Five researchers stand around a table and look at books related to games research.

Games at Khoury College of Computer Sciences

Pushing the boundaries of games from how they’re designed and developed to how they aid learning, scientific discovery, and health

A highly collaborative and interdisciplinary research area, study of computer games at Khoury College taps theoretical computer science, design and usability, the social contexts of games, and the role of AI in game development. Using
state-of-the-art facilities, students can explore the cutting edge of extended reality (ER) games (incorporating augmented and virtual reality approaches), as well as the growing role game elements play in the digital devices we use every day.

Meet our faculty

Games: Not just for play

Research at Khoury College is helping develop serious games on a range of topics, improving communication between health providers and patients, games to help older populations maintain cognitive acuity, and games that create crowdsourcing opportunities (and fun game play, too) to accelerate scientific discovery. 

Sample research areas

  • Human factors 
  • Game evaluation
  • Gameplay analytics and visualization
  • New gaming interface design
  • Player experience and modeling
  • Computational algorithms for interactive narrative and building 3D characters
  • Development of new methods to understand human behaviors
  • Games for crowdsourcing
  • Human computation games
  • Citizen science

Domains of interest

  • Extended reality research (encompassing augmented and virtual reality)
  • Human factors in computing systems
  • Scientific discovery games
  • Serious games
  • Citizen science
  • Novel interfaces for problem-solving
  • Automated and AI tools for assisting game design and development
  • Computational structural biochemistry
A student wearing a virtual reality headset and holding a game controller in one hand sits at a large table in a conference room. Another student holds a controller while standing behind the first student. A game is displayed on a large TV screen hanging on the wall of the room.

Meet researcher Alexandra To

Alexandra To discusses game design that encourages everyone to flourish: “What does it look like to make a game more inclusive from the start?”

Several pink and blue post-it notes are stuck to a whiteboard in a Khoury lab. The whiteboard also has four sketches of game storyboards taped to it.

Current project highlights

Khoury researchers are synthesizing research on how games could encourage reflection and potentially aid in personal growth. They’re developing a design framework for “reflective play” and implications for those game developers aiming to build better tools to improve well-being. 

Working closely with colleagues at Northeastern’s College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD), researchers are working on XR technologies to accelerate workforce training in advanced manufacturing and robotics. Instead of live training on the equipment, something both costly and potentially dangerous, workers can develop the skills they need via XR games which have the benefit of advanced learning design and feedback.

Recent research publications

A Design Framework for Reflective Play
Authors: Josh Aaron Miller, Matthew Alexander Whitby, Seth Cooper, Ioanna Iacovides, Kutub Gandhi, Mehmet Kosa, Elisa D. Mekler

How could games be better designed and programmed so as to support reflection and growth? Recent research has begun exploring games as a medium for reflection due to their affordances as interactive systems of challenge. However, little effort has been put into synthesizing insights across studies and disciplines and translating the academic work on reflective play into practical takeaways for game developers.

Designing Video Games to Crowdsource Accelerometer Data Annotation for Activity Recognition Research
Authors: Aditya Ponnada, Seth Cooper, Binod Thapa-Chhetry, Josh Aaron Miller, Dinesh John, Stephen Intille

Although digital accelerometers that track human physical activity are widely available, working with the output from these trackers to build better programs is cumbersome, generally requiring manual annotation for when an activity began or ended. What if this annotation could be a by-product of game playing? Khoury researchers are exploring ways of using gamers to do data annotation, with the potential for better programs and more useful interfaces.  

Related labs and groups

Faculty members

  • Wallace Lages

    Wallace Lages is an assistant professor at Khoury College, jointly appointed with the College of Arts, Media and Design. He blends his multidisciplinary research into augmented and virtual reality with his artistic practice, which has been featured on four continents.

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  • Chris Martens

    Chris Martens is an associate professor at Khoury College, jointly appointed with the College of Arts, Media and Design. A recipient of the NSF Career Award in 2019, they research the design of elegant computational abstractions for interactive and generative software, especially creative applications such as generative art and games.

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  • Dakuo Wang

    Dakuo Wang is an associate professor at Khoury College. He is also an ACM Distinguished Speaker and gives talks around the world on his research into human-centered AI (HCAI) systems.

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