John Aycock

John Aycock

Areas of Research

Systems
Since the computer game industry is massive and games have an increasingly important role in society and culture, I've been focusing on the study of games, specifically the implementation of old computer games that were created under extremely constrained conditions. It is technical work that has tie-ins with numerous areas of computer systems, including compilers, interpreters, programming languages, data compression, operating systems, computer security, reverse engineering, code obfuscation, and copy protection. While my own perspective is from the technical point of view, this research is inherently interdisciplinary and I work with others in game studies, game history, and especially archaeology, where it falls into the realm of "archaeogaming."

Supervising degrees

Computational Media Design - Doctoral: Accepting Inquiries
Computational Media Design - Masters: Accepting Inquiries
Computer Science - Doctoral: Accepting Inquiries
Computer Science - Masters: Accepting Inquiries

More information

http://www.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~aycock

Working with this supervisor

An ideal candidate would have strong writing and communications skills, in addition to being adept in both high- and low-level programming. The best students will often have a portfolio that includes side projects that were not part of assigned coursework. Reverse engineering would also be an asset.

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