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< Back Dr Alena Denisova University of York Supervisor Alena Denisova is a Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of York, UK. She is actively involved in collaborative and interdisciplinary projects that involve conceptualising and measuring user experience of video games and designing and building educational and persuasive interactive media. Her research explores the role of the `placebo effect’ of technology in shaping player experiences, perceived challenge and uncertainty in video games, and, more recently, emotionally impactful player experiences - understanding how these experiences are shaped with the view to inform the design of games that promote these experiences. Alena is an active member of the games HCI community: she is a co-chair of the IEEE Task Force on Automatic Gameplay Evaluation and a member of the Programme Committee for the annual CHI and CHI Play conferences. She is interested in supervising students that have qualitative, mixed method or design experience that they wish to apply to studying digital games. Possible research topics include exploring what makes choices in games meaningful for players, how perceived uncertainty, risk-aversion, and luck affect decision making in games, and how skill is acquired and advanced throughout while playing video games. She is also keen to work with students who wish to work on games with a purpose. For instance, designing and developing games that promote informed decision-making about moral and ethical choices, such as promoting sustainable lifestyle, reflecting on important real-life issues, developing personally, etc. alena.denisova@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/alenadenisova/ LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Applied Games Design & Development Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Pilar Zhang Qiu Queen Mary University of London iGGi Alum Pilar is a researcher with a background in Design Engineering. She has a keen interest in user experience and interaction, wearables and the use of cyber-physical systems in the medical field. Her PhD centres around the creation of play assessments for neuromotor conditions in children with cerebral palsy. This gravitates around the idea that better and more objective clinical data can be obtained through gamification of common assessments. Please note: Updating of profile text in progress Email Mastodon https://www.pilarzhangqiu.com/ Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/pilar-zhang-qiu/ LinkedIn BlueSky https://github.com/pili-zhangqiu Github Themes Applied Games - Previous Next

< Back Dr Ozan Vardal University of York iGGi Alum Ozan studied undergraduate psychology at the University of Groningen, and holds a master's degree in Performance Psychology from the University of Edinburgh, where he wrote theses on the dynamics of psychological momentum in sport competition and the decision-making of expert applied psychologists respectively. He has long been fascinated with the psychological mechanisms underpinning complex skills, owing to his own background as a classically trained musician and his previous work as a performance psychology consultant with competitive athletes. His primary research interests involve the behavioural and neural factors surrounding human learning and skilled performance. A description of Ozan's research: Ozan views games as behaviourally rich environments for the study of complex skills and human learning. The competitive and immersive nature of games encourages millions of players to develop profound skill over hours, days, and even years of practice. Ozan’s work takes advantage of large data repositories generated by such players to study how different patterns of practice result in differences in learning outcomes. He also uses experimental methods in his work, and is currently using neuroimaging methods (MEG) and modelling techniques to identify how shifts between different behavioural and neural states affect performance as people play Tetris. By using games as a vehicle to study psychology, Ozan aims to develop scalable solutions to studying human learning. He hopes for a future where the science of learning is sufficiently advanced, such that (artificial) trainers can recommend optimised practice schedules for motivated learners, in any performance domain. Please note: Updating of profile text in progress ov525@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozanvardal LinkedIn BlueSky https://www.github.com/ozvar Github Featured Publication(s): Mind the gap: Distributed practice enhances performance in a MOBA game Themes Design & Development Esports Game Data - Previous Next

< Back Océane Lissillour University of York iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement I started my journey as an undergrad in psychology specialising in ergonomics. It was then that I realised that I could study video games for a living. This led me to relocate myself to the south of France to, mostly enjoy the sun, but also undertake my dream MSc in Technological Innovation and Cognitive Psychology. As part of my master’s internship I had the pleasure to work in collaboration with researchers from the CLLE, a laboratory branch of the national research centre. This helped me develop my knowledge and awareness of video games and motivational processes and convinced me that if I could survive the bureaucracy of the French Government I could probably do a PhD. Afterwards, I moved on to work in Aeronautics for a brief time but landed back to academia in 2024 to join the wonderful iGGI community as a postgraduate researcher. A description of Océane's research: My research focuses on the act of taking a regular activity and ‘gamifying’ it by applying mechanics commonly found inside video games (such as points). This technique has been widely applied