PhD student
Sarvin Eshaghi
Sarvin is a PhD student in Informatics studying games, digital heritage, and education. Her background spans architecture, landscape architecture, and historic preservation. She explores how cooperative play can encourage participation, community, and a sense of place in cultural and urban settings. She is an associate producer and quality assurance lead at the GSD Studio, and is advised by Laura Shackelford.
Projects
Active projects
VRchaeology
An immersive virtual field school for learning archaeological field methods through excavation, mapping, documentation, and analysis.
Publications
Journal articles
Exploring the Role of Location-Based Games in Managing Tourist Destinations Under Climate Change Challenges: A Gap Analysis Review
A review of 75 studies examining location-based games and climate resilience in tourism, identifying research gaps and directions for participatory adaptation.
Conference papers
From Past to Present: A study of AI-driven gamification in heritage education
A study of AI-driven gamification for heritage education, connecting immersive environments with learning about the Silk Roads.
Presentations
Conference talk
Experiential vs Simulated Learning
Scheduled for 1:00–2:00 pm. Laura Shackelford, Sepehr Vaez Afshar, and Sarvin Eshaghi join Lena Currie and Melissa Roth of SGH to explore teaching preservation diagnostics and skills through hands-on experiences and realistic simulations. Following introductions from industry and academic presenters, attendees are invited to try non-destructive testing and virtual reality equipment.
Conference talk
Intelligent Avatars in Language Learning
A systematic review of immersive conversational AI avatars in language learning. Presented remotely.
Conference talk
A panel discussion of the stu/dio: Contributions, Focus Areas, and Challenges in University Student-Driven Game Production
Panel with Daniel Cermak, Robbie Sieczkowski, Sarvin Eshaghi, Sepehr Vaez Afshar, O. Wang, and R. Hidalgo.
Posters
AI-Driven Gameful Learning for Immersive Heritage Education on the Silk Roads
