Mark Winands is a professor in machine reasoning at the Department of
Data Science and Knowledge Engineering, Maastricht University. He
received a Ph.D. degree in Artificial Intelligence from the Department
of Computer Science, Maastricht University in 2004. He has co-organized
the International Conference on Computers and Games 2008, the Benelux
Conference on Artificial Intelligence 2012, and the Computer Games
Workshops at IJCAI 2013/2015/2016/2017 and ECAI 2012/2014. He has been
the program chair of the 15th International Conference on Advances in
Computer Games, and the general chair of the 2018 IEEE Conference on
Computational Intelligence and Games. He serves as the editor-in-chief
of the ICGA Journal, as an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on
Games, and as an editor of Theoretical Computer Science. He is a member
of Games Technical Committee (GTC) | IEEE Computational Intelligence
Society. He has been guest editor for special issues in IEEE TCIAIG and
Entertainment Computing. His research interests include heuristic
search, machine learning and games. He has written more than ninety
scientific publications on AI and Games.
Santiago Ontañón
AI for playing games
Google/Drexel University
Santiago Ontañón is a Senior Research Scientist at Google and an
associate professor in the Computer Science Department at Drexel
University (currently on leave). His main research interests are game AI
and machine learning, areas in which he has published over 200 papers.
He obtained his PhD form the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB),
Spain, for his work on learning in multiagent systems. Previously, he
held postdoctoral positions at the Artificial Intelligence Research
Institute (IIIA) in Barcelona, at the Georgia Institute of Technology
(GeorgiaTech) in Atlanta, and at the University of Barcelona.
Maxim Mozgovoy
Analytics and Player Modelling
University of Aizu
Maxim Mozgovoy is an associate professor at the University of Aizu,
Japan. He received his PhD degree in Applied Mathematics from St.
Petersburg State University, and his PhD in Computer Science from
University of Joensuu. His main research interests are focused on
natural language processing and artificial intelligence for computer
games. His current primary goal is to apply machine learning
technologies to the task of practical game AI creation. Maxim has a
solid academic record of over 70 published articles and industrial-level
software development experience. He participated in AI R&D projects
sponsored by Electronic Arts and Lockheed Martin, and he is the primary
developer of a machine learning-based AI of the mobile tennis game
*World of Tennis: Roaring '20s*.
Victor Khaustov
Analytics and Player Modelling
University of Aizu
Victor Khaustov is a PhD candidate at the University of Aizu, Japan. He
is a member of IEEE CIS and AAAI. His research interests include the use
of imitation learning for designing artificial characters, and AI
behavior in the context of multi-agent systems, such as team sports
games. Currently Victor is leading a group of students working on
modeling AI players for the video game of soccer using spatiotemporal
data derived from real matches. Their ultimate goal is to create teams
of virtual human-like characters that exhibit intelligent coordinated
behavior.
Mike Preuss
Benchmarks and Competitions
Universiteit Leiden
Mike Preuss is Assistant Professor at LIACS, the computer science
institute of Universiteit Leiden in the Netherlands. Previously, he was
with ERCIS (the information systems institute of WWU Muenster, Germany),
and before with the Chair of Algorithm Engineering at TU Dortmund,
Germany, where he received his PhD in 2013. His main research interests
rest on the field of evolutionary algorithms for real-valued problems,
namely on multimodal and multiobjective optimization, and on
computational intelligence and machine learning methods for computer
games, especially in procedural content generation (PGC) and realtime
strategy games (RTS).
Vanessa Volz
Benchmarks and Competitions
modl.ai
Vanessa Volz is an AI researcher at modl.ai (Copenhagen, Denmark), with
focus in computational intelligence in games. She received her PhD in
2019 from TU Dortmund University, Germany, for her work on
surrogate-assisted evolutionary algorithms applied to game optimisation.
She holds B.Sc. degrees in Information Systems and in Computer Science
from WWU Münster, Germany. She received an M.Sc. with distinction in
Advanced Computing: Machine Learning, Data Mining and High Performance
Computing from University of Bristol, UK, in 2014. Her current research
focus is on employing surrogate-assisted evolutionary algorithms to
obtain balance and robustness in systems with interacting human and
artificial agents, especially in the context of games.
