Joint conference on serious games

Video game-based technologies are increasingly important for cutting-edge research in fields such as health and learning. Now the latest international conference dealing with the burgeoning discipline is to be held in the UK, at the University of Huddersfield.

The Joint Conference on Serious Games takes place on June 3-4. The event - which is a combination of the Sixth International Conference on Serious Games Development and the Fifth GameDays Conference - is chaired by Professor Minhua Ma, who is Director of Internationalisation in the University of Huddersfield's School of Art, Design and Architecture.

A computer scientist by background, she has made key contributions to the development of virtual reality games in education and healthcare, such as the rehabilitation of stroke victims. Her books include Serious Games and Edutainment Applications and the recent edited volume Virtual, Augmented Reality and Serious Games for Healthcare 1.

On her arrival at the University of Huddersfield in 2014, Professor Ma offered it as the venue for the Joint Conference and she is a member of its multi-national team of organisers. The programme committee for the conference has representatives of 17 countries throughout the world.

Over the course of two days, there will be 18 keynote addresses, papers and presentations in a sequence of five themed sessions that cover topics such as games for health, games for learning and game design and development.

Papers will describe research such as a participatory game design for children after cancer treatment; a game-based training system for back pain rehabilitation exercises; the use of serious games to train cognition in adolescents; language learning via games; and the use of game mechanics and narrative techniques in the field of literary heritage.

Provided by University of Huddersfield