After positive feedback from last year’s events, Cal State Innovate collaborated to bring back two student events- the Esports Cal State Cup in March and Cal State CREATE in April.
Esports Cal State Cup
On March 2, Cal State Innovate partnered with other ITS partners of Esports Cal State to organize the second annual Cal State Cup. After receiving student input on the tournament game, the tournament was single elimination featuring the popular game, Overwatch 2. Twelve teams representing nine campuses registered for the tournament and competed from campus gaming spaces to home computer setups while CSU Dominguez Hills graciously offered to broadcast the tournament stream to Twitch from their on-campus broadcasting studio for the second year in a row. The Cal State Cup also received corporate sponsorship and support in the form of monetary donations and/or prizes from SHI, Lenovo, and Dell Technologies.
CSU Dominguez Hills overtook San Diego State in the Grand Finals in game four of the five game series and stole the opportunity from SDSU from a second tournament win. The winning team members each received winner packs from tournament sponsors SHI and Lenovo, which included altogether: a t-shirt, beanie, sunglasses, keyboard, Samsung S7 Tablet, Legion Backpack, H300 Gaming Headset, M210 Gaming Mouse, and a K300 Gaming Keyboard.
The Chancellor’s Office hand-delivered the perpetual plaque to CSUDH on May 6 to honor the campus’s victory; CSUDH Esports offered a tour of their state-of-the-art Toro Esports Academy– their institution-wide gaming space. CO staff experienced the classroom, competitive arena, incubator space, and broadcast room. The campus also arranged for staff and administrators from the Division of Information Technology and the University President’s Office to attend the trophy ceremony and celebrate the victory.
Cal State CREATE
Cal State CREATE is a CSU-wide creative event and competition in collaboration with Adobe and Apple, and the planning committee wanted to theme the second event to be relevant and timely. This year’s theme, “Future Ready in the CSU”, explored areas of emerging technologies, career readiness, and what it means to be prepared for our evolving world. Key changes from last year included an abridged schedule from two weeks to one and the modification from a student competition to open-ended student challenges to encourage more participation.
To kick off Cal State CREATE events, a panel of professionals from various industries shared their experiences of how technology and digital literacy shape their work and help with their success. Following the kickoff session, Apple and Adobe professionals hosted sessions foc using on trends in the workplace, how to best leverage AI, and how to maximize current tools in each product suite. Cal State Innovate uploaded event recordings on the Cal State CREATE YouTube Playlist.
Students also participated in a visual design challenge to create assets and artifacts with Adobe and Apple tools to demonstrate their digital skills and to develop their professional persona. By following a road map of challenges that ranged from preparing for internships and the workforce to experimenting with innovative Adobe and Apple tools, participants created practical assets that can benefit students for their future. Examples of the assets included stylized resumes, digital calling cards, pre-recorded one-way interviews, and more.
For each challenge submitted in accordance with the specifications, participants received an entry into the raffle to win a set of Apple AirPods Pro or informational interviews with Apple and Adobe professionals! Congratulations to our prize winners and view some samples of participants’ submissions below!