Sara de Freitas
Education and Games
Birkbeck, University of London
Sara is an eminent educator with over 25-years experience in the
university sector. Sara has held senior roles in research and education
in 5 universities in the UK and Australia, as Director of Research,
Associate Deputy Vice Chancellor, Pro Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice
Chancellor. With a PhD in information science, Sara has worked in
Computer Science and Education disciplines, holding Professorships in
Education, most recently as Professor of Digital Education. She has led
over 50 research and development projects, including as a Scientific
Coordinator for a European Union network of excellence, and as an
investigator on two Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
grants, as well as holding 15 European Commission grants. She is also an
international author and regular public speaker, publishing seven books
and over 100 journal and conference papers that focus upon learner
engagement, digital education, learning analytics and education policy.
Panagiotis Petridis
Education and Games
Aston University
Panagiotis Petridis, Senior Lecturer in Gamification has spent his
entire career working in the field of virtual reality, simulation and
gaming; something which he enjoys as a hobby as much as a vocation. His
interest is in how these technologies can be used to change people’s
behaviours, to help them make decisions and learn about things through
realistic simulated experiences. He has worked on and managed a large
number of funded research projects developing VR/AR for use across a
range of industries such as cultural heritage, construction,
manufacturing and housing. Throughout his career, Panos has enjoyed a
balance of research and teaching, which gives him the opportunity to
pass on his knowledge of the latest developments in technologies and his
experience in research project management to inspire the next generation
of programmers to grasp the potential of serious games and bring about
transformation within industry.
Pier Luca Lanzi
Game Design
Politecnico di Milano
Pier Luca Lanzi is full professor at the Politecnico di Milano,
Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, where he
teaches Videogame Design and Programmming and Data Mining and Text
Mining. He is interested in data driven game design, the application of
artificial intelligence to games, and in the use of video games for
rehabilitation.
Pieter Spronck
Game Design
Tilburg University
Pieter Spronck is a full professor of computer science, with a special
focus on game research, at Tilburg University. His research stretches
from adaptive game intelligence to player modeling. He is best known for
being one of the founders of the domain of adaptive video game AI.
During his PhD research he developed a technique called "dynamic
scripting," which has been used to implement adaptive game AI in several
high-profile commercial games. He has authored and co-authored 120
papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, most of
which are on the topic of game AI. He also supervised over a dozen PhD
students in this domain. He is currently heading a research group called
"Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence," which focuses on the
interaction between humans and AI. He designs and plays games of any
imaginable kind.
William Raffe
Game Interfaces and User Interaction
University of Technology Sydney
William Raffe is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Technology
Sydney, where he is the Co-Director of the Games Studio research group
and the Program Coordinator for the Bachelor of Science in Games
Development. He received his PhD from RMIT University in 2014 with a
focus on machine learning and evolutionary computing for player
preference modelling and procedural content generation. He has also held
a Postdoctoral Fellowship at RMIT, investigating the role of virtual and
augmented reality technology in modern theme parks. Since then, he has
expanded his scope of research to include player-computer interaction,
specifically in games for health and education.
Andy Connor
Game Interfaces and User Interaction
Auckland University of Technology
Andy Connor is an Associate Professor in Colab at Auckland University of
Technology in New Zealand. His undergraduate training is in mechanical
engineering and he holds a PhD in mechatronics. Following a number of
years of commercial experience as a Software Engineer and a Systems
Engineering Consultant, Andy emigrated from the UK to New Zealand and
took up a number of roles in Software Engineering and Computer Science
at Auckland University of Technology prior to joining Colab in 2012.
Daniel Ashlock
Game Theory and Multi-agent Systems
University of Guelph
Daniel Ashlock is a Senior member of the IEEE CIS society. His research
includes over eighty papers concerning games, focused on the impact of
representation, in a collection of 296 peer reviewed publications. Dr.
Ashlock is an associate editor of the Transactions on Games and the
Transactions on Evolutionary Computation.
