Senior Lecturer in Creative Technologies

Jim joined the School of Computer Science and Technology in 2008 as a Lecturer in Creative Technologies becoming a Senior Lecturer in 2013. He has over 20 years of experience in the education sector and has recently specialised in teaching topics in digital art, animation, visual effects, and games technologies. Jim currently leads the School’s Creative Technologies subject cluster and is Course Coordinator for BSc (Hons) Computer Animation and Visual Effects.

Jim is a member of the Institute for Research in Applicable Computing (IRAC) and pursues practice-based research in creative technologies, influenced by his interests in experimental art, digital media and design making.

He completed his PhD from the University of London in 2015 on the topic "Digital Ways of Making, Commons-based making and digital fabrication: A Practice-Based Study of Design Making for the Coming Age of Connected Digital Objects".

Previously Jim obtained a MA in Digital Arts from Middlesex University in 1998, following a BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art achieved with 1st Class at Kingston University in 1995.

In his prior institutions he had taught and supervised postgraduate students in interactive digital media, developing an experimental resource lab <XR>Lab, and worked on both his own creative and technical projects individually and in collaboration with other artists and designers. Jim also worked freelance as a tutor of workshops on interactive prototyping, physical computing, and as a developer of systems and software for artists projects and design research and continues to pursue his own creative practice.

Teaching

In addition to supervising projects at BSc, MSc and PhD level, he currently co-ordinates and teaches on the following units:

• Advanced Graphics for Games (Unit Co-ordinator)
• Advanced Animation and Visual Effects
• Compositing for Visual Effects (Unit Co-ordinator)
• 3d Graphics and Animation
• Digital Video and Animation
• Fundamentals of Creative Technologies
• 2d Graphics and Digital Art (Unit Co-ordinator)

In recent years Jim has led or co-ordinated the following course approvals and re-approvals:

• BSc (Hons) Computer Games and Development, BSc (Hons) Computer Animation and Visual Effects, re-approval May 2019.
• BSc (Hons) Computer Animation and Visual Effects, March 2016.
• BSc (Hons) Interactive Digital Technologies, April 2014.

Jim also assists with external examination and moderation of degrees offered by other Universities in the UK:

• External Examiner – BA (Hons) Games Design, School of Engineering Arts Science Technology, University of Suffolk. 09/2021 - ongoing.
• External Panel Member Course Approval Event, BA (Hons) Digital Games Art, Liverpool Media Academy (LMA), University of Northampton, June 2020.
• External Examiner - BA (Hons) Design and Coding, Ravensbourne University, London. 09/2018 - 07/2020.
• External Examiner - BSc Digital Media, School of Creative Technologies, University of Portsmouth. 04/2016 - 09/2019.
• External Panel Member Course Approval Event, BSc (Hons) Technical Direction for Visual Effects, Department of Computing, Teesside University, March 2016.

Research Supervision

• Lionel Jayaraj "Improving the Immersion in a Virtual Reality Batting Simulator with Real-Time Performance Capture and Haptics". PhD. Director of Studies - awarded 2021.
• Marwah Ibrahim, 'The Design of an Innovative Automatic Computational Method for Generating a Geometric Islamic Visual Art with Aesthetic Beauty' PhD 2nd supervisor - awarded 2021.
• Grigor Todrov, 'Evaluation of Optimisation Techniques for Multiscopic Rendering' MSc by Research. 2nd Supervisor - awarded March 2016.
• Alain Simons, 'The Use of Vectorpixels for Visualisation of Photographic Images' PhD (2nd Supervisor) - MPhil/PhD transfer completed June 2015 (registration transferred to Bournemouth University)
• Gul Zaidi "Assisting people with Dyslexia with learning to code with Augmented Reality". MSc by research. 2^nd Supervisor –current.

Research interests

• Virtual Production and uses of Virtual Reality (VR)/ Augmented Reality (AR) for learning and communication.
• Novel displays in VR headsets, mobile devices, large screens or holograms
• Realtime-animation with games technologies in emergent media practices.

Dr Wood is also interested to hear from outstanding candidates who are interested in researching at MSc or PhD level, in topics related to those listed above.

Recent Publications

• Jayaraj, L., Wood, J. and Gibson, M. (2018) ‘Engineering a mobile VR experience with MEMS 9DOF motion controller’. IEEE Games, Entertainment, Media Conference (GEM) Aug 15-17, 2018. University of Galway, Ireland.
• Jayaraj, L., Wood, J. and Gibson, M. (2017). ‘Improving the Immersion in Virtual Reality with Real-Time Avatar and Haptic Feedback in a Cricket Simulation’ 2017 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR-Adjunct), Nantes, France, 2017, pp. 310-314. doi: 10.1109/ISMAR-Adjunct.2017.95
• Wood J., Liu H., & Briggs T. (2016, July). Learning computing heritage through gaming – whilst teaching digital development through history. In Proceedings of the Conference on Electronic Visualisation and the Arts. British Computer Society. (in review)
• Prakash E. & Wood J. (2013) Workshop on Advances in Computer Games and Animation, 6th Annual International Conference on Computer Games, Multimedia and Allied Technology.
• Wood, J. (2013) TH_mod_Te studio: making together for sharing whenever. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction. TEI ’13. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 435–438.
• Prakash E., Wood J., Li B., Clarke M., Smith G., & Yates K.(2011) Games technology: Console architectures, game engines and invisible interaction. 4th Annual International Conference on Computer Games, Multimedia and Allied Technology. pp. 103–108.
• Wood, J. (2011) Designing for an everyday ubicomp with tangible and embodied materials. In Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction - TEI ’11. the fifth international conference. Funchal, Portugal, p. 449.
• Wood, J. & Prakash E. (2011) Invisible interaction for Games, Under the Mask conference, University of Bedfordshire.
• Wood, J. (2010) Using participatory design methods with ubiquitous computing technologies. In Proceedings of the 2010 international conference on The Interaction Design. Create’10. Swindon, UK, UK: British Computer Society, pp. 82–83.

Previous Projects and Exhibitions

• "Truth Serum" – Neal White/ Office of Experiments, FACT, Liverpool, April 2008
• "News Telescope", Mediatised View Goldsmiths, London Design Festival September 2008
• "TagPet", Punch + Hole, Kinetica Art Fair, London & Maker Faire, Newcastle February – March 2009

Contact details

E: jim.wood@beds.ac.uk