NewsMuch has been talked about the excellence of Finnish education, which as we know, is not easily transferable to other countries. Recently, the common conversation in Finnish media is about the growing Finnish game industry. However, are we able to be playful with our knowledge? Are we able to play, learn and act with others in our physical world?
Ubium, a spin-off from the Educational Technology Research Group at University of Eastern Finland, focuses on contextual games. That is, games that are rooted in the physical world and are carefully knitted to a particular type of knowledge in the specific location. The enjoyment to discover our world is the main driver in the design of Ubium's games, because we want to support the players' fantasy to be the magic key for understanding our planet. As contextual games Ubium has developed LieksaMyst (game at Pielisen Museo) and TekGame (game at the Museum of Technology in Helsinki).
Based on the results of LieksaMyst, Dr. Carolina Islas Sedano (co-founder of Ubium) was invited to join efforts with Dr. Antony Harfield and Dr. Ratchada Viriyapong from the Mobile Computing Lab at Naresuan University and co-founders of Apptitude to build a game prototype for Sukhothai, UNESCO world heritage site. This initiative is an Area Based Collaboration project funded by the Thailand Research Fund and Naresuan University.
One of the Temples in Sukhothai: Wat Sa Si
Thanks to the Finnish education and its openness for research and innovation, Ubium has gained knowledge on the design, development and study of contextual games since late 2005. The result of this investment is today's possibility to collaborate with visionaries in Thailand who want to enhance the richness of their cultural heritage. Furthermore, Ubium also has the opportunity to learn from Thais, how they see the world, and to bring this experience back to Finland, to our region.
From Lieksa, Finland to Sukhothai, Thailand
Ubium believes this collaboration translates in growth possibilities for us as a spin-off, and for the North Karelian province, by making visible what we produce in the region.
We are proud to be part of this visionary project in Sukhothai, and we invite you to follow the results of this project by the end of 2014.
Team (from left to right): Nuttawut Wanitchasiri, Tawatchai Leamwong, Ratchada Viriyapong, Carolina Islas, Antony Harfield