New details are emerging about the upcoming eGames 2008 conference to be held next month in Muscat. Profiles of key speakers can now be seen on the eGames Oman Blog, such key speakers include David Wortley - Director of the Serious Games Institute at Coventry University; Professor Lizbeth Goodman - Founder and Director of the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute and the MAGIC Multimedia & Games Innovation Center, Gamelab and PLAYroom; Dr Sara de Freitas - Director of Research at the Serious Games Institute at the University of Coventry; Mike Gogan - Blitz Games; Dick Davies - Executive Producer of Ambient Performance; and many other experts who will share their experience in the fields of gaming for education purposes (serious gaming), using virtual reality games for the promotion of tourism, and mobile phone gaming.

You can learn more about of these speakers and the eGames conference on the eGames Oman Blog.

The Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUQ) announced the winners of the first phase of the design competition for high school students for the year 2007. Three winners were selected from each of the participating countries in the competition and the Omani winners were Anesah Hamad, Nehal Ahmad Musa and Hasna bint Jaber, who have come first, second, and third respectively. The winners will receive cash prizes of $1400 for first place, $800 for second place and $600 for third place and will now move to the second phase of the competition in which two full scholarships to study at VCUQ will be rewarded to the top two finalists. Learn more about this competition from this link.

The Ministry of Higher Education advertised today the availability of scholarship opportunities for Omanis to acquire a master’s degree in design majors such as graphic design and multimedia production. Successful applicants will be required to practice as assistant instructors at one of the colleges belonging to the Ministry of Higher Education, the period of repay employment is usually equivalent to the same number of years required to complete the degree. The conditions required to apply for this scholarship are that the applicant has the Omani nationality, that he/she acquired a B or higher overall grade in a bachelors degree for the same major he/she intends to do the master’s degree in, that he/she is not bound by any government job, and that his/her age does not exceed 25 years. The country to which successful applicants will be sent to do their master’s degree is not specified in the advertisement, but it is implied that the degree will be taught in English.

You can read the full advertisement via this link. [Warning: Arabic PDF link]