Connor Gregor
Game Theory and Multi-agent Systems
University of Guelph
Connor Gregor is a researcher at the University of Guelph with long
experience in evolutionary computation. His studies encompassed a
myriad of different evolutionary algorithms and his master's work
combined evolutionary computation with quantum computing. Conner's
doctoral studies apply evolutionary computation to other intelligent
systems that are intended to be applied to games, optimization, and
applications in the construction industry.
Anastasios Doulamis
Multimedia and Games: Deep Learning Algorithms and Multimedia
Technologies for Serious Games Applications
National Technical University of Athens
Anastasios Doulamis received the Diploma degree in Electrical and
Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens
(NTUA) in 1995 with the highest honour (second ranked among all
classmates) and the PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering
from NTUA. He is currently Assistant Professor in National Technical
University of Athens. Anastasios Doulamis has received several awards
and prizes during his studies, including the Best Greek Student in all
fields of engineering at the national level, the Best Graduate Thesis
Award in the area of Electrical Engineering and several prizes from the
National Technical University of Athens. He is author of more than 350
papers in the area of signal processing, image analysis, decision making
and artificial intelligence among them more than 25 in IEEE/ACM journals
papers of high impact factors and more than 80 journal papers. He has
also more than 4300 citations in the respective field. He has served as
organizer in many major workshops, like the ones sponsored by ACM, and IEEE.
Nikolaos Doulamis
Multimedia and Games: Deep Learning Algorithms and Multimedia
Technologies for Serious Games Applications
National Technical University of Athens
Nikolaos Doulamis received the Diploma degree in Electrical and Computer
Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) with
the highest honor (first ranked among all classmates) and the PhD degree
in electrical and computer engineering from NTUA in 2000. He joined the
Image, Video and Multimedia Lab of NTUA as research assistant. His PhD
thesis was supported by the Bodosakis Foundation Scholarship. He is
currently Associate professor at the National Technical University of
Athens. Nikolaos Doulamis was awarded as the Best Greek Student in the
field of engineering in national level by the Technical chamber of
Greece. He was received the Best Graduate Thesis Award in the area of
electrical engineering. During his studies he has also received several
prizes and awards from the National Technical University of Athens, the
National Scholarship Foundation and the Technical Chamber of Greece. He
was given the NTUA Medal as Best Young Engineer. He has also served as
program committee in several international conferences and workshops. He
was given the Thomaidion Foundation best journal paper award. He is
reviewer of IEEE journals and conferences as well as and other leading
international journals. His research interest include video
transmission, content-based image retrieval, summarization of video
sequences and intelligent techniques for video processing. Prof.
Nikolaos D. Doulamis is an Author of 78 journals papers, 22 book
chapters and 240 conference papers. Among the 78 journals papers 30
papers have been published in IEEE journals, while most of the others in
journals of high impact factor. In addition, among the 240 conferences
144 papers are within IEEE archives. He has received 4419 citations in
his work with h index =29. One of his work has cited as “Doulamis
Model”in the literature.
Anne-Gwenn Bosser
Narrative and Interactive Entertainment
ENIB
Anne-Gwenn Bosser is an Associate Professor at ENIB in France, member of
the Lab-STICC (CNRS UMR 6285). Previously, she was in charge of the
Games Development curriculum at Teesside University. In a past life, she
has been working in R&D in the game industry. Her research interests
revolve around computational narratives in the context of interactive
applications, especially computer games or virtual reality simulations,
which she studies from a logical standpoint.
Fred Charles
Narrative and Interactive Entertainment
Bournemouth University
Fred Charles is the Deputy Head of Department in charge of Research at
Bournemouth University in the Creative Technology Department, Faculty of
Science and Technology. His main research interests focus on
Computational Intelligence applied to Computer Games including
Artificial Intelligence combined with Human-Computer Interaction. For
the last 18+ years, he has been involved in research on Interactive
Storytelling which led to the development of several interactive systems
which have won several international awards.
Rafael Bidarra
PCG and AI for Game Design
Delft University of Technology
Rafael Bidarra is associate professor Game Technology at the Faculty of
Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science of Delft
University of Technology, The Netherlands. He leads the game technology
research lab at the Computer Graphics and Visualization Group. His
current research interests include: procedural and semantic modeling
techniques for the specification and generation of both virtual worlds
and gameplay; serious gaming; game adaptivity and game data analytics.
Rafael has been pioneering game-related research and education for
almost 20 years, he has numerous publications in international journals
and conference proceedings, he currently serves as associate editor for
the IEEE Transactions on Games, and he has served in many conference
program committees.
Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari
PCG and AI for Game Design
Södertörn University
Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari is associate professor, teaching at the games
programme at the Media Technology Department of Södertörn University in
Sweden. Mirjam is a game designer, researcher, and developer who entered
the video game industry as a programmer in 2000. Her PhD (2010) explored
AI for characterisation and story construction. Current research
interests include AI-based game design, story-making games, and therapy
board games, that she explores through experimental prototypes. She has
worked as a game designer in various research projects, most recently in
C2Learn. She is a board member of HEVGA, ARDIN and SAGDS. She does her
independent work - games and paintings - under the label Otter Play.
Sebastian von Mammen
Serious Games Technology
University of Würzburg
In January 2017, Sebastian von Mammen accepted a position as professor
at the University of Würzburg's Institute for Computer Science. He is
heading the Games Engineering research group which is part of the Chair
for Human-Computer Interaction. Together, they are mainly responsible
for the Games Engineering program of studies. Until the end of 2016,
Sebastian was a postdoc at the Chair of Organic Computing at the
University of Augsburg, where he also completed his habilitation in
Computer Science pushing the boundaries of self-organising and adaptive
systems towards the realm of interactive systems. Before that, until
2012, he was a postdoc with the LINDSAY project at the University of
Calgary, where he was working towards visual programming and modelling
approaches. As part of the Evolutionary and Swarm Design research group,
he received his PhD on self-organisation and evolution in the context of
procedural content generation also at the University of Calgary in 2009.
He moved there in 2006, right after he had finished his Diploma degree
in Informatics at the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg.
Jean-Luc Lugrin
Serious Games Technology
University of Würzburg
Jean-Luc Lugrin studied Computer Science at the University of Lyon
(France) and at Teesside University (England). After seven years as
full-time principal lecturer in interactive real-time systems at
Teesside University, he completed his PhD in 2010 in the area of
intelligent virtual environments. In November 2012, he became assistant
professor at the institute of human-computer interaction (HCI) at
Würzburg University (Germany), where he is now the head of the digital
media processing group.
Katerina Mania
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Technical University of Crete
Katerina Mania serves as an Associate Professor at the School of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technical University of Crete,
Greece after research positions at HP Labs, UK where she worked on
Web3D, and University of Sussex, UK where she served as an Assistant
Professor in Multimedia Systems. She received her BSc in Mathematics
from the University of Crete, Greece and her MSc and PhD in Computer
Science from the University of Bristol, UK. Her primary research
interests integrate perception and vision to optimise computer graphics
rendering and VR technologies with current focus on gaze-contingent
displays. She has co-chaired technical programs and has participated in
over 100 international conference program committees. She serves as one
of the Associate Editors for Presence, Tele-operators and Virtual
Environments (MIT Press) and ACM Transactions on Applied Perception. She
is the leader of the research team SURREAL (https://surreal.tuc.gr), at
the Technical University of Crete which specializes in VR/AR and
Visualization technologies, also developing immersive games in VR/AR.
Jean Marie-Normand
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Ecole Centrale de Nantes
Jean Marie-Normand is an Associate Professor in the Department of
Computer Science and Mathematics at the Ecole Centrale de Nantes and
Associate member of the team HYBRID, INRIA, France which specializes in
the scientific fields of VR and 3D interaction, focusing on multiple
user input and intending to exploit both motor activity via motion
tracking and mental activity via brain computer interfaces. He received
his PhD degree in Computer Science, University of Nantes, France, in
2008. After that, he spent 2 years as a postdoctoral researcher in the
eventLab led by Prof. Mel Slater. His research interests include
embodiment and interaction in immersive Virtual Reality as well as
plausibility of Virtual, Augmented, and real environments. He has served
multiple times as a member of the Program Committee for IEEE VR
conference and also regularly reviews for IEEE VR, IEEE ISMAR, etc.