The EMIIE Lab (Engage Me In Interactive Experiences) Lab focuses on multi-disciplinary research spanning several areas, including computational: Artificial Intelligence, computer graphics, Human Computer Interaction, Psychology, media Aesthetics, game design, and cultural studies. The lab infuses all these areas with a central focus on engagement and interactive experiences, including computer and video games, serious games, virtual environments, and interactive narrative.
People
Dr. Seif El-Nasr: Founder of the Lab
PhD student investigating how players understand and internalize their experiences of interactive narrative, taking Facade as a case study. He will discuss the essence of the players' experiences using phenomenological methods highlighting implications from the players lived experience for current and future developments in AI-based techniques in interactive entertainment.
PhD student investigating the process and results of how interactive experience can encode and represent indigenous culture and thinking. Her work provides a basis for exploring the practice of indigenous game design. In this first person collective case study, a cycle of iterative game design serves as a structure for exploring the possibilities of a First Nations development team engaging in game design to innovate game mechanics and aesthetics from Anishinaabe culture. This research report serves as an explanation of the study and its current state.
Veronica Zammitto
PhD student who aims to contribute to demographic game design that means to comprehend gamers' tastes in order to produce more appealing and targeted games. Particularly, she is looking at the relationship between personality traits and gaming preferences.
Michael Nixon
MSc student who aims to investigate believable characters and ALife within game environments.
MSc student who is investigating the use of AI techniques for procedural animation and how that impacts player characters within game environments
Huaxin Wei
PhD student who is investigating the role of character characteristics in influencing non-verbal behaviour in non-player characters.
PhD Student investigating interactive storytelling and games. His research interests include: evaluating and designing narratively believable characters, connecting performance and improvisational theater practice to interactive narrative theory, and using adaptive systems and user models to intelligently personalize narrative experiences based on reader interactions. Joshua is currently working as a researcher on the SIAT CATGames project, investigating narrativised and embodied interfaces for games.
