Date/Time: 22 May 2025; 06:30pm to 08:00 Central Time

Location: Virtual by Zoom or in person in Room 1 of the Asian American Resource Center, 8401 Cameron Rd., Austin, Texas

Abstract

Video game development is pretty incredible if you think about it. For generations now, the weaving of technology with artistry has enabled a vast expanse of opportunities for creative minds to stretch their imagination and bring audiences along for the ride. It’s in our modern era of mobile technology, however, that audiences are finally able to respond back via the data they generate. It’s this data that defines the mobile gaming experience, setting the industry apart from its predecessors and allowing it to rapidly dwarf them.

To understand the value in this data, we’ll start with a primer on the mobile gaming market. From there, we will dive into the various business models that mobile technology enables as well as some of the development practices that motivate easy data collection and usage. Finally, we’ll tie these two threads together and show how data heightens gamers’ experiences and magically turns into money.

Speaker:

Dr. Jacob Claussen received his bachelor’s degree in physics from University of Chicago before attending the University of Texas at Austin as a graduate student in their Theory Group led by Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg. There, his research centered around quantum physics and string theory. Upon completion of his PhD in 2016, he joined Zynga, a video game development company, as a data scientist for their mobile gaming portfolio.

In his eight years at Zynga, Jacob has built and grown analytics teams across live services, marketing, and publishing. Today, he directs several analytics teams as well as Zynga’s ML/AI algorithm development team.

Registration: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/483331

Recorded video: https://youtu.be/1qTGuEMmej8