Dr Anastasios G. Bakaoukas is a Senior Lecturer in Games Programming at University of Northampton (UK), in the Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology. He teaches C++, C++/SFML, C#, Java, Java Script, ActionScript 3 and Python for Computer Games, as well as Unity3D Game Engine (C#), Unreal Engine 4 & 5 (C++, “Blueprints”), GoDot Game Engine (GDScript, C++, C#, Visual Scripting), Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning for Computer Games. He is the Programme Leader for the HND/BSc Games Programming course and he is overseeing the research arm for Computer Games within the University of Northampton, which is active in a number of subject areas within the wider Computer Games area including Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality. In 2017, under the “Partnerships Grants Summer 2017”, Royal Society’s funding scheme for advancing scientific research in schools, and in collaboration with Mrs Kay Sawbridge, Head of IT at Caroline Chisholm School, was successful in biding for a funding to initiate a Virtual Reality Research Project in that school. The project, at its conclusion, achieved second price among eleven candidates and helped significantly in initiating and supporting scientific research in schools in the area of Northamptonshire.
Since arriving at the University of Northampton in 2014, has been involved with the HND/BSc Computer Games Development course by delivering all the games programming related modules. Later, he created and both internally and externally validated the HND/BSc Games Programming course which eventually came to substitute for the HND/BSc Computer Games Development course which from the 2019/2020 academic year is not offered any more by the University. He has seen since the HND/BSc Games Programming course grow into a successful and popular course in the Computer Games sector of the Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology.
He was previously a Senior Researcher/Lecturer, designing and creating computer games in the Serious Games Institute (SGI), an operating division of Coventry University (UK) and an international centre for excellence with a focus on Serious Games applied research, business engagement and study. The institute had at the time partnerships with over 200 companies and organisations including universities, schools, businesses and government entities. He was involved in a number of European (7th Framework) and EPSRC research projects related to the application of Serious Games in various aspects of the academic, industrial and social life.
Prior to this, Anastasios was a Senior Lecturer B with Birmingham City University where he co-created and co-validated both internally and externally the BSc Music Technology course in 2001 in collaboration with Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, one of the university’s most successful courses to the present. He supported the course by delivering modules in the area of programming for sound systems, programming for embedded applications, and the mathematical aspect of signals and sounds. He was also involved in the Digital Signal Processing and Software Engineering courses by delivering modules in mathematics, operating systems programming and Software Engineering Project Management. All while being at the same time a part-time computer games programmer designing and developing games for a number of software companies that at the time were becoming rapidly active in developing games for the then at its infancy Mobile Platform.
He completed a PhD in Software Engineering & Scientific Computing at Birmingham City University in 2006. This was entitled “Computing With First And Higher Order Solitons In Non-linear Optical Media”, falling into the scientific area of Unconventional Computing. The thesis considered the establishment of the mathematical theory, the design and implementation standards, as well as the development at a software simulation level, of the next all-optical generation of computational machines where light, as through miniaturised optical fibres, is the only medium for transferring bits of information between processing units and the machine’s memory and storage media. The results have demonstrated that not only all-optical machines are possible and holding unparalleled advantages over today’s electronic machines but that potentially even the transformation of the Internet infrastructure into a giant computational machine is possible. He has a BSc in Computing from Coventry University (1999) and an MSc (Distinction) in Data Communications (Digital Signal Processing/Optical Communications) from Birmingham City University (2001).
Anastasios has published in the fields of Digital Signal Processing, Digital Image Processing, Brain Computer Interface, Unconventional Computing, Serious Games, Computer Games Algorithms, Scientific Computing & Virtual Reality’s impact on cultural heritage. He has a number of top-rated journal & conference publications and has won accreditation from his peers at both an academic and personal level.