within research but its psychological aspects have seldom been studied. The aim of this thesis is to assess the efficacy and applicability of this technique, particularly the score element mechanic. It focuses on understanding the functionalisation of numerical values in games as this has not been studied previously in the literature. This research hopes to contribute to the better understanding of the impact of the design of points on motivation and behaviour. It has been proposed in precedent literature that the use of gamification will provide a partial solution to the critical decline in learners’ motivation and engagement the schooling system faces today. oceane.lissillour@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website http://www.linkedin.com/in/oceane-lissillour LinkedIn BlueSky Github Supervisors: Dr Abi Evans Prof. Sebastian Deterding Themes Design & Development Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Miles Hansard Queen Mary University of London Supervisor Miles Hansard is a computer vision researcher, working on geometric and statistical methods for 3D scene understanding and rendering. He is also interested in active 3D sensing technologies, including depth cameras, lidar, and millimetre-wave radar. His recent projects include GPU methods for real-time atmospheric effects, commodity radar localization of UAVs, and grasp planning for robotic manipulation. He has also worked on human perceptual processes, including eye-movements, geometric judgements, and binocular stereopsis. Miles Hansard is a Senior Lecturer in computer graphics, and a member of the Vision Group and Centre for Advanced Robotics, at QMUL. He is available to supervise projects in the following areas: Simulation of complex physical effects (e.g. the motion of cloth, fire, and fluids), using machine learning. Physically plausible character animation in complex environments (e.g. slippery terrain), using machine learning. miles.hansard@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/~milesh/ Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Design & Development Game AI Game Data Immersive Technology - Previous Next

< Back Dr Sarah West University of York Supervisor Sarah West is an interdisciplinary researcher and practitioner working to bring diverse voices into research through participatory approaches, including citizen science. Sarah is currently Director of SEI York, a Centre of the Stockholm Environment Institute, a science-to-policy research institute, whose York Centre is at the University of York in the Department of Environment and Geography. She has used citizen science approaches to address topics as diverse as air pollution, biodiversity, parenting, and exploring community responses to Covid-19. Her projects mainly take place in the UK and Kenya. Sarah has spent over a decade designing, running and evaluating citizen science projects, and together with other SEI colleagues has written reports for Defra, UK Earth Observation Framework and journal articles exploring who participates in citizen science, their motivations for participation, and how volunteers can be recruited and retained. She is particularly interested in exploring how different messaging and communication affects participation in citizen science projects. sarah.west@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://www.york.ac.uk/sei/staff/sarah-west/ Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-west-59b82690/ LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Accessibility Design & Development Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Memo Akten Goldsmiths iGGi Alum Real-time, interactive, multi-modal media synthesis and continuous control using generative deep models for enhancing artistic expression Real-time, interactive, multi-modal media synthesis and continuous control using generative deep models for enhancing artistic expression. This research investigates how the latest developments in Deep Learning can be used to create intelligent systems that enhance artistic expression. These are systems that learn – both offline and online – and people interact with and gesturally ‘conduct’ to expressively produce and manipulate text, images and sounds. The desired relationship between human and machine is analogous to that between an Art Director and graphic designer, or film director and video editor – i.e. a visionary communicates their vision to a ‘doer’ who produces the output under the direction of the visionary, shaping the output with their own vision and skills. Crucially, the desired human-machine relationship here also draws inspirations from that between a pianist and piano, or a conductor and orchestra – i.e. again a visionary communicates their vision to a system which produces the output, but this communication is real-time, continuous and expressive; it’s an immediate response to everything that has been produced so far, creating a closed feedback loop. The key area that the research tackles is as follows: Given a large corpus (e.g. thousands or millions) of example data, we can train a generative deep model. That model will hopefully contain some kind of ‘knowledge’ about the data and its underlying structure. The questions are: i) How can we investigate what the model has learnt? ii) how can we do this interactively and in real-time, and expressively explore the knowledge that the model contains iii) how can we use this to steer the model to produce not just anything that resembles the training data, but what *we* want it to produce, *when* we want it to produce it, again in real-time and through expressive, continuous interaction and control. Memo Akten is an artist and researcher from Istanbul, Turkey. His work explores the collisions between nature, science, technology, ethics, ritual, tradition and religion. He studies and works with complex systems, behaviour, algorithms and software; and collaborates across many disciplines spanning video, sound, light, dance, software, online works, installations and performances. Akten received the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica in 2013 for his collaboration with Quayola, ‘Forms’. Exhibitions and performances include the Grand Palais, Paris; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Royal Opera House, London; Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow; La Gaîté lyrique, Paris; Holon Design Museum, Israel and the EYE Film Institute, Amsterdam. Please note: Updating of profile text in progress memo@memo.tv Email Mastodon Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Featured Publication(s): Top-Rated LABS Abstracts 2021 Deep visual instruments: realtime continuous, meaningful human control over deep neural networks for creative expression Deep Meditations: Controlled navigation of latent space Learning to see: you are what you see Calligraphic stylisation learning with a physiologically plausible model of movement and recurrent neural networks Mixed-initiative creative interfaces Learning to see Real-time interactive sequence generation and control with Recurrent Neural Network ensembles Collaborative creativity with Monte-Carlo Tree Search and Convolutional Neural Networks Sequence generation with a physiologically plausible model of handwriting and Recurrent Mixture Density Networks Deepdream is blowing my mind All watched over by machines of loving grace: Deepdream edition Realtime control of sequence generation with character based Long Short Term Memory Recurrent Neural Networks Themes Game AI - Previous Next

< Back Nicole Levermore University of York Nicole, who is currently also an iGGi PhD Researcher, was hired by iGGi in December 2025 as an additional Administrative Assistant. The role's key aim is to grow and support the iGGi Alumni Network, where past iGGi Students can keep up to date with what each other is doing, stay in contact, collaborate etc. If you are an iGGi Alum and want to be a part of an iGGi Alumni Network, Nicole would love to hear from you. Over the forthcoming months, she will reach out to those who have expressed interest or will probably be interested, and she will share details about the envisaged concept. Please feel free to contact Nicole about anything iGGi Alumni Network related, as suggestions are always welcome! iggi-admin@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-levermore-b14245283 LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Accessibility Design & Development Immersive Technology Player Research Previous Next

< Back Sunny Thaicharoen Queen Mary University of London iGGi PG Researcher Available for post-PhD position Sunny is a passionate esports enthusiast, with a love of MOBA games. His background is in engineering and entrepreneurship, with a Master of Technology Entrepreneurship degree from University College London. He is the creator of YGOscope, a statistical game data platform for a competitive card game, Yu-Gi-Oh. Sunny is an avid player of competitive Dota in his spare time, and is also a keen theme park enthusiast. He is interested in modelling metagames of MOBAs through game data and player research, particularly how players adopt the most effective strategies when changes to the stable gameplay state occurs. A description of Sunny's research: The project focuses on how the META - most effective tactics available - of MOBA games shift during disruption (usually through gameplay updates) between states of ignorance and stability within the player space of these games, to deepen our understanding of how players adapt to the changes that these gameplay updates cause, and why. There is a large degree of variability of how new METAs develops, and currently there is little research on the meta and metagame front. Available research so far has been based on defining the phenomena and resulting effects of gameplay updates, but little modelling has been done to attempt bring these fragmented pieces of knowledge together and attempt to structure them. The study and structuring of this phenomena can be an ideal starting point in understanding how effective strategies develop not only in MOBAs or video games, but any other competitive games such as chess, trading card games or sports. t.thaicharoen@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/thaicharoens/ LinkedIn BlueSky https://github.com/thaicharoens Github Supervisors: Prof. Anders Drachen Dr Jeremy Gow Featured Publication(s): An ecosystem framework for the meta in esport games Themes Esports Game Data Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Matthew Whitby University of York iGGi Alum Matthew Whitby is a games designer, and player experience academic investigating how games can shape how perspectives on a small or grand scale. In particular, his work considers how we can make the development of perspective challenging processes easier for game developers. Previously, Matthew has published his undergraduate dissertation within the Games Journal, which explored the creation and design of Games Installations. Games that make full use of their surrounding space, and in fact incorporate the real world with its digital counterpart. In addition, he’s worked with Motek Medical, a rehabilitation company based in Amsterdam, where he developed socially focused multiplayer applications. More recently, he attended CHI Play 2019 to present the foundational study of his PhD titled: “One of the Baddies All Along: Perspective Challenging Moments in Games”. He continues to develop this idea forward, while developing games (both digital and table-top) in his spare time. Matthew’s work hopes to answer; how games can challenge a player’s perspective, and if this is a phenomenon that can be intentionally designed for? matt_whitby@hotmail.com Email Mastodon https://www.matt-whitby.com Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-whitby-b324ab83 LinkedIn BlueSky Github Supervisor(s): Prof. Sebastian Deterding Dr Jo Iacovides Themes Design & Development Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Kyle Worrall University of York iGGi Alum Available for post-PhD position Kyle is a final-year PhD researcher at the Centre for Doctoral Training in Intelligent Games and Game Intelligence (IGGI) at the University of York, where his work centers on pioneering deep learning-driven music tools for video game composers. In addition to his research, Kyle is a Lecturer in Games Programming at Edge Hill University, where he encourages the next generation of game developers to appreciate the critical role of audio in interactive experiences. Beyond academia, Kyle is the Founder of Cocreative Technology, an ethical AI music startup on a mission to empower musicians with cutting-edge, AI-driven tools that amplify creative expression, combat burnout, and elevate the emotional depth of game soundtracks. Kyle's research explores how deep learning and generative AI can enhance the creative workflow of video game composers, and improve the experience of players by reducing musical repetition. His work spans symbolic music generation, and real-time adaptive music systems, aiming to improve the emotional expressiveness and of game audio. His recent publications focus on deep learning models for interactive music authoring, expressive performance modelling, the ethical considerations in AI-assisted creativity, and the integration of neural networks with procedural music generation in games. By combining symbolic AI and audio signal processing, Kyle develops tools that support composers in ideation, iteration, and adaptive composition, while remaining transparent and musically intuitive. An experienced speaker, Kyle has presented at leading industry events, including Airwiggle's AirCon 2025, Game Sound Con 2024, Audio Dev Con 2024, the Global Arts and Psychology Symposium 2023, the Play Again Symposium 2024, and the Digital Creativity, Industry and Culture Conference 2022. He is also a regular contributor to the IGGI Conference (2020–2024), and has been featured in TechCrunch, Dazed, The Story of the Sound, and The Audio Programmer podcast, as well as featured on a panel with leaders in game audio from Meta and Sony. kyle.worrall@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyleworrallmusic/ LinkedIn BlueSky https://github.com/KJWAudio Github Supervisors: Dr Jon Hook Dr Tom Collins Dr Josh Reiss Featured Publication(s): Final Fantasy VII Remake Music Redesign for Evolved Expectations Across Console Generations Considerations and Concerns of Professional Game Composers Regarding Artificially Intelligent Music Technology Comparative evaluation in the wild: Systems for the expressive rendering of music Reflection Across AI-based Music Composition The Ethics of Creative AI Themes Creative Computing Game Audio Previous Next

< Back Dr Myat Aung University of York iGGi Alum Immersion is a state in which players are engaged to a degree of total absorption that inhibits the ability to correctly report one’s surroundings or time. Present theory on immersion has developed a coherent model that provides sufficient evidence to distinguish itself from other cognitive concepts such as presence, attention, selective attention, absorption and flow. However, immersion research thus far has been hindered by difficulties with taking in-vivo measurements of cognition and physiological responses during videogame play. This presents an ideal opportunity for implementations of neuroimaging methods to carry out such real time measurements of attention, as well as other cognitive processes and their roles in videogame immersion. Using various combinations of neural and physiological methods such as skin conductance, eye tracking, electroencephalography and even functional magnetic resonance imaging, it is now possible to obtain richer data in immersion research. The goal of this project is to apply such methods in order to better define and measure videogame immersion, identify the cognitive processes and hierarchical models that are involved in immersion and ultimately contribute to the literature in videogame immersion. Though neuroimaging is limited by statistical sensitivity, challenging experimental logistics and non-ideal lab environments, they are still presently the best tools available to obtain fine-grain data of attention and the many other cognitive components of immersion. Such knowledge would contribute significantly to a better understanding of effective development of videogames, as well as educational tools. I am an MPsych Psychology graduate from the University of York, having studied Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience & Neuroimaging for four years. My Master’s research was primarily in vision, attempting to manipulate and record parahippocampal responses to visual stimuli selected parametrically by computer algorithms. During my degree I also spent much of my time researching videogames, studying the literature on the effects of videogame play on sleep, and working with a IGGI PhD student as a lab assistant. Between my degree and my PhD, I have also been working as a data analyst at Digital Creativity Labs researching skill learning in large gaming populations from Riot Games’ League of Legends. Please note: Updating of profile text in progress Email Mastodon Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Featured Publication(s): Different rules for binocular combination of luminance flicker in cortical and subcortical pathways Investigating the non-disruptive measurement of immersive player experience The trails of just cause 2: spatio-temporal player profiling in open-world games Predicting skill learning in a large, longitudinal MOBA dataset Themes Game AI - Previous Next