Dr. Matthew Fendt

Lecturer, Department of Computer Science

 

 

Education 

Ph.D, North Carolina State University, 2014

B.S, University of Delaware, 2009

Profile 

I teach the introductory gaming class, CSI 1337, as well as the upper level game engine class, CSI 4342, and the gaming capstone, CSI 43C8.  My PhD work was in the creation of a narrative generation tool for authors.  Now I create learning and educational games.  I have three ongoing projects.

• A mobile game to teach grade school and high school students about the drop tower over in the BRIC.  This is to encourage students to pursue a STEM education.  The game is currently in development and if you want to poke around with the apk it is here.
• A mobile app to promote health education in India.
• A collaboration with the Family Health Center in Waco, who provides health care to under serviced populations in the Waco area.  We developed an app for their researchers to assist in patient survey administration.

I also supervised students in the development of a game to teach people about the Armstrong Browning Library.  You can download the game here!

If any of those projects sound interesting to you, please come talk to me about them or other gaming research opportunities.  My office is in Cashion 360.02.  If you want to see some of the papers I have published, you can find them on my Google Scholar page.

We try to publish our senior gaming capstone games every year on Steam.  You can play our turn based strategy game Synch or our multiplayer battle arena game Mutation Mayhem on Steam.

Favorite Games

I learned to love video games from my dad, who brought home a DOS computer where I played Siege, Paladin 2, and Sim City.  My first gaming console was an Atari, and I loved the Joust game I had.  I also had the infamous E.T. game, and like everyone else, had no idea how to play it.  Nowadays I mainly play narrative games, like Life is Strange.  I am currently playing Night in the Woods.

Gaming Classes Taught

1. CSI 1337 Introduction to Video Game Design
2. CSI 4342 Game Engines
3. CSI 43C8 Senior Gaming Capstone