Keynote

Abstract

This keynote is concerned with the ways in which story-based serious games can be used to learn soft skills. Drawing from two of the speaker’s projects from the last five years, we discuss the design challenges related to making soft skills learning games with strong story elements for diverse audiences as peacekeepers and child helpline counsellors; and covering soft skills ranging from communication, cultural awareness and gender awareness to identifying signs of trafficking in conversations with children who call a child helpline. The keynote will include live demos with one or both learning experiences.

Curriculum Vitae

Prof. Mads Haahr is a true multidisciplinarian with computer science (PhD-level) as well as literature (BA-level) skills and a strong combination of analytical, technical and creative abilities. He is Associate Professor at the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) where he also serves as Course Director for the MSc in Interactive Digital Media (IDM) and conducts research, primarily into serious games with a focus on interactive digital narrative. He has supervised six PhD theses and 100+ Masters theses to completion and also acted as internal and external examiner for research MSc and PhD students. He has authored or co-authored over 100 research papers in peer-reviewed forums and co-edited 10 peer-reviewed volumes. He is the Founder, CEO and Creative Director for the award-winning serious game studio Haunted Planet Studios and also know for creating the Internet’s premier true random number service RANDOM.ORG.