Harnessing AI and Games for Social Impact: From Player Modeling to Resilience Building

Abstract: Interactive computational experiences, social simulations, and digital games are being increasingly leveraged for applications in entertainment, health, education, training, and addressing global challenges, such as climate resilience. In this talk, I will present my research journey at the intersection of AI, human-computer interaction (HCI), and game design, focusing on how interactive technologies can address pressing societal challenges in education, mental health, and climate resilience. I will present a body of work that is inherently interdisciplinary, integrating techniques from machine learning, data science, and visualization with theories from the learning sciences to build systems that are effective in promoting learning, behavior change, and well-being.

Specifically, in this talk, I will present a new behavioral visual analytics system that integrates multimodal data from behavioral logs to conversational data to model problem-solving behaviors, integrating process mining and discovery algorithms with a visualization system. This system was then used and adapted in various projects. In this talk, I will focus on three projects. The first, Open Player Modeling (OPM), showcases a novel spatio-temporal visualization system for educational games that facilitates process reflection. This work addresses the challenge of making complex player data comprehensible by contributing a spatial abstraction algorithm and a knowledge graph assimilated from expert knowledge to rank different game states. We then utilize a visualization system with integrated AI annotations to offer real-time, personalized learning opportunities, aiding students in their metacognitive processes of reflection and adaptation. The second project, LUX, introduces an Alternate Reality Game designed as an ecologically valid platform to measure and understand the dynamics of psychological resilience and coping mechanisms in real-world settings. I will describe how we use the process mining algorithms and visualizations to generate process-dependency graphs from event logs, which are then analyzed to identify and validate behavioral patterns of coping and team adaptation. Finally, I will discuss our work on Climate Resilience, which focus on discourse analysis and its use within a serious game about wildfire preparedness to uncover the nuanced ways communities collaboratively build knowledge and strategies for collective safety.

Together, these projects demonstrate a powerful shift from outcome-based metrics to process-oriented understanding, illustrating how we can harness player modeling, AI, data science, and interactive design towards more resilient and adaptive communities.

Bio: Dr. Magy Seif El-Nasr is a Professor and the Department Chair of Computational Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she also holds the prestigious UC Presidential Chair. With a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Northwestern University, her career has been dedicated to interdisciplinary work at the intersection of artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, and game design. Dr. Seif El-Nasr’s influential research focuses on developing novel, data-driven methods to understand and enhance human experiences within interactive environments, to create meaningful social impact in education, healthcare, and training. She is a pioneer in the field of game analytics, having authored the seminal book “”Game Analytics: Maximizing the Value of Player Data”” and led groundbreaking work in using Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) to study psychological constructs, such as resilience and adaptability. Her significant contributions to the field are further evidenced by numerous awards, including being named an ACM Distinguished Member, as well as a substantial record of securing external funding to support her innovative research agenda. Furthermore, her work has received several Best Paper Awards and Honorable Mentions from the HCI, games research, and AI communities. In her leadership roles at both UC Santa Cruz and previously at Northeastern University, she has played a pivotal role in developing world-class educational and research programs.

This seminar is both online and in-person:
Zoom Link