The University of Edinburgh has already announced a few virtual worlds-specific panels at the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival, to be hosted August 12-14th. Now they've added an additional symposium on August 15th, which will feature sessions specific to combining video games with academia, aiming to "generate new insights into the industry and culture of interactive digital media, computer games and virtual worlds."

The symposium will be keynoted by online games consultant and producer Jessica Mulligan, and Ofcom strategy manager William Garood and IBM's Chris Francis are also set to speak. Other sessions will include "Computer Games and Innovation," "Regulating Virtual Worlds," and "Industry and the Role of Education."

Speakers include William Garood, strategy manager at Ofcom, and Chris Francis, from government programmes at IBM.

Registration for the event costs GBP 50,($100 USD) or GBP 40 ($80) for attendees also registered for EIF, and there is no registration fee for full-time students.

The event is being organised by Hanna Sommerseth, of the University's Visual and Cultural Studies Unit, and Ren Reynolds of Terra Nova.

[Via GamesIndustry.biz]