Faculty
The games faculty at Northeastern are profoundly cross-disciplinary and are drawn from across the colleges of the university. Their rich experience comes equally from their academic backgrounds and their many years of practical development and use of games and interactive media.
Casper Harteveld
Professor
Using games to study and improve decision making, and through these efforts both to advance our knowledge and to engage a broad cross-section of people globally about societal issues.
serious games — decision making — game user research — learning — systems thinking
Personal Website
Bob De Schutter
Professor
Game designer, researcher, educator, and advocate for meaningful play in later life.
Jointly appointed between CAMD and the Khoury College of Computer Science.
indie/art games – serious games – player motivation – aging
Personal Website – Studio Website
Celia Pearce
Professor
Celia Pearce is an award-winning game designer, author, researcher, teacher, curator, and artist, specializing in multiplayer gaming and virtual worlds, independent art, and alternative game genres.
ar games – artgames – immersive theatre – gender and diversity in games
Personal Website
Leanne Chukoskie
Associate Professor
Develops sensor-enabled experiences for assessment, intervention, and education, focusing on individuals with developmental differences. Work includes gaze-driven games for autism and cognitive decline, along with AR, VR, and game-based tools that help neurodiverse learners build workplace skills through research-supported programs.
AR – VR – neurodiversity – Biometrics – gaze interaction
Aaron Seitz
Professor
Developing experiences to understand and train cognition to benefit people with diverse needs across the lifespan. Integrates Psychology, Neuroscience, Art & Design, Music, and Rehabilitation Sciences.
sharable infrastructures – xr – eye tracking – eeg – fmri
Christopher Barney
Associate Teaching Professor
Developing tools and resources to support diversity in games and deeper more thoughtful game design.
design patterns – game design pedagogy – diversity
Personal Website – Pattern Library
Jennifer Gradecki
Assistant Professor
Using methods from institutional critique, tactical media, and information activism to facilitate a practice-based understanding of socio-technical systems that typically evade public scrutiny.
financial instruments — technologies of mass surveillance
Personal Website
Nik Bear Brown
Associate Teaching Professor
With a PhD in computer science from UCLA, he has extensive experience teaching courses in computer science, statistics, applied mathematics, programming. He teaches deep learning, reinforcement learning, game AI, real-time 3D, and machine learning at Northeastern University.
Personal Website
Derek Curry
Associate Professor
He creates research-driven artworks and games that help people understand complex systems such as automated decision-making, algorithmic trading, and OSINT practices. His work brings together art, research, and digital tools.
Personal Website
Seth Cooper
Associate Professor
People and computers working together in video games to solve real-world problems; data-driven game design
human computation games – citizen science – crowdsourcing
Personal Website
Giovanni Troiano
Research Associate Professor
Human-computer interaction (HCI) researcher investigating and evaluating new conceptual and empirical HCI paradigms.
critical design – ethics – gamification – computer science education
Amy S. Lu
Associate Professor
Exploring the psychological and behavioral effects of interactive media technologies for health promotion.
games for health – narratives – child obesity – health technology – behavioral science
Personal Website – Lab Website
Calgar Yidirim
Assistant Teaching Professor
HCI and immersive VR environments, applying human factors principles to the design, development, and evaluation of interfaces to support interactions with technology and virtual environments.
hci – immersive interfaces – vr
Chris Martens
Associate Professor
Dr. Chris Martens is a computer scientist and computational media scholar in the field of digital games and narrative with a joint appointment in College of Arts, Media and Design and Khoury College of Computer Sciences
AI – Storytelling – XR
Eileen McGivney
Assistant Professor
Studies learning and behavior in VR environments, including how the design of immersive experiences affects people’s emotions, motivation to learn, and sense of agency with mixed research methods in the classroom and the lab.
vr– learning – serious games
Caro Murphy
Visiting Associate Teaching Professor
Immersive experience design for large-scale themed, live, and mixed-media environments; business of games; transformational experience design; embodied play
immersive – larp – playable theatre– business – transformation – education
Personal Website
Bolor Amgalan
Assistant Teaching Professor
Interaction design in education, leveraging VR and blockchain technology to design culturally sensitive interventions impacting work and human-machine collaboration.
creativity tools – material research – virtual embodiment – wearable computing
Personal Website
Mark Sivak
Teaching Professor
He teaches design and technology across CAMD and Engineering, drawing on his background as a triple Husky in mechanical and interdisciplinary engineering. His work focuses on experience and product design for AR and VR, 3D printing, health, and education. He also oversees Northeastern’s 3D Printing Studio.
Brandon Sichling
Assistant Teaching Professor
Game designer and filmmaker whose work focuses on social justice and gender politics.
gender performance –collective action – the futility of militarism
Personal Website
Wallace Lages
Assistant Professor
Dr. Lages is an Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Art + Design and the Khoury College of Computer Sciences.
hci – health – vr
Personal Website
Alexandra To
Assistant Professor
Jointly appointed to Art+Design in CAMD and the Khoury College of Computer Science. HCI researcher, game designer, and racial justice activist doing empowerment. centered qualitative/design research.
hci – transformational games – critical race theory – racial justice – cscw
Xiaoying Meng
Adjunct Teaching Professor
Jason Donati
Teaching Professor
Award-winning animator and cinematographer whose animated films have been shown internationally. Work spans animation, cinematography, and visual storytelling. Active in professional animation and graphics communities, with a background in both teaching and creative practice.
Digital Cinematography – Visual Storytelling – Animation
Michael Swartz
Associate Teaching Professor
He is a digital media artist working in game art, 3D animation, character rigging, and digital fabrication. His projects range from rebuilding historical artifacts in VR to visualizing real-world issues such as water crises and cultural history. His work spans films, games, virtual reality, and interactive installations.
Digital Media – Game Art – 3D Modeling – 3D Animation
Erica Kleinman
Research Assistant Professor
Fox Zarow
Assistant Teaching Professor
Designing analog games centering queer experience, magic, & otherness; LGBTQ+ community making in cyber spaces; feminist theories & histories in games media + culture; experience design; design for dignity in labor; compassionate education.
roleplaying – collaborative storytelling – feminist media criticism – labor rights
Nathalie Mathe
Professor of the Practice
Nathalie Mathe is an award-winning Virtual Reality creator. She is the founder of NativeVR. Her work has been presented at conferences and festivals around the world.
xr – virtual embodiment – embodied cognition – neurodiversity
Personal Website – Lab Website
Cliff Lee
Professor
Researches culturally sustaining learning ecologies of BIPOC youth and communities creating publicly-disseminated interactive stories, at the intersections of ethnic studies, data science, AI, ecological justice, and arts expression.
interactive media – critical pedagogy – transformational games – computational thinking
Chris Wren
Adjunct Teaching Professor
Chris Wren comes from a background in AAA game development, working as an artist and producer companies like EA/Maxis, Namco and Microprose for over 13 years.
game design – game production – xr development – ux design
Van Phan
Adjunct Teaching Professor
Van Phan is an award-winning creator with a multidisciplinary background. He designs learner-centered experiences that bridge industry practice with cognitive science to spark powerful “Aha!” moments—cultivating curiosity, agency, and creativity that empower the next generation of creators beyond the classroom.
VR – neurodiversity – transformative learning – storytelling