Mirjam nails her dissertation!
Filed under: Blog in March 20, 2010, by Ulf Benjaminsson. Print This
“Spikning” (lit. nailing) is an academic ritual in connection with the submission of a dissertation. Three weeks before the dissertation thesis is published it must be made available to anyone who wants to read it and come up with criticism for the disputation. The Swedish tradition is to have the respondent ceremonially nail a copy of the dissertation to a wall, for public display.
Our soon-to-be doctor Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari has done research in story construction, characterization and identity in massively multiplayer online role-playing games. She has built an AI-system (The Mind Module) that infuse game actors with “individuality”. The system can simulate personalities, relations, feelings, mood and temper, and many other character factors. The system was tested and evaluated in a MMO prototype; the Pataphysic Institute.
Mirjam passed the Viva Voce with flying colors at Teesside University the 23rd of February, examined by Dr Alan Hind and Prof Richard Bartle (co-creator of MUD, 1978).
Video in Swedish only, sorry. 
[...] Bartle is a professor and game researcher at the University of Essex. He’s most famous for having created MUD (multi-user dungeon) – the first of what would later evolve to become massively multiplayer online role-playing games. He’s one of the regular writers over at the popular science blog Terra Nova, with a focus on the study of virtual worlds and he was the examiner for our own doctor Mirjam Eladhari’s dissertation. [...]