Westphal College of Media Arts & Design

Dr. Paul Diefenbach, Associate Professor in Drexel University’s Digital Media program, created the game design curriculum which is now ranked #7 in the nation by The Princeton Review and GamePro Magazine. He is co-founder of Drexel’s game research laboratory, the RePlay Lab, and leads projects in brain-computer interfaces, music-driven games, and serious games. He has over 20 years experience in 3D, game development, and human simulation. Prior to joining Drexel, he was CTO of OpenWorlds Inc., providing technology for NASA, Sony, Mitsubishi, and Boeing. His pioneering 1996 Ph.D. on multi-pass rendering serves as the platform for today’s modern real-time graphics. He has presented at worldwide conferences including SIGGRAPH, Eurographics, and I3D, and has been featured on the CBS Evening News. Dr. Diefenbach holds a Ph.D. in Computer Graphics/Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania, where he previously taught interactive 3D graphics as Associate Adjunct Professor, and a B.S. degree in Computer Science from RPI.

PhD, Computer Science (Computer Graphics), University of Pennsylvania, 1996
Masters, Computer Science, University of Pennsylvania, 1991
Bachelors, Computer Science (EE Minor) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1989

2013

• Conference & Workshop (Peer-Reviewed):

• R. Speck and P.J. Diefenbach, “Asymmetrical gameplay across heterogeneous devices: designing a lexicon for cross-platform development,” in SIGGRAPH Posters 2013: 70.

2011

• Journals:

• P.J. Diefenbach, “Practical Game Design and Development Pedagogy.” IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 31, 3, pp. 84-88, May 2011.

2010

• Journals:

• L. Mandilian, P.J. Diefenbach and Y. Kim, “Information Overload: A Collaborative Dance Performance,” IEEE Multimedia, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 8-13, Jan. 2010.

• Conference & Workshop (Peer-Reviewed):

• P.J. Diefenbach, K. Oum and F. Reisman, “Transition to Teaching: 3D Classroom Simulation and Management,” in Proceedings of the IEEE Games Innovation conference (GIC), Hong Kong, December 2010.

• K. Oum, H. Ayaz, P.A. Shewokis, P.J. Diefenbach, “MindTactics: A Brain Computer Interface Gaming Platform,” in Proceedings of the IEEE Games Innovation conference (GIC), Hong Kong, December 2010.

2009

• Conference & Workshop (Peer-Reviewed):

• R. Migneco, T. Doll, J. Scott, C. Hahn, P.J. Diefenbach and Y. Kim, “An Audio Processing Library for Game Development in Flash,” in Proceeding of the IEEE Consumer Electronic Society’s Games Innovation Conference (London, England, August 25-28, 2009). ICE-GIC 2009.

• W. Muto, J. Dobies and P.J. Diefenbach, “Applications of Multitouch & Gaming Technology for the Classroom,” in Proceedings of Eurographics 2009, Germany, April 2009.

2008

• Journals:

• P.J. Diefenbach, “Teaching Soft-skills: Digital Game Development in a Multi-Discipline Environment”, Computer Graphics Forum Journal, Volume 27(2), 2008.

• Conference & Workshop (Peer-Reviewed):

• P.J. Diefenbach, “Creating a Multi-Discipline Gaming Curriculum: Avoiding Mistakes, Missteps, and Growing Pains,” in Proceedings of SIGGRAPH Asia 2008, Singapore, December 2008.

• P.J. Diefenbach, D. Letarte, Ch. Redmann, R. Ellenberg and P. Oh, “Extending Animator Tool Sets for Humanoid Robotics,” in Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots and Ambient Intelligence (URAI 2008), Seoul, Korea, November 2008.

• L.E. Mandilian, P.J. Diefenbach and Y. Kim, “Information overload: a collaborative dance performance.” in Proceedings of the 1st ACM Workshop on Semantic Ambient Media Experiences, SAME 2008, Vancouver, 2008, pp. 57-60.

2007

• Conference & Workshop (Peer-Reviewed):

• P.J. Diefenbach, W. Muto, S. Colucci, Ch. Cