Philip Smith

Queen Mary University of London

I was born and raised in Bermuda, a small island in the Atlantic Ocean with an approximate population of 65,000 people. I finished my undergraduate degree in Computer Science with a Specialist in Game Design at University of Toronto. For my Master's degree, I studied Computer Games Technology at City, University of London. My personal goal is to help expand the use of video games from purely recreational activities to viable avenues for aiding in real world problems.  

My research will be focusing on maximizing player engagement in gamified citizen science as a continuation of my Master's thesis. My project attempts to address the lack of sufficient volunteer engagement in gamified citizen science projects. The aim is to build an engaging citizen science video game based in classification data-analysis while strategically employing the values set by Self-Determination Theory. I have already built a prototype that I developed using the Unity Game Engine and an API developed by Massive Multiplayer Online Science. The intent of my research at IGGI is to expand upon the existing model. The goal is to demonstrate how tapping into a player's sense of relatedness and competence through an online platform and bolstering the audience through a mobile game version of the project can serve to expand prolonged engagement by volunteers in citizen science.