Cosmos Science City

Some of Adelaide’s best and brightest scientists and researchers come together each month to share conversations about breakthroughs, impacts and the science behind important issues, as part of a new lunchtime public science series.

Cosmos Science City is a collaboration between Cosmos and Adelaide’s three main tertiary institutions: the University of Adelaide, Flinders University and the University of South Australia.

The free lunchtime conversations are being held at The Science Exchange auditorium at 55 Exchange Place (behind 25 Grenfell Street), Adelaide, from 12.30 to 1.30pm.

Among the speakers booked for the session are:

Tony Albrecht, a Principal Engineer at Riot Games, where he helps build and maintain game engines for some of the most played games in the world. He’s worked in the games industry for nearly 25 years (16 of those as a remote worker) and has worked on consoles from the PlayStation 2 UP and on PC, Mac and mobile. He’s passionate about optimisation in games and, if given the opportunity, will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about it.

Dr Abi Thirumanickam, Lecturer, School of Allied Health Science and Practice, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide. Abi a speech pathologist and will be speaking about her research investigating the effectiveness of using off-the-shelf gaming such as Minecraft to facilitate social collaboration skills development in autistic youth.

Associate Professor Erik Champion, University of South Australia, who teaches Managing Game Design and an architectural elective in advanced digital media. Erik is supervising a PhD in Australian GLAM collections meta-games/interactive fiction, and another in virtual reality, aesthetics and historical Chinese architecture, an honours on horror game design, and co-supervising a PhD in architectural design and game design (with a focus on Unreal). Prior to academia, he worked for Digital, Compaq, Hansen Technologies, and London Council. 

Dr Lauren Woolbright, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Flinders University. Lauren’s research sits at the confluence of game studies and environmental humanities, focusing on how environments and mechanics communicate meaning in games using theories of game design, interactive storytelling, media studies, and environmental communication. Her recent work examines darker aspects of ecomedia in games using ecophobia, environmental mourning, and the monstrous-feminine as lenses. She is co-founder and lead editor of OneShot: A Journal of Critical Play and Games, which publishes scholarly and pedagogical games and essays contextualising them. She lectures on interaction design and digital media at Flinders.

The public is welcome at all events. Bring your own lunch and enjoy!