Arnav Jhala
Computer Science
- Email: ahjhala@ncsu.edu
- Office: Venture IV NA
Arnav Jhala, associate professor of Computer Science, joined NC State in August 2016 as a Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program cluster hire in Visual Narrative and as the co-director of the Digital Games Research Initiative. Prof. Jhala’s research group investigates computational structures and methods that are useful in representing and mediating human interpretation and communication of narrative in interactive visual media, such as film and games. The Jhala research group uses symbolic and probabilistic tools to represent and construct coherent visual discourse and apply generative techniques for automated and semi-automated tools to interpret and collaboratively create visual narratives. Past projects include the development of games for eliciting aesthetic preferences in domains such as photographic composition, aesthetics of play for highly skilled game players, and gestural aesthetics of dance. Methods used in the lab vary from analysis of existing data sets (such as analysis of movies or game replays), development of games and systems to elicit a specific type of behavior, and development of novel designs to push the boundaries of creativity through computation.
Prior to joining NC State, Jhala served as one of the founding faculty members of the Computational Media department at UC Santa Cruz. He has worked at a variety of institutions, including USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, Duke’s Talent Identification Program(TIP), Virtual Heroes Inc. — a leading serious games developer, and the Indian Space Research Organization’s Space Applications Center.
Research Interests
- Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Agents
- Computer and Video Games
- Graphics, Human-Computer Interaction and User Experience
Education
| Degree | Program | School | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ph.D. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science | NC State University | 2009 |
| MSCS | Master of Science in Computer Science | NC State University | 2004 |
| BECE | Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering | Gujarat University | 2001 |
Publications
- Student experiences with a molecular biotechnology course containing an interactive 3D immersive simulation and its impact on motivational beliefs
- Spencer, D., Mckeown, C., Tredwell, D., Huckaby, B., Wiedner, A., Dums, J. T., … Srougi, M. C. (2024), PLOS ONE, 19(7). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306224
- Developing a Construction Domain-Specific Artificial Intelligence Language Model for NCDOT's CLEAR Program to Promote Organizational Innovation and Institutional Knowledge
- Banerjee, S., Potts, C. M., Jhala, A. H., & Jaselskis, E. J. (2023), JOURNAL OF COMPUTING IN CIVIL ENGINEERING, 37(3). https://doi.org/10.1061/JCCEE5.CPENG-4868
- A Digital Communication Twin for Addressing Misinformation: Vision, Challenges, Opportunities
- Jhala, A., Cheng, Y., Goodwin, J., Singh, M. P., Anwar, M., Davis, L., … Zhang, T. (2022), IEEE Internet Computing, 26(2), 36–41. https://doi.org/10.1109/MIC.2021.3129547
- Characterizing the perception of urban spaces from visual analytics of street-level imagery
- Freitas, F., Berreth, T., Chen, Y.-C., & Jhala, A. (2023), AI & SOCIETY, 38(4), 1361–1371. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01592-y
- Computational Support for Trope Analysis of Textual Narratives
- Chaudhary, M. S., & Jhala, A. (2022), INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING, ICIDS 2022, Vol. 13762, pp. 529–540. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22298-6_34
- Leveraging Multiple Representations of Topic Models for Knowledge Discovery
- Potts, C. M., Savaliya, A., & Jhala, A. (2022), IEEE ACCESS, 10, 104696–104705. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3210529
- Narraport: Narrative-Based Interactions and Report Generation with Large Datasets
- Potts, C. M., & Jhala, A. (2021), In Interactive Storytelling (pp. 118–127). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92300-6_11
- REDEVELOPING A DIGITAL SEXUAL HEALTH INTERVENTION FOR ADOLESCENTS TO ALLOW FOR BROADER DISSEMINATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR HIV AND STD PREVENTION
- Javidi, H., Widman, L., Lipsey, N., Brasileiro, J., Javidi, F., & Jhala, A. (2021), AIDS EDUCATION AND PREVENTION, 33(2), 89–102. https://doi.org/10.1521/aeap.2021.33.2.89
- The Impact of Virtual Reality in the Social Presence of a Virtual Agent
- Guimaraes, M., Prada, R., Santos, P. A., Dias, J., Jhala, A., & Mascarenhas, S. (2020), PROCEEDINGS OF THE 20TH ACM INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT VIRTUAL AGENTS (ACM IVA 2020). https://doi.org/10.1145/3383652.3423879
- Efficient Choice Enumeration for Narrative World Design
- Robertson, J., Jhala, A., & Young, R. M. (2019), PROCEEDINGS OF THE 14TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE FOUNDATIONS OF DIGITAL GAMES (FDG'19). https://doi.org/10.1145/3337722.3337736
