Curriculum Vitae
Mário Escarce
Researcher in Games, HCI, Computational Creativity, and Digital Arts.
Profile
I hold a PhD in Computer Science from Lancaster University and was recently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where I contributed to NSF-funded research on serious games and community resilience. My work sits at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction, Procedural Content Generation, Game Design, computational creativity, and digital arts, with a particular interest in creativity, learning, collaboration, and collective decision-making.
Education & Research Experience
Postdoctoral Researcher
University of California, Santa Cruz. Research focus: game design, game evaluation, climate change, resilience, and community engagement. Advised by Prof. Magy Seif El-Nasr.
PhD in Computer Science
Lancaster University, UK. Thesis: Leveraging Game Mechanics for Dynamic Music Co-Creation. Advised by Leandro Soriano Marcolino and Elisa Rubegni.
MFA — Technological Poetics
Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil.
Degree in Digital Games
FUMEC University, Brazil.
Selected Publications
Foundations of Digital Games (FDG 2026).
ACM CHI PLAY 2025. ★ Best Paper Award
ACM DIS 2025. ★ Best Paper Award
JCSG 2025.
ACM CHI PLAY 2023.
ACM CHI PLAY 2021.
AAAI AIIDE 2017.
Editorial & Academic Service
Associate Editor — IEEE Transactions on Games
Managing peer review, coordinating reviewers, and contributing to editorial decisions.
Associate Chair — ACM IDC
WiP Track.
Selected Awards
- Best Paper Award — ACM CHI PLAY, 2025.
- Best Paper Award — ACM DIS, 2025.
- Best Game Award — Serious Games Showcase & Challenge, Students’ Choice Award, 2025.
- Doctoral Consortium Award — ACM CHI, 2022.
- Doctoral Consortium Award — AAAI AIIDE, 2017.