Beyond Inheritance: The Composition Pattern for Real-Time Visualization, Simulation, and Game Development

CSE Lecturer Candidate
Inheritance remains one of the most prolific methods of code structure and reuse taught to beginning programmers, but it is not the only, and often not the best, tool for the job. Join us as we introduce, motivate, and explore the composition design pattern as a flexible alternative to classic inheritance, demonstrating its power and utility via applications in the growing field of game development and visualization.
Austin is a graduate student studying Computer Science at the University of Michigan. A long-time hobbyist game developer, Austin got his taste of professional game development in the summer of 2014, with an internship at Maxis (Electronic Arts) where he helped engineer 2015's top selling computer game, The Sims 4. Austin has taught EECS 494 (www.eecs494.com) for six semesters, serving as lead instructor for two. His students have achieved positions at prestigious game developers such as Microsoft's 343 Industries, Volition, Zynga, Google, Gaudium, NetEase, Jackbox Games, and Amazon Game Studios.

In addition to stops at EA Mobile and Facebook, Austin served as President of the Wolverine Soft game development organization from 2011 "“ 2014. He co-founded the Ann Arbor chapter of the International Game Developers Association (www.igda2.org), curates the MichiGames Arcade Cabinet, mentors the Huron High School Game Development Team, consults with technology startups in downtown Ann Arbor, organizes multi-university exhibitions with Eastern Michigan University and Lawrence Technological University, and operates a game development / visualization firm in Dexter, MI. His research interests include non-gaming applications of game development tools, technologies, and techniques. Learn more at www.ayarger.com.