Sylvester Arnab

Dr. Sylvester Arnab is a Professor in Game Science based at the DMLL, He was previously a Reader and Senior Research Fellow at the DMLL, Senior Researcher at the Serious Games Institute, UK, a Research Fellow at University of Warwick’s WMG and a lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. His research interests include the application and impact of game science (applied games, serious games, gamification, game-based learning, game design thinking, playful learning) in teaching and learning.

To date Sylvester has over 80 academic publications, including one edited book- Serious Games for Healthcare. He has also keynoted at events related to serious games, gamification and technology-enhanced learning. He is a founding member of the Serious Games Society (seriousgamessociety.org/) and he is consistently ranked in the top 10 of the Rise.Global Gamification Guru Power 100.

To date, Sylvester has successfully won projects with a total value of £19 million since 2010 including FP7, H2020, Erasmus+, NEWTON and HEFCE. He is currently coordinating and leading the Beaconing project  (beaconing.eu) funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No 687676 (€5.9 million, 15 partners, 3 years), HEFCE funded Mobile GameChangers and NEWTON (AHRC + MoHE) CreativeCulture project. He is also leading DMLL’s contribution to the EU H2020 Crowd4Roads project and the Erasmus+ Playing4Real project. He was also named as a co-investigator on the EU Funded PEGASO and MAGELLAN projects.

He has previously coordinated the R&D work package of the EU FP7 Games and Learning Alliance (GALA) as a Scientific Coordinator- a network of 31 partners across Europe. He has also project managed various development projects, such as the development of the £70K 'PR:EPARe' game, which won the Outstanding Contribution to Health Psychology award in 2013 and 'Imparapp' - pervasive gaming for language learning. Other awards include the Research Collaboration Fellowship to Boston in 2015, Prime Minister’s Initiative Partnership Development Grant for UK/ASIA in 2010 and the EU Transversal Programme Study Visit fund in 2011.

Games Science (gameful/playful design, serious games, game-based learning, gamification, game design thinking); Hybrid learning spaces; Technology-enhanced learning; Pervasive learning and technologies; Trans-disciplinary game-based intervention development; Multi-modal platforms (tactile, wearable, mobile, mixed-reality)

I am a champion of gameful, playful and persuasive designs that transform ordinary tasks into extraordinary experiences. My research interests are inspired by the potential of game techniques and technologies in sustaining engagement with serious activities. My research focus is influenced by the blending of physical and digital spaces, which has seen pervasive technologies being experimented in various application domains. I am also researching the impact of game design thinking in creative education. Through the next years, I am planning to experiment pervasive approaches in learning driven by games science and underpinned by research analysing in detail the pedagogic value of individual components. I have developed a trans-disciplinary and holistic model for game-based design and development that can be adopted by researchers, designers and developers. My research findings will feed into a book on Game Science that I am writing.