Young researchers (up to postgraduate level) in the field of entertainment computing and serious games are invited to apply for participation in an international 5-day seminar (July 5th – July 10th, 2015) at the prestigious Dagstuhl castle – the German Leibniz Center for Computer Science. All participants will also be authors for a textbook on this topic (published in the Springer LNCS series). Apply till December 15th, 2014 with a 2-page statement.
http://www.kom.tu-darmstadt.de/sg-dagstuhl
Format
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The GI-Dagstuhl Seminar brings together young researchers that have research interests in specific fields of entertainment computing and would like to actively collaborate on a textbook for this novel field. In the seminar, ideas for the book will be discussed and teams of authors will be formed. The media and didactics used for the instructional material to be created (e.g. game-based learning) will also be deliberated. The seminar serves as kick-off for the text book project. As an additional result, the participants will view their work in a broader context, gain knowledge in fields overlapping with their own research and carry a holistic view on entertainment computing and serious games into their home institution (and into the scientific community by publishing instructional material on the topic). Last but not least, participants will spend six days in a highly stimulating environment together with peers which provides ample opportunities for idea exchange and international networking. After the seminar, the participants are expected to contribute and to collaborate on the instructional material. It will be peer reviewed and guidance by senior researchers will be provided throughout the whole process. The tangible results of the seminar will be published as a book by Springer in the Lecture Notes on Computer Science series.
The venue of the seminar is Dagstuhl castle (http://www.dagstuhl.de/en/about-dagstuhl/), the German Leibniz Center for Computer Science. The designated purpose of the GI-Dagstuhl Seminars is fostering young researchers by enabling them to explore a designated field or topic. GI-Dagstuhl Seminars are sponsored by the GI – Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (German Society for Computer Science) and Schloss Dagstuhl. Participants are expected to make an own contribution to accommodation and full board costs (50 EUR per person and day).
Topic
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Often resulting in highly complex IT systems, computer game software is based on research results from a wide range of computer science disciplines such as computer graphics, artificial intelligence, human computer interaction, software engineering, programming techniques, simulation and modeling, database management, computer communication networks or computer security. However, computer games themselves are not often subject of research and merely seen as an application field. As a result, only single aspects of computer game software are researched (e.g. real-time aspects in computer graphics research) and no holistic view is adopted. Also, it is often neglected that research directly concerned with computer games can provide valuable contributions to computer science research as there are not only dependencies but interdependencies.
Computer games have matured from addressing only teenage male audiences with a limited number of genres and serving entertainment purposes only. The term “serious games” describes software that offers additional benefits for their users. For instance, edutainment software is able to support users in learning and training, exergames encourage people to become physically active and sustain a healthy lifestyle, advergames are used for marketing purposes or recruiting and may raise awareness of certain topics. This makes computer games valuable for the information and knowledge society. Serious games also open up a whole range of new research questions, for example “How do we enable authors such as teachers or marketing experts to create content for computer games?” or “What are the factors that determine whether a serious game is able to achieve its anticipated benefits while still being entertaining?”
Topics addressed in the seminar include (but are not limited to):
- Serious Games Design
- Authoring Processes and Tools
- Formalization of Serious Games development, processing and evaluation models
- Serious Games Fundamentals (also from disciplines such as psychology or design)
- automated) Content Generation and Content Integration
- Game Engines, Game Artificial Intelligence, Basic Algorithms
- Balancing, Personalization and Adaptation of Games
- Game Mastering
- Game Experience and Usability
- Serious Games Performance Assessment
- Applications of Serious Games, e.g. Games for Health or Educational Games
Application
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Young researchers from throughout the world (students at the undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral level) are eligible to apply. Applicants should have convincingly shown their research skills in the past. Though no preference is given with regard to specific fields of study, an attempt is made to attract participants from a wide variety of academic institutions.
An application consists of a summary of own research experience (500 words), a statement about the envisioned contribution to the seminar (700 words), and a short CV (300 words). Submit your application by sending a PDF-file including your affiliation and contact information to
dagstuhl-sg@kom.tu-darmstadt.de
The deadline for the application is December 15th, 2014. From all applicants, the 25 participants of the seminar will be selected based on the quality of their application. The decision will be announced till January 15th, 2015.
Successful applicants are expected to prepare a talk and an initial text about their expertise for the seminar, attend the seminar from July 5th to July 10th, 2015 and work together with all participants after the seminar to complete the text book. The language of the seminar will be English.
More Information
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Up-to-date information on the seminar can be found on
http://www.kom.tu-darmstadt.de/sg-dagstuhl
For any questions, please do not hesitate to send an email to
dagstuhl-sg@kom.tu-darmstadt.de or contact the organizers directly:
Stefan Goebel, Technical University of Darmstadt
Ralf Doerner, RheinMain University of Applied Sciences
Katharina Zweig, University of Kaiserslautern
