Dr. Magy Seif El-Nasr

Dr. Magy Seif El-Nasr

Dr. Seif El-Nasr is an assistant Professor in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University, where she directs the Engage Me In Interactive Experiences (EMIIE) Lab. She earned her Ph.D. degree from Northwestern University in Computer Science and her master's degree in Computer Science from Texas A&M University. Dr. Seif El-Nasr received several grants totalling over $2 Million to support her research. She published over 74 international peer reviewed articles on her work. In addition, her work received several awards and recognition within games and interactive narrative communities, including best paper award at the International Conference of Virtual Storytelling 2003 and several notable citations in industry books and magazines. She also received Leadership Excellence Award and Research Excellence Award from Texas A&M University. She has collaborated and has on-going relationships with several game companies, including Electronic Arts, Bardel Entertainment, Relic Entertainment, RedHill Studios, Ignite Play, and Radical Entertainment.

She is the managing editor of the International Journal on Arts and technology and serves on several editorial and advisory boards, including the International Journal of Intelligent Games and Simulation, Computer Game Education Review, ACM Computers in Entertainment, and AIIDE (Artifical Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment); she has chaired and organized several workshops including, American Association of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Interaction Entertainment 2002, IFIP International Conference on Entertainment Computing 2011, and Games User Experience Summit 2011.

Her research focuses on two main areas within field of interactive entertainment research. The first focuses on exploring the design and development of visual aesthetic tools for 3D environments, including lighting, camera movement, visual design and animation of believable articulate 3D characters. The second is focused on user experience understanding and the design of evaluation methods to measure the impact of design decisions on different user groups. This research integrates various fields of study, including computer science, user behavior, human computer interaction, software design, visual design, and psychology. Her research often borrows from artistic and aesthetic traditions and techniques such as visual design, animation, cinematic and theatric designs.

Education

Ph.D. Computer Science, June 2003
Northwestern University
ELE – Expressive Lighting Engine for Automating Lighting Design for Interactive Narrative
Prof. Ian Horswill, advisor

M.S. Computer Science, June 1998
Texas A&M University
Modeling Emotion Dynamics in Intelligent Agents
Prof. John Yen, advisor

B.S. Computer Science, June 1995
American University in Cairo
BSD-based virtual file system
Prof. Amr El-Kadi, advisor