RESEARCH GROUPS

ITU brAIn lab

The ITU brAIn lab is a space and a group of people with a common interest in research and education at the crossroad between machine learning, psychophysiology, neuroscience and cognition. Within the lab, researchers and students collaborate to develop computational models of different aspects of the human mind and design experiments to capture and synthesise the user experience in complex digital media like video games and virtual reality.

Creative A.I. Lab

The Creative AI Lab explores how to make machines more adaptive and creative. We combine approaches from computational evolution, deep learning, and crowdsourcing to investigate the potential of more creative forms of AI in robotics, video games, design, and art. Our group tries to answer questions such as: can we make machines that design, create and surprise us? Can we create machines that learn from and work together with humans to solve tasks that neither humans nor machines can solve by themselves?

DIGITAL LIFE & SOCIAL PRACTICES

The Digital Life and Social Practices explores the practices, transitions and frictions of existence in our social life within digitized environments.

Games Group

Games research at IT University started in 1999. Since 2003, the Center for Computer Games Research houses a multi-disciplinary research group with backgrounds in the humanities, social sciences, the arts, and computer science. The group performs basic and applied research, approaching games from a variety of perspectives including theoretical analysis, design, ethnographic and qualitative approaches, AI, machine learning, cognitive and affective user modeling, and player experience.

Media, Art & Design

Media, Art and Design (MAD) is an interdisciplinary research group focusing on experience design and practice-based research in domains such as media, the creative and cultural industries, art and museums. We recently completed the Horizon 2020 project GIFT, that created a design framework for hybrid museum experiences.

name of the research group

short description of the research group

OUR VALUES

Inclusivity and Diversity

The Center for Computer Games Research values and promotes diversity in its research, work processes, and hiring practices.

Equity

The Center for Computer Games Research works towards creating more equality in research and industry, through academic work, public outreach, and industry collaborations.

Development

The Center for Computer Games Research is an environment where junior scholars can thrive and find support in their intellectual and career development.

Balance

The Center for Computer Games Research respects and encourages work/life balance, and aspires to create a healthy and inspiring work environment where faculty at all levels, from PhD and part-time lecturers to Full Professors, can thrive.

Sustainability

The Center for Computer Games Research commits to research, education, and work practices that contribute to the green transition.

OUR PURPOSE

Digital play is still being studied using theories from the analog era. The Center for Digital Play develops novel theories and methods for the study of digital play. From game-trained Artificial Intelligence, to social communities created around videogames, gamification, esports, or game engines as artistic tools, digital play is an intrinsic yet understudied phenomenon in digital societies. The CDPs ambition is to define what it means to study of play in digital societies from a multidisciplinary perspective. Novel phenomena require novel methods and theories, and the purpose of the CDP is to become a reference center in the present and future of play and game studies.

The Center has three focal topics:

Play and players
Play and objects
Play and nonhumans