Seth Cooper is an Associate Professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University. He earned his PhD in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. Seth’s work focuses on video games, crowdsourcing, and the combination of the two. He is co-creator of Foldit, a video game that has allowed hundreds of thousands of players to be involved in scientific research in biochemistry. Seth has previously worked at Square Enix, Electronic Arts, and Pixar Animation Studios, and as the Creative Director of the Center for Game Science.
In his talk, Seth is exploring how people and computers working together can solve problems neither could solve alone. To support this, video games provide a compelling approach: they are a natural space for problem solving and can foster the engagement necessary for people to make a contribution. Games have been used in this way to crowdsource approaches to protein design, software verification, and image labeling. Seth ´will discuss a variety of approaches to making games that could be used to crowdsource the solution to problems.