Zombies invading Tonsley was not a pre-Halloween prank but a way of acting out the movement of viral memes through social media.

Using a creative spin on learning, second-year IT students played the zombie invasion game on a chalk grid under the main assembly building last week.

With help from math lecturer Dr Simon Williams, the exercise also showed how a biological virus spreads in a human population.

Students were assigned weightings and roles in theoretical concept clusters, including groups of humans, ‘outliers’ (lone zombies) and ‘bridges’ – humans with connections to many clusters.

IT lecturer associate lecturer Ms Romana Challans said her students expressed an interest in taking the topic (Social and Information Networks) out of the classroom.

“It certainly was another way to make good use of these wonderful spaces at Flinders at Tonsley,” Ms Challans.

Dr Williams said the School of Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics (CSEM) had other examples of creative teaching, including an annual Math Scavenger Hunt and cryptology (code-breaking) workshops with the Australian Science and Math School.

The autonomous vessel built by CSEM students at Tonsley is going on public display near the Lake Torrens footbridge next week during the Australian Driverless Car Initiative international conference.