Project ISF: Using Video Game Technology to Teach and Interrogate Policy and Politics Toward Building Sustainable Communities Program DUIRI - Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship Term Spring 2024 Status Accepted Research Area Institute for a Sustainable Future Description This project uses video game technology (Unreal Engine) to create a "society simulator" in which the player learns about various political philosophies via their application in the simulator. The simulation is meant to be entertaining as well as educational. The program is scientifically sound, and is able to run without a player at all in non-real-time to simulate large scale scenarios using extremely large data sets and sophisticated modeling. The goal is to understand how existing societal organizing principles, when simulated and studied in silico, contribute - or fail to contribute - to sustainable societies in finite-resource problem spaces. Supervisor David M Whittinghill Mentor David M Whittinghill Type of work required We are seeking a team of creators and researchers in the following domains: political science, computer graphics (programming), computer graphics (art), agent-based modeling and systems thinking, data science, and UX. This is an ongoing research project, however we seek a cohort of five students to join us each semester. Deliverables include game software and publishable research manuscripts. Websites Qualifications Students must demonstrate experience working autonomously/independently without requiring explicit instruction; a problem-seeking, problem-solving mindset is required. As the project requires expertise from a diverse set of disciplines, a strict screening criteria is not applicable for candidate selection. Rather, students should assemble and submit a portfolio, preferably on a website or within a zip file, containing a resume, and samples of previous work. Applicants will be screened on an individual basis with a holistic focus in which we attempt to avoid reducing persons down to rubric checkboxes and instead understand each person's perspective, enthusiasm, ability to work well with others, independence, curiosity, and domain-specific previous work. Credit Hours 0 Weekly Hours 10 (estimated)