Author: Robert Nideffer

Robert Nideffer researches, teaches, and publishes in the areas of virtual environments and behavior, interface theory and design, technology and culture, and contemporary social theory. He holds an MFA in Computer Arts, and a PhD in Sociology. He is an Associate Professor in Studio Art and Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, where he serves as Affiliated Faculty in the Visual Studies Program, and as co-director for the Art, Computation, and Engineering (ACE) Program. He is also directing the UC Irvine Game Culture and Technology Lab, and a related academic "Specialization in Game Culture and Technology." Between 1997 and 1999, Robert was employed by the Departments of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) where he was responsible for developing distributed, peer-to-peer digital library architectures and production-ready software components supporting organization, publication, discovery, and use of geospatial and other types of strongly structured scientific data. At UCSB he also served as Co-PI on a project that developed a Java-based multi-agent software system shown as part of the Whitney Biennial of American Art in 2002.