ITU researchers secure EU funding for research in digital agriculture and affective gaming

ITU researchers secure EU funding for research in digital agriculture and affective gaming

Professor Steffen Dalsgaard and Assistant Professor Elisa Mekler have collectively secured almost half a million euros from the Marie Sklodowska Curie Programme to fund two postdocs working on projects in digital agriculture and affective gaming.

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Written 15 April, 2024 09:34 by Mai Valentine Kristensen

The grant of half a million covers two research projects, one focusing on the challenges of developing affective gaming or gameplays, led by postdoc Raquel Robinson in collaboration with ITU assistant professor, Elisa Mekler. The other project investigates sustainability claims of digital agriculture, with postdoc Myléne Tanferri as the principal researcher in collaboration with Professor and Center Director for IT & Climate at ITU, Steffen Dalsgaard.

The funding comes from the prestigious EU fund Marie Sklodowska Curie Programme for postdocs (MSCA-PF), which aims to support innovative research and advance the careers of researchers holding a PhD by giving them the opportunity to work across borders. The fellowships from MSCA-PF will cover the research projects for two years.

Digital agriculture and sustainability in practice

Postdoc Mylène Tanferri is behind the idea for the research project DIGIPHYT, where she, along with Professor Steffen Dalsgaard, will investigate the coherence between digital agriculture and sustainability in practice.

"My research focuses on understanding digitization as a process and its consequences across various activities that are central for our collectives. The fellowship will allow me to study it within agriculture, while collaborating with Professor Steffen Dalsgaard at the Center for Climate & IT. The Center offers a unique intersection of two research fields that is difficult to find elsewhere," says Mylène Tanferri.

With the project, Mylène Tanferri aims to examine whether new technologies in agriculture, known as digital agriculture, foster sustainability in practices. Digital agriculture involves collecting and analysing real-time data from plant conditions to assist farmers in making more effective decisions regarding water usage, fertilisation and pesticide use. Proponents of digital agriculture argue that it will lead farmers to make more sustainable and environmentally friendly choices, however little research has examined whether this is true in practice.

"With technology there is always the discussion of whether it is good or bad. What I aim to uncover with this project is how technology, such as digital agriculture, is produced, used, and perceived in practice, so we can make informed decisions about digitization and sustainability," says the researcher.

DIGIPHYT is a qualitative study based on interviews, video methods, and ethnographic observations of those using and developing digital agriculture technologies.

The project is expected to commence on 1 June, 2024.

The lack of progress in affective games

Postdoc Raquel Robinson has received the second fellowship from MSCA-PF for her research idea, RAGE, which will examine the challenges of designing and developing affective games. The term refers to games that are influenced by the player's emotional response through sensors that monitor the player's heart rhythm, facial expressions, and perspiration. Research in the field has stagnated since its inception in the 1980s, which Raquel Robinson, together with assistant professor at ITU, Elisa Mekler, aims to address.

"My main area of expertise is within physiology-based, affective and biofeedback games, whereas Elisa Mekler will contribute with knowledge on how developers use and work with theory in game design. By combining our two areas of expertise, we hope to be able to both identify the problems contributing to the lack of progress in affective gaming and gameplay, but also contribute to new game designs based on those findings, reviving the field of affective gaming," says Raquel Robinson.

Raquel Robinson will collaborate with ITU's various research groups and laboratories, such as the Center for Digital Play, Affective Interactions and Relations (AIR), and Interaction design, which will allow for different insights and perspectives that will support the project.

The research project will commence on 1 May, 2024.

Further information

Theis Duelund Jensen, presseansvarlig, +45 25 55 04 47, [email protected]

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