University of South Wales’ Springboard Start-up Fund, they signed up to the first inter-university bootcamp.

Mr Spanswick said: “The pandemic has resulted in a drop in student numbers across many institutions as pupils consider whether they want to study online, but demand for neuroscientists is growing. With 100 billion neurons in the brain, it can sound overwhelming to a school pupil thinking about their next step.

“For students completely new to the field of neuroscience, the pandemic has made it difficult to gain lab experience and, more importantly, learning the scientific techniques. Our virtual environment helps students to get familiar with lab techniques, theoretical content, and equipment. The benefit of using a virtual lab is less waste, particularly when training students.

The virtual learning tool means they can reset and learn from their mistakes much sooner and jump straight back into an experiment.

“This is our first attempt at using our knowledge in video game design to make a virtual learning tool for a highly specialised area of education. However, we hope to apply the same principles to other areas. Full testing of our neuroscience game starts in September this year.”