Twenty high-end gaming computers fill the room, each one equipped with a headset, gaming keyboard and mouse. Ten monitors are placed around the space, including a touch screen monitor that professors can teach on, and tables are sprinkled around the center, with writable surfaces for gamers to take notes on.
“That’s just how our motto is at the Sugar Land IT Department,” said Information Technology Manager Sadiq Sachwani, who designed the room. “If we do something, we have to do it at 100%.”
He said the design process took over a year, as every detail was carefully thought out and most of the work for the room was done in-house by Sachwani and his team.
How it works
Located on the first floor of The Albert and Mamie George Building, the room can hold 20 players for class, tournaments or recreational play. Professors of digital media courses at the university also use the space as a classroom to teach game design and gaming simulations.
Student organizations, faculty members and outside entities can fill out a form to request access to the space, and there is also designated free time for any student to come use the room on a first-come, first-served basis.
Sachwani designed the space so that gamers can bring their own consoles, such as Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox, and plug them into the room’s system.
A closer look
It’s important to Sachwani that the room is used to its full potential, so when faculty or students aren’t using the room, it’s open to public and private partnerships.
To accommodate large events like tournaments, Sachwani and his team designed viewing monitors and an overflow room where gamers’ screens are broadcast for parents and team members to watch.
This past spring, Stafford Municipal District held a tournament with over a hundred attendees at the campus.
“It was a beautiful sight to see—there were gamers everywhere,” Sachwani said. “They were wearing jerseys, and it brought to life what it’s actually supposed to be.”
Why now?
In 2023, Sachwani and his colleagues began to hear more about e-sports rooms and toured a few spaces other universities had created. The team decided this was something they needed to focus on and started creating a proposal for the university.
After hearing Sachwani’s proposal, Dr. Jay Neal, associate vice president of academic affairs and COO for UH's Sugar Land and Katy campuses, realized how the room would expand the university’s digital media program and wanted to see it through.
“We always are interested in innovative ways to encourage learning, to prepare students for a new workforce and to connect with community,” Neal said. “An E-sports room allowed us to consider all these things.”
What’s next?
As for the future, Sachwani already has plans for a new e-sports room and maybe even an e-sports arena. The university plans to keep showing the room on campus tours and inviting school districts to bring students for a visit.
“It’s not going to force them to be a gamer, but it’s going to open that creative side of their brain when they come in there,” Sachwani said.
- 14000 University Blvd., Sugar Land
- www.uh.edu/sugarland/creative-spaces-and-labs/esports
