Fotos Frangoudes is a first year PhD student in Computer Science at USC. Prior to that he received his MS in Computer Science with Games Specialization at USC, on a Fulbright Scholarship, and his BS in Computer Science from the University of Cyprus, graduating first in his class. He is interested in serious games, with a focus on health and education, as he believes in the life-changing power of games. He has participated in projects like USCs Information Sciences Institute TeamIt project, which is an alternate reality game studying interactions between users and agents, implementing a multiplayer co-op game on USC Gamepipes Comsmopolis platform.
Currently, he is the lead engineer on Social Clues, a point-and-click, puzzle-adventure game, on mobile platforms, for children with autism and developmental disabilities that teaches pragmatics and social skills. Last year, he was part of the Core Overload Final Games team developing a top-down shooter game. He is also part of the Creative Media and Behavioral Health Center at USC, where he is working on the VR-Based Sensorimotor Play Therapy for Upper Limb Rehabilitation project, which aims in helping people with upper limb disorders, exercise with the use of Kinect and gametrak devices. His research interests include study of human behavior in games, the impact games can have in people education and how they can help patient rehabilitation. On his free time he likes to play board and video games, basketball and tennis.