Academia vs. Industry

I was, and I am, facing this dillemma. I have talk to a lot of people, think long night. Those people were from both areas. Some of them shift from academia to industry, others shift the other way.

I have already shift once. And as I am looking back about results of my decision. I can honestly say, if I wont make this decision, it will bother me until end of my days. So, what are the results of my research on topic academia vs. industry?

This question usually comes with the beginning of  PhD. studies. More people tell me, that PhD. can open you many doors. And I agree. PhD is usefull not just in academia, but also in any kind of research activity. For example IBM is hiring for research positions people only with PhD. degree. 

The other thing is, what you want. Is it money? forget about PhD. If money is you primary motivator, don't do PhD. Interesting work can be in academia and also in industry. In academia you have large amount of freedom, in industry it is a bit more tight, but good idea is never lost. If you want your work to have real impact, go for industry. If you have many crazy ideas, which you want to realize, go for academia. Well the truth is, academia is all about freedom. Like one wise (academia) man said to me, what holds me in this place is the freedom of what you can do. 

Don't forget, whatever is your decision, you can always switch if you don't like it. So try PhD. write few articles, teach students, do research, realize your ideas. Try industry, go to work, use agile development techniques, cooperate, see impact of your work, have money.

So what is the result? One can not exactly say what is "better". You can just make decision what is better for you. It is like 2 equation, one for academia, one for industry. And you are the variable. Put yourself into those equations and then compare result. 

So bye for now. It is time for me to do some Math.

P.S.: Here is an example, that one can found his true path, even if he is professor on Harward.

http://matt-welsh.blogspot.com/2010/11/why-im-leaving-harvard.html

More on computer games PhD

Hello mr. reader.

So application for ITU Copenhagen done. It was pretty much fight to get everything on time, but there is not too much bureaucracy. We will see how it will go. Btw. I have combined topics 2 and 3 from previous post and submit them. looks pretty good.

But not to bet always only one horse, I have decided also to post more applications. Currently it will be University of Waikato. And here are research topics I am proposing (as topic for research):

1. Persuasive games and public gameplay : Company called MegaPhone [1] recently present their technology, which allows for people play computer games using their mobile phones just in the middle of the street. This technology has been used widely in marketing, which is by nature persuasive. Until now, there was no study about use of this technology specially in persuasive games. It is really interesting to explore what is people attracting to this kind of games and factors as public presentation or physical aspect, which brings difference between classic multiplayer games and MegaPhone games. Also, because this is pretty different way of presentation of game, design challenges and decisions are pretty different, so this is another nice topic about which one can think. So here are few basic questions, on which I would like find answers in work on this topic: How can public games influence players behaviour? What are design challenges for combination of public and persuasive games? How to design successful public game? What are main differences between design of classic casual multiplayer games and public multiplayer games? Are public games suitable only for casual games? How can be public persuasive games used in other areas (marketing, public opinion research, education)? How to use public games for education (use of serious games)?

More generally about persuasive design and technology, there are some young conferences about this topic [2] [3], so here it is observable, that this topic is becoming interesting for scientific community.

Megaphone provides free developer program, in which I participate now and I believe that they would appreciate cooperation in this area, so I can can contact them and create university+industry link.

2. Brain-Computer Interface and adaptive gameplay : Adaptive games are nothing new in computer games research, there is plenty of publication by many institutions and also there are IEEE and ACM conferences on this topic. Pioneer in this are was ITU Copenhagen Centre for Computer game research [4]. Currently research is done all over the world including Sydney Australia, Concordia Canada, Bergen Norway, Georgia Tech USA and many others. Most of papers use for "adaptation" direct player feedback or indirect variables, such as player success in the game.

BCI is existing for a long time, but it is really young area and there is not too much commercial use of it. Most advanced product is [5], which is one I would like to use in my work. First papers about combination of BCI and computer games are only from last years (09-10). And none of them is actually discusses their combination with adaptive gameplay.

This is more experimental topic and open questions are not so clear, but some can be stated: How can be BCI used for adaptive games? Should be BCI used only as passive element, or should player be able also to influence gameplay through it? What is the right metrics to measure player satisfaction with BCI? What challenges are in design of adaptive games with BCI? Can use of BCI during early prototyping of game give results, which can lead to better design of final game?

But except wide theoretical study, purpose of this research will be create actual game, which is using BCI to adapt.

[1] http://www.playmegaphone.com/index.php

[2] http://www.persuasive2010.org/

[3] http://designforpersuasion.com/

[4] http://game.itu.dk/index.php/about

[5] http://www.emotiv.com/