The main thing is find motivated people, so even before starting any degree working with people during game jams can be very helpful. The game design track seems like it deals with game logic and scripting, which is great but isn't really what a tech artist does, I know there are the animation tracks that would allow…
Tech art is an awesome field; I'm coming from the rigging/tools side of tech art not the shader side. If you want to get into it, spend time rigging a good body, as you finish prototyping/implementing a section of the rig i.e the arm, script it. If you find yourself doing repetitive tasks, automate them. Break apart other…