Matt Smith was born in the UK in 1967. In 1980 (you do the math) Matt started computer programming (on a ZX80) and has been programming ever since. In 1985 Matt wrote the lyrics, and was a member of the band that played (and sang, sorry about that by the way) the music on the B-side of the audio cassette carrying the computer game Confuzion (wikipedia.org/wiki/Confuzion). After receiving his bachelor's degree in business computing (Huddersfield University, UK), he started looking for more “fun” in computing, leading to his masters in Artificial Intelligence (Aberdeen University, Scotland), and then his PhD in Computational Musicology (Open University, UK). Having run out of money after 10 years as a full time student he began his career as a lecturer and academic. He has now been lecturing in programming, artificial intelligence, and interactive multimedia for almost 20 years, holding full time positions at Winchester University, London's Middlesex University. In 2002 he moved to Ireland to his current college where he is now senior lecturer in computing at the Institute of Technology in Blanchardstown, Dublin. In the last few years Matt has introduced Unity-based 3D game development and interactive virtual environments subjects to his computing and digital media students. His current academic work involves investigating the use of computer games technologies to support teaching and learning, in the emerging field of “serious games”. Previously he worked on Java mobile phone gaming for the European SECASE project, and with a graduate student investigating mobile game multimedia content internationalization. To keep fit Matt took up the Korean martial art of Taekwon-Do (he developed and runs his club's website at maynoothtkd.com), and a group of his BSc students are now developing a Unity-based Taekwon-Do interactive “tutor” with Microsoft Kinect cameras. Some of his previous Irish-French student team games can be found and played at saintgermes.com (thanks for continuing to host these Guillem!). Matt was one of the two technical experts for a recent multimedia European project for language and cultural student work mobility (vocalproject.eu). Matt is currently struggling to learn Korean (for his Taekwon-Do), and Irish (since his daughter Charlotte attends an Irish speaking school and he doesn't believe her translations of her teacher's report cards). Matt's previous authoring includes contributions to “Serious Games and Edutainment Applications” (Springer 2012), “Musical Imagery” (Swets & Zeitlinger 2000 / Taylor and Frances 2012), and he was also lead editor for “Computer Education: An Artificial Intelligence Approach” (Springer 1994). I would like to thank my family for all their support, especially my wife Sinead. Thanks also to my students, who continue to challenge and surprise me with their enthusiasm for multimedia and game development.
