Research

I completed my PhD from the University of Sheffield in the beginning of 2008. My research topics were:   1- Using a Serious Game for training: The use of serious games for training traffic accident investigators at Dubai Police. Currently new police officers recruited by Dubai Police go through the same training process, which consists of lectures and on-the-job training (designed for their specific rank category). The training is administered by Dubai Police Academy which also accepts recruits from other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Republic of Yemen, and Palestine. The training duration varies from 6 months to 4 years, based on the rank category. During the course and after graduation, recruits are assigned to police stations and departments in which they receive further on-the-job training. Considering that in Dubai traffic accidents kill one person every 37 hours and injure one person every 3 hours. Novice traffic accident investigators are expected to 'learn by doing' in this intense environment. Currently, they use no alternative to the real world in order to practice. We argue for the use of an alternative learning environment, where the novice investigator can feel safe in exploring different investigative routes without fear for the consequences. The environment should also encourage repetition and social interaction.   Findings:  Fifty-six policemen took part in an experiment involving a virtual traffic accident scenario. They were divided into two groups: novices (0 to 2 years experience) and experienced personnel (with more than 2 years experience). (see BinSubaih et al, 2006c) Novices managed to improve their performances by 36.17% (t(15)=17.01, p<0.05, t critical two-tail=2.13). Experienced managed to improve their performances by 23.54% (t(13)=7.88, p<0.05, t critical two-tail =2.16). The experiment revealed significant performance improvements in both groups, with the improvement reported in novices significantly higher than the one reported in experienced personnel. Both groups showed significant differences in navigational patterns (e.g. distances travelled and time utilization) between the two training sessions. 2- Building an Architecture to Enable Porting a "Game" between Game Engines:The problem with the current game development approaches is the tight coupling they introduce between the "game" and the game engine. This makes porting the game to another engine cumbersome. We have built an architecture called Game Space based on a service-oriented design philosophy that enables a game to be developed externally and be serviced to two different game engines without modifying the game to suit that engine (BinSubaih et al, 2006; BinSubaih et al, 2005d).