Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen

Assistant professor, PhD
Dept. of Digital Aesthetics & Communication
IT University of Copenhagen
Rued Langgaards Vej 7
DK - 2300 København S


Phone: +45 72 18 50 25
Mobile: +45 4010 7969


sen@itu.dk

Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen is currently assistant profssor at IT-University of Copenhagen heading a research project on serious games. He is a founding member of Center for Computer Games Research Copenhagen. He has been studying, researching, and working with computer games especially from an educational perspective since the mid 1990s. He has published two Danish books on computer games, learning, and educations, and regularly gives talk on the subject both nationally and internationally. He has also founded the company Serious Games Interactive that currently have 8 employess working on the upcoming title Global Conflicts: Middle East that is expected to be released ultimo 2006.

From primo 2002 to primo 2005 he wrote a PhD on the educational potential of commercial computer games trying to frame a new research field. During this time he has presented at several international conferences as invited speaker and serves as a board member on the newly formed Digital Game Research Association which is fast becoming the hub for game researchers.
He is a board member of Digital Game Research Association, editor of ivory tower column, and co-founder of Game-Research.com.

He has a Masters degree in psychology from Copenhagen university. Master thesis on learning, information technology and educational system. Have studied information technology from a psychological perspective throughout the study, and have focused on computer games since the bachelor project.

In 2000 he was the co-author of the first Danish academic book on computer games that was very well received by the press. Building on the success of the book the Danish web resource for game research auto-fire.dk was launched, which later evolved into the English site Game-research that now have 60.000 page views a month, and a mailing list with 2000+ subscribers. It is recognized as an important lighthouse in the game research community.

Before starting a PhD Egenfeldt-Nielsen worked for Framfab with usability, prototyping, project management, and concept design for web-sites including a number of online games for Nike Football. Among these the acclaimed game Secret Tournament as a core member of the team. The game was launched for the World Cup 2002, and is still the core game platform for Nikefootball.com

He has in 2003 developed a Danish educational material for how to use computer games in the educational system. In 2003 he was also commissioned by the Danish Media Council for Children and Young to write an overview of the research traditions in game research. The review has later been translated to English.

His latest project involves the writing of the first English-language text-book on computer games with Associate Professor Susana Tosca and PhD student Jonas H. Smith.