Alexander Nareyek

Dr. Nareyek is currently visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University Africa (CMU Africa) in Rwanda. He also serves as CEO and director for the technology/media company Kingdom Crafting LLC / USA and previously Kingdom Crafting Pte Ltd / Singapore that he founded (large-scale online computer-game production, cyber-security, and artificial intelligence). He previously was a professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS), where he was director of the Interactive & Digital Media Institute's multi-disciplinary Games Lab and director of the Electrical & Computer Engineering's interactive intelligence Labs (ii Labs). Before this, he served as CEO and CTO for another company he founded, Digital Drama Studios / Czech Republic (virtual actor technology).

He earlier held post-doctoral research positions at the German National Research Center for Information Technology (GMD-FIRST) / Germany, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) / USA, and the Cork Constraint Computation Centre (4C) / Ireland. He received his diploma and Ph.D. from the TU Berlin / Germany, and won various prices and awards for his work.

Alexander Nareyek is one of the leading figures in the field of artificial intelligence and scientific game design. During his time at the National University of Singapore, he built and led the world's largest research group in the area of scientific game design (including storytelling and underlying brain mechanisms). His research groups were furthermore active in developing technologies for an automated generation/adaptation of gameplay and stories by AI for the real-time optimization of the pleasure of a player.

Alexander Nareyek served on a large number of academic and industry committees in the areas of AI and gaming. For the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), he was responsible for matters regarding artificial intelligence for 10 years, and constituted and served as chairperson of the IGDA's Artificial Intelligence Interface Standards Committee.

[Further CV details at LinkedIn]

(You might also be interested in some general group coordination/management advice for non-profit/voluntary initiatives.)

Chairperson and founder of the AI Interface Standards Committee, 2002-2012

Chairperson of the International Game Developers Association's Artificial Intelligence SIG, 2003-2012

Moderator and co-founder of the International Game Developers Association's Artificial Intelligence SIG, 2000-2002

Member of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Games Technical Committee, 2007- (ongoing)

Member of the Student Game-based Competition sub-committee of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, 2010-2012

Member of the Media Development Authority of Singapore's Interactive & Digital Media Expert Group (IDM EG), 2007-2012

Editor of the Game AI Newsletter:   03/2009 02/2008 09/2006 02/2006 09/2005 02/2005 12/2004

Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games. 2008-2012

Guest editor of the Constraints Journal's special issue on Planning, 2003

Organizer and Moderator of the 2009 Game Developers Conference Artificial Intelligence SIG roundtable

Moderator of the 2008 Games Convention Asia Conference (GCAC) session on "Research and Teaching in Gaming - What's the Status?"

Chair of the Serious Games for Education workshop at the 5th Asia Pacific Medical Education Conference (APMEC) 2008

Moderator of the 2007 Games Convention Asia Conference (GCAC) session on "Research and Teaching in Gaming - What's the Status?"

Moderator of the Education in Games Roundtable at the Asian Game Developers Summit 2006

Co-Moderator of the 2005 Game Developers Conference Roundtable "AI Interface Standards: First Specifications"

Co-Moderator of the 2004 Game Developers Conference Roundtable "AI Interface Standards: Open Beta"

Co-Moderator of the 2003 Game Developers Conference Roundtable "AI Interface Standards: The Road Ahead"

Moderator of the 2002 Game Developers Conference Roundtable "Toward a Standardization of AI Interfaces"

Chair of the IJCAI-2001 Workshop on Planning with Resources

Chair of the ECAI-2000 Workshop on Local Search for Planning & Scheduling

Chair of the AAAI-2000 Workshop on Constraints and AI Planning

Alexander Nareyek. 2011. Why People Play Games - Brain Processes in Gaming. Invited Talk at the Defence, Science and Research 2011 Conference (DSR 2011). Alexander Nareyek. 2006. Virtual Actors - The Next Frontier. Invited Talk at the Asian Game Developers Summit 2006. Alexander Nareyek. 2006. Game AI - Industry vs. Academia - Round 1. Invited Talk at the Joint International Conference on CyberGames and Interactive Entertainment 2006 (CGIE 2006). Alexander Nareyek. 2006. Artificial Intelligence for Electronic Gaming - State of the Art and Challenges. Invited Talk at the Fourth Annual International Conference in Computer Game Design and Technology. Alexander Nareyek. 2006. Game AI is Dead. Long Live Game AI! Invited Talk at the Third Montréal International Game Summit. Alexander Nareyek. 2003. At the Intersection of Planning and Constraint Programming. Keynote Talk at the CAEPIA-2003 Workshop on Planning, Scheduling and Temporal Reasoning. Alexander Nareyek. 2002. Is Research Going in the Right Direction? Keynote Talk at the Seventh International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving From Nature (PPSN 2002). Alexander Nareyek. 2000. Constraint Programming for Computer Games: Mastering "Real"-World Requirements. Keynote Talk at the Thirteenth International Conference on Applications of Prolog (INAP 2000).

Program Committee Member of the EPIA 2001 Thematic Track on Artificial Intelligence Methodologies for Games (AI4Games 2011)

Program Committee Member of the 2011 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG 2011)

Program Committee Member of the Sixth International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG 2011)

Program Committee Member of the ICAPS 2011 Workshop on Constraint Satisfaction for Planning and Scheduling Problems (COPLAS'11)

Program Committee Member of the IEEE Games Innovation Conference (GIC 2010)

Program Committee Member of the IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG 2010)

Program Committee Member of the Workshop on Intelligent Narrative Technologies (INT3)

Program Committee Member of the ICAPS 2010 Workshop on Planning in Games

Program Committee Member of the ICAPS 2010 Workshop on Constraint Satisfaction for Planning and Scheduling Problems (COPLAS'10)

Program Committee Member of the Fifth Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE 2009)

Program Committee Member of the ICAPS 2009 Workshop on Constraint Satisfaction for Planning and Scheduling Problems (COPLAS'09)

Program Committee Member of the IEEE Games Innovation Conference Artificial Intelligence Technologies for Games Stream of the International IEEE Consumer Electronics Society's Games Innovations Conference 2009 (ICE-GIC 09)

Program Committee Member of the 2009 AISB'09 Symposium: AI & Games

Program Committee Member of the 2009 AAAI Spring Symposium on Intelligent Narrative Technologies 2

Program Committee Member of the Fourth International Conference on Games Research and Development (CyberGames 2008)

Program Committee Member of the Fourth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE 2008)

Program Committee Member of the CP/ICAPS 2008 Workshop on Constraint Satisfaction for Planning and Scheduling Problems (COPLAS'08)

Program Committee Member of the ECAI 2008 Workshop Artificial Intelligence in Games (AIG-08)

Program Committee Member of the Third International Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE 2007)

Program Committee Member of the AIIDE 2007 Workshop on Optimizing Player Satisfaction

Program Committee Member of the Third International Conference on Games Research and Development (CyberGames 2007)

Program Committee Member of the Second International Conference on Digital Interactive Media in Entertainment and Arts (DIMEA 2007)

Program Committee Member of the 2007 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC 2007)

Program Committee Member of the 2007 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG 2007)

Program Committee Member of the CP/ICAPS 2007 Workshop on Constraint Satisfaction Techniques for Planning and Scheduling Problems (COPLAS'07)

Program Committee Member of the ICAPS 2007 Workshop on Planning in Games (PG 2007)

Program Committee Member of the First International Conference on Digital Interactive Media Entertainment and Arts (DIME 2006)

Program Committee Member of the SAB-06 Workshop on Adaptive Approaches for Optimizing Player Satisfaction in Computer and Physical Games

Program Committee Member of the Sixth International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA'06)

Program Committee Member of the ICAPS 2006 Workshop on AI Planning for Computer Games and Synthetic Characters

Organization Committee Member of the ICAPS 2006 Workshop on Constraint Satisfaction Techniques for Planning and Scheduling Problems

Program Committee Member of the Second International Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE 2006)

Program Committee Member of the Fifth International Working Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA'05)

Program Committee Member of the IJCAI 2005 Workshop on Reasoning, Representation, and Learning in Computer Games

Program Committee Member of the First International Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE 2005)

Program Committee Member of the SCI 2005 Track on Operations Research, Tools & Applications

Program Committee Member of the Second Multidisciplinary International Conference on Scheduling: Theory and Applications (MISTA 2005)

Program Committee Member of the 23rd Workshop of the UK Planning and Scheduling Special Interest Group (PlanSIG 2004)

Program Committee Member of the Tenth International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP 2004)

Program Committee Member of the Twenty-First International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 2004)

Program Committee Member of the ECAI 2004 Workshop on Constraint Satisfaction Techniques for Planning and Scheduling Problems

Program Committee Member of the AAAI-04 Workshop on Challenges in Game AI

Program Committee Member of the Fourth International Working Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA 2003)

Program Committee Member of the First Multidisciplinary International Conference on Scheduling: Theory and Applications (MISTA 2003)

Program Committee Member of the Third Workshop on Agents for Business Automation (ABA-03)

Program Committee Member of the SCI 2003 Track on Operations Research, Tools & Applications

Program Committee Member of the CG'02 Workshop on Agents in Computer Games

Organization Committee Member of the 2001 European Space Agency's Workshop on On-Board Autonomy

Program Committee Member of the Fifteenth Workshop on Planning, Scheduling, Configuration and Design (PuK2001)

Program Committee Member of the SCCC 2000 Workshop on Advances & Trends in AI for Problem Solving

Lecturer of "EE4702 - Game World Mechanics" (National University of Singapore; year 2008/2009, semester 2; year 2009/2010, semester 2; year 2010/2011, semester 2; year 2011/2012, semester 2; year 2012/2013, semester 2) Lecturer of "EE3702 - Electronic Gaming" (National University of Singapore; year 2007/2008, semester 1; year 2008/2009, semester 1; year 2009/2010, semester 1; year 2010/2011, semester 1; year 2011/2012, semester 1; year 2012/2013, semester 1) Lecturer of "EE4217 - Technology of Digital Entertainment" (National University of Singapore; year 2006/2007, semester 2) Tutor of "EE2012 - Analytical Methods in Electrical and Computer Enigineering" (National University of Singapore; year 2006/2007, semester 1 and 2; year 2007/2008, semester 2) Lecturer of "Seminar Softwaretechnik: Constraint Programming" (Technical University of Berlin; year 1998/1999, winter semester) Supervisor/Member of the NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, 2009-2013 Mentor at the 2006 Singapore X|Media|Lab

Post-Docs/PhD Students/Research Assistants (National University of Singapore): Amit KUMAR, 2007-2014. Eric VIDAL, 2008-2014. Manni HUANG, 2009-2011. Hector SANTIANO, 2009-2011. Robert Nicholas GEBBIE, 2010-2011. Solomon SEE, 2010-2011. Sima BEHPOUR, 2008-2010. Barbaros BOSTAN, 2008-2010. Albert MORRISSEY, 2009-2010. Aditya AGARWAL, 2008-2009. Jing WEN, 2009.

Master Students: Ongoing: National University of Singapore: Min FU ("The Impact of Risk for a Game Player's Pleasure and Motivation") 2011: National University of Singapore: Zhengmiao TIAN ("Using Explanation Structures to Speed Up Local-Search-based Planning") 2011: National University of Singapore: Jun HU ("Using Case-based Planning to Assist Local-Search-based Planning") 2010: National University of Singapore: Wee Tan CHEE ("Transaction Tracking for Multiplayer Games") 2009: National University of Singapore: Michael Toh Kong WONG ("Biomeasures for Analyzing a Game Player Experience") 2004: Technical University of Munich / Germany: Daniel Weiß ("A Modular Graphical User Interface for Interactive Planning") 2003: Technical University of Berlin / Germany: Tim Bärmann ("Realisierung struktureller Constraints")

Final Year Project Students: [Available Topics] 2013: National University of Singapore: Kimberly Yuan Xun TEO ("Dynamic Pricing Strategies for Virtual Goods in Computer Games") 2012: National University of Singapore: Rudy Hartono PEK ("Games vs. Movies - The Role of Own Acting"), Ankit KUSHWAHA ("Dynamic Pricing Strategies for Virtual Goods"), Ronald Jun Guo TEO ("Pricing Strategies and Storefront Design for Virtual Goods") 2011: National University of Singapore: Priyadarshini BANERJEE ("Players' Exploration vs. Sticking to the Tested and True"), Fang Yong FOO ("A Real-Time Engine for 2D Game Character Modifications"), Siyuan LIU ("An Artist Interface for the Specification of 2D Game Character Modifications"), Aditya Kristanto GOENAWAN ("Multi-Unit Tactical Pathplanning: Real-Time Dynamic Adaptation"), Unmukt GOEL ("Analyzing a Game Player's Experience"), Da WANG ("A Test Game for Psychological Experiments"), Saba LAL ("Empathy: Superman vs. Joe the Plumber"), Chrystal Yan Ling ANG ("Motivation Dynamics"), Bich Hong THI DAO ("Optimizing the Tension Curve for Entertainment"), Siqiang XU ("Player Reactions to Unexpected Reward Outcomes"), Augustine Zi Eu CHEONG ("Enhancing a Graphical User Interface for Planning"), Bharat BHATIA ("Visual Analysis of the Run-time Performance of a Planning System"), Shruthi RAMACHANDIRAN ("Memory Optimization for Dynamic Artificial Intelligence Systems") 2010: National University of Singapore: Xuanyun Calista LEE ("How to Show and Act out Character Traits"), Daniel Wei TAN ("Gesture Design for Virtual Characters"), Tammy Man Li PAH ("Visualization Techniques for 2D Game Characters: an Artist Tool"), Neo Yuzhao NI ("Multi-Unit Tactical Pathplanning: Optimization and Extension"), Tracy Hui Li PAH ("Strategies for Avoiding Pleasure Conflicts in Multi-Player Games"), Tsyr Harn KOH ("Motivation Generation Techniques for Computer Games"), Zhang Pei CHAO ("Cues and Magnitude of Motivation for Computer Games"), Shi LI ("Game Physics Manipulation"), Cindy Si Min HO ("The Impact of Time Pressure on Motivation, Pleasure and Aversion"), Shang Jia TING ("The Impact of Perceived Effort on Motivation, Pleasure and Aversion"), Larry Jun Wen TOK ("Motivation and Perceived Pleasure and Aversion"), Samuel Sheng Nuo LIEW ("Analyzing the Intensity Roller Coaster in Entertainment"), Anita Shenglan KANG ("Memory Mechanisms for Entertainment Experiences"), Chern Kuan GOH ("Magnitude of Reward Propagation to Earliest Predictors"), Xinying CHEAH ("Reward Differences in Seeing an Action vs. Own Acting"), Christopher Aldo TANDAR ("Enhancing a Graphical User Interface for Planning"), Liang LI ("Transitioning to an Object-Oriented Language for Planning Systems"), Viet LE QUOC ("Memory Optimization for Dynamic Artificial Intelligence Systems"), Padma SUBRAMANIAN ("Dynamic Music Generation for Games"), Manoj XAVIER ("Hierarchical Action Handling for Continuous Local-Search-based Planning"), J.Vikneswaran A/L PALANIANDY ("Designing a Tool for Client-Server Architecture Evaluation for Online Game Service Providers") 2009: National University of Singapore: Shan Ming KOH ("Visualization Techniques for 2D Game Characters: Dynamic Synthesis"), Hwan Ek LOW ("Integrating External Dynamics into Planning"), Joshua Zhi Ming TAN ("Realizing Meta-Planning"), Sidtharshini D/O MANUNETHI ("Cue Design for the Manipulation of Game Players"), Shasi ANAND.S ("Data Structures for Story Representation"), Ryan Weilun WEE ("Scene Patterns for Game Situations"), Zi Xu SIEW ("Player Manipulation in Gaming"), Shawna Chun Ghim TAN ("Actor Expressions"), Yingyu LIU ("A Graphical User Interface for Planning"), Gary Zisheng LIN ("Profiling a Game Player by Test Situations"), Keng Hong LER ("A Rule Engine to Drive Game Logic"), Wee Siang LEE ("Case-based Reasoning for Game Player Behavior Prediction: Feature Optimization"), Omar Naeem MALIK ("Multi-Unit Tactical Pathplanning: Optimization"), Wen Jun SEAH ("Multi-Unit Tactical Pathplanning for Games: Relaxation") 2008: National University of Singapore: Irvin Chua XIANWEI ("Formalizing Story Structure Knowledge"), Stanley Huang JUNHAO ("Formalizing Character Generation Knowledge"), Lei LIU ("A Character Behavior Interface for the Source Game Engine"), Neelesh Chandrakant JADHAV ("A Pac-Man Game Framework"), Wenhe ZHAO ("Prediction of User Behavior in Gaming"), Haiqing WANG ("Multi-Unit Strategic Pathplanning")

Research Project Grants:

"Automated Storyplanning for Games" (2008-2011; 3 years), S$ 1,053,588, funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF2007IDM-IDM002-051) "Interactive Intelligence - Pushing Entertainment to the Next Level" (2007-2009; 3 years), S$ 150,000, funded by the MOE-Academic Research Fund ARF and the NUS University Operating Budget (RG-263-001-148)

(Alexander Nareyek's previous research projects include Crackpot, the next generation of the labs' planning system, and its predecessor, the DragonBreath engine / EXCALIBUR project.)

Other:

Emmy Noether Fellowship of the German Research Foundation (DFG) (2002-2003) Winner of the Founders Competition Multimedia 1998 of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) Enhanced Ph.D. scholarship by the German Research Foundation (DFG) (1997-2000) 1997 Best Diploma Thesis Award by the German National Research Center for Information Technology (GMD)

Last update:
1-Aug-2016 by Alexander Nareyek