Chaima Jemmali

Education

• MS in Interactive Media and Game Development, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• BE in Networks and Telecommunications, National Institute of Applied Science and Technology - Tunisia

About Me

• Hometown: Tunisia
• Field of Study: Computer Science
• PhD Advisor: Magy Seif El-Nasr

Biography

Chaima Jemmali is a PhD student in the Computer Science program at Northeastern University’s Khoury College of Computer Sciences, advised by Professor Magy Seif El-Nasr. Native of Tunisia, Chaima earned her master’s degree in interactive media and game development from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and her bachelor's degree in networks and telecommunications from the National Institute of Applied Science and Technology in Tunisia. Chaima’s research areas include machine learning, artificial intelligence, games, and human-centered computing. She is also a member of the Playable Innovative Technologies Lab. Chaima aspires to use her knowledge and experience in designing games to one day work in the Research and Development department of the game industry.

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

For my master's degree, I focused my research on educational games and research based design. I designed and implemented an educational game aimed at teaching girls how to program through puzzle solving and storytelling.

What are your research interests?

For my PhD, I want to take the design of my educational games one step further by making them adaptive to the player's behavior. During playtest sessions, I have noted how kids react, behave and learn differently through the game. I want the game to be able to note that difference, take it into account and behave accordingly to provide the most enjoyable learning experience.

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

One of the problems is to be able to bridge the gap between procedurally generated content in games and intelligent tutoring systems to create an educational game that not only adapts in terms of educational content but also in terms of gameplay and game environment.

What aspect of what you do is most interesting?

What is fascinating about procedural generation is the unexpected content generated due to an unpredicted behavior from the algorithm.

What are your research or career goals, going forward?

Later, I would like to work in a Research and Development department of the game industry.