My Name is Alpesh Makwana and I am the 2nd year PhD student from department of Modeling and Simulation at University of Central Florida (UCF). I have completed my undergraduate program from Computer Science in
India during summer 2002. Soon after finishing my undergraduate program, I came to UCF in fall 2002 to pursue higher education. So far, I have finished my Masters in Modeling & Simulation with thesis - “Voice track computer based simulation for medical training”. I was the fellowship student during my first year of PhD, and currently working as a Graduate Research Assistant with Mr. Ron Tarr at Institute for Simulation & Training (I.S.T). I have passed my PhD qualifying exams in Spring 2006, and currently working towards the candidacy exam under supervision of Dr. Rudy McDaniel and Dr. Michael Moshell.
Over the past few years in UCF I have worked on the projects such as “Emergency Management during chlorine gas release”, “Visualization of Hurricane”, and “Web based simulation in medical training”. My current research interest focuses on Serious Games, Collaborative Learning, Design and Develop User Interface for education and training. In particular, I am more interested in using Game Engines/Virtual Environment to increase the performance via collaborative learning or training.
Since childhood playing out door games is a passion for me, and I was never a big fan of playing video games. However, I enjoy more watching video game players and observe their reaction, behavior, and how well they get immerse while playing the game. I like movies which are based on true story or reveal any realism of human life. I love to travel, eat different ethnic food and also interested in playing or watching various sports such as football, cricket, ice-hockey, basketball etc. In my spare time I read about health and nutrition, love to watch and read news and also unearth the history of various countries, culture, and language. Every morning, I rarely miss the opportunity of doing meditation. I am also fond of working out in morning (sometimes I like to sleep little bit lateJ) and keep track on intake of various nutritional components for healthy living.
So far, in my career I have not written any story using text or interactive medium. Unlike movie, video games have a non linear story plot. According to my experience, story in a video game gets unfold depending upon user actions. However, to make game more fun, it is essential that video game progresses based on the author’s story plot. So, I am interested in constructing such story plots which engage the gamer in a way that the gamer follows predefined author’s story path. I wonder if I could create such stories using various medium of instruction.
I look forward to participate and interact with other classmates in class and web discussions.
