Abdelrahman Madkour

PhD Student

Abdelrahman Madkour
  • BA in Mathematics and Computer Science, St. Olaf College
  • Hometown: Alexandria, Egypt
  • Field of Study: Computer Science
  • PhD Advisor: Magy Seif El-Nasr

What are the specifics of your graduate education (thus far)?

I am pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, with a focus on Machine Learning, Plan Recognition and Player Behavior Modeling.

What are your research interests?

I am very interested in how data of users' behavior in an interactive environment and/or games can be used to influence and elucidate the experience the user is having. For my PhD, I would like to mostly focus on understanding and modeling user behavior such that game designers, educators, or other interested parties can glean out what the user is trying to do in a given environment.

What’s one problem you’d like to solve with your research/work?

Understanding user/player behavior to the extent where interested parties can map out exactly what the user/player has been doing and why is still out of reach. I aim and hope to bring us a little closer to that goal.

What aspect of what you do is most interesting?

I think the implications of having an accurate model of player/user behavior are very exciting and deeply impactful. The possibility of having an educational sandbox that adapts to a learner's pace and mistakes, giving them the right feedback to keep them progressing, or an adaptive game environment where the experience is tailored to each individual user's play patterns is what gets me up in the morning.

What are your research or career goals, going forward?

I hope that I can make understanding player/user behavior as simple and as fast as possible. Such that any game designer/educator can create an environment, understand what the user is doing and tailor the experience for that individual.