Professor Frans Mäyrä has studied the relationship of culture and technology since the early nineties. He is the founder and head of Tampere University Game Research Lab, director of Center of Excellence in Game Culture Studies and the founder and former president of Digital Games Research Association, DiGRA. Prof. Mäyrä has authored the book An Introduction to Game Studies (2008), one of the leading textbooks in game studies, and has published e.g., in Journal of Communication, Video Game Policy, The Video Game Debate and The Dark Side of Game Play.
Dr. Juho Hamari is a Professor of Gamification and leads research on gamification across national research profiling, Flagship and Center of Excellence programs of Research Council of Finland. According to Stanford / Elsevier’s international bibliometric analyses, Professor Hamari is the most impactful researcher in Finland.
Associate Professor Johanna Virkki focuses on augmentative and alternative communication, and smart and gameful clothing in her research. She is leading the Intelligent Clothing research group. Her work has been published in e.g.,Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, IEEE Transactions on Device and Materials Reliability, International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health.
Assistant Professor Oguz ‘Oz’ Buruk focuses on designing games and play for posthumans, encompassing technologies like brain-machine interfaces, robotic companions, bodily interfaces, transspecies communication, and space habitation. His work is regularly acknowledged by field-leading conferences such as the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems and the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play. In addition, he has published in journals like International Journal of Design, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies and Behaviour & Information Technology.
Professor Henri Pirkkalainen‘s primary research interests include emerging technologies for business like social virtual reality and blockchain, and the “dark side” (negative effects) of information systems. Prof. Pirkkalainen leads a research group that addresses these topics, and is one of the leading academic figures in the development of European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU) at Tampere University. His work has been published in e.g. Management Information Systems Quarterly (MISQ), International Journal of Information Management and Journal of Management Information Systems.
Senior Lecturer Toni Pippola is the leader of Games Academy at Tampere University of Applied Sciences. He has a wide-ranging experience in both game development and teaching in university-level from two-dimensional mobile games to XR solutions and game business models.
Assistant Professor Nannan Xi’s research is focused on game-based approaches in management, retailing, finance, and consumer psychology. She is the leader of Virtumer (Virtual Consumer) research group and the deputy dean of the Asia Gamification Specialized Committee. Prof. Xi’s work has been published in e.g., Journal of Business Research, Information Systems Frontiers and Internet research.
Professor Olli Sotamaa is studying game culture and game production from critical perspective. He is coordinating research focusing on the creation and production of games in the Research Council of Finland’s Center of Excellence in Game Culture Studies. His work has been published in e.g., Games and Culture, Convergence and New Media.
Assistant Professor Mattia Thibault’s research encompasses the synergies and translations between media and communication, playfulness and the real and digital built environment. His work has been published in e.g., American Journal of Play, Semiotica and Mobilities.
Assistant Professor Muhterem Dindar’s research is focused on learning processes in game-based and collaborative learning environments. He has extensive knowledge and unique methodological experience on multimodal data collection, and he is one of the leading figures research infrastructure development in game-related research. His work has been published in e.g., Learning and Instruction, Education and Information Technologies and Metacognition and Learning.
Professor Kristian Kiili has studied game-based learning and assessment, learning engagement, and educational game design for more than two decades. The results of his research have been applied to award-winning learning products. His ground-breaking work on experiential gaming models published in Internet and Higher Education is one of the most cited articles in game-based learning. In addition, his research has been published in e.g. Computers & Education, Computers in Human Behavior, British Journal of Educational Technology, and Educational Technology Research and Development.