< Back From Passive Viewer to Active Fan: Towards the Design and Large-Scale Evaluation of Interactive Audience Experiences in Esports and Beyond Link Author(s) Alan Pedrassoli Chitayat, Alistair Coates, Florian Block, Anders Drachen, James Alfred Walker, James Dean, Mark McConachie, Peter York Abstract More info TBA Link

< Back Nirit Binyamini Ben-Meir wins Best Paper Award at DIS25 Nirit Binyamini Ben Meir 's paper “Domestic Cultures of Plant Care: A Moss Terrarium Probe”, was awarded Best Paper at the ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS) 2025 . The work was lauded particularly for its originality, methodological rigour and its potential impact on the field of interactive systems. Here is the paper abstract: Houseplants are increasingly being used as part of interactive systems that aim to foster pro-environmental concern and awareness of more-than-human life. Yet such interventions rely on conflicting and untested assumptions about how people relate to houseplants. We therefore studied domestic plant care in 11 purposefully sampled households, applying a sensor-equipped moss terrarium as a living ‘thing ethnography’ probe, supplemented with semi-structured interviews. We find that social and intergenerational cultures of plant care inform people's individual concern and accountability through constituents and mechanisms like gift-giving, signaling, knowledge transfer, or joint practical care. We identify five domestic cultures of plant care in our sample, each of which frames plants differently and leads to different practical approaches to plant care. We propose design considerations that emphasise enculturation and shared care over individual behaviour change and reframe houseplants from decorative objects into living household members. You can access the full paper here . DIS25 took place 05-09 July in Madeira (Portugal). Nirit described the conference experience as very valuable, and enjoyed receiving some very useful feedback about her talk from the audience, making new connections as well as exploring its setting at Madeira Islands. Link to QMUL News article Previous 8 Jul 2025 Next

< Back Emotion Design for Video Games: A Framework for Affective Interactivity Link Author(s) M Croissant, G Schofield, C McCall Abstract More info TBA Link

< Back Changes of user experience in an adaptive game: a study of an AI manager Link Author(s) F Foffano, D Thue Abstract More info TBA Link

Automatic Evaluation of Tabletop Games Theme Game AI Project proposed & supervised by Diego Pérez-Liébana To discuss whether this project could become your PhD proposal please email: diego.perez@qmul.ac.uk < Back Automatic Evaluation of Tabletop Games Project proposal abstract: Modern Tabletop games are complex environments that combine multiple components: cards, tokens, boards, mechanics and rules. The amount, type and parameter values for each of these components affect the playability and balance of the game, influencing how the game is perceived by players and what strategies are better to win. This project proposal aims to research and develop methods to accurately evaluate the impact of each of these components in different aspects of gameplay, such as dominant strategies and game balance. In particular, the focus is set in large and complex games where it is computationally unaffordable to evaluate old or new content by playing the full game. The outcome of this project can lead not only to advance the state of the art in automatic evaluation techniques for existing games, but also to evaluate the impact of new components or mechanics in a game in development. Supervisor: Diego Pérez-Liébana Based at:

< Back Noise reduction and targeted exploration in imitation learning for abstract meaning representation parsing Link Author(s) J Goodman, A Vlachos, J Naradowsky Abstract More info TBA Link

< Back Evaluating virtual reality experiences through participant choices Link Author(s) M Murcia-López, T Collingwoode-Williams, W Steptoe, R Schwartz, ... Abstract More info TBA Link

< Back Creativity Theatre for Demonstrable Computational Creativity Link Author(s) S Colton, J McCormack, M Cook, S Berns Abstract More info TBA Link

< Back Procedural Sonification of Environmental Phenomena for Realistic Sound Design Link Author(s) D Menexopoulos Abstract More info TBA Link

< Back All watched over by machines of loving grace: Deepdream edition Link Author(s) M Akten Abstract More info TBA Link

< Back Joint Writing Retreat - November 2023 Another fantastic Joint Writing Retreat was had with our colleagues at MAT , CDE and AIM this week at the beautiful High Leigh. Feedback from the event, was, as always really positive with: 100% of respondents saying the retreat was useful and beneficial to their research/progress 96% saying they would recommend it to others 95% saying they produced more content than expected With comments about the primary benefit of the retreat being: Scheduled writing time and not having to worry about preparing food, chores etc Refreshing and networking with people in a similar but different sphere made me reframe I feel good writing in a big group. And I have good mood in here Very focused working time and environment. More productive than the office. Very quiet and focused. Not having to think about what food to buy and to prepare and to cook takes the mental load off to just focus on writing. It's surprising how much fretting about food preparation for the week takes out of your day. Here is the word cloud created from the Mentimeter “poll of 3 words” to describe the retreat: Previous 24 Nov 2023 Next

Understanding ongoing mental states using video games: applications to mental health research. Theme Game Data Project proposed & supervised by Alex Wade To discuss whether this project could become your PhD proposal please email: alex.wade@york.ac.uk < Back Understanding ongoing mental states using video games: applications to mental health research. Project proposal abstract: A player’s behaviour in a game is directly linked to their personality and gives detailed information on their decision making processes, showing how they approach risks, socialisation and problem solving. Analysing these behaviours may also provide information about mental health disorders and indicate how these change over time. Neuroimaging methods (EEG/MEG/fMRI) can be used to examine the neural responses and patterns of ongoing neuronal activity that occur while players are engaged in a game. By linking these data to modern theories of neural economics we can explore and potentially improve aspects of a player's decision making, such as: attention span, focus, risk taking and delayed reward. This PhD will use a combination of neuroscience and advanced data analysis methods to examine the link between video game play and the brain. We will use a combination of cutting-edge data analytic techniques applied to large, existing video game telemetry datasets and neuroimaging experiments designed to measure changes in ongoing mental states while people play simple video games. The PhD would suit a student with good data analytics skills and some experience in neuroscience. Supervisor: Alex Wade Based at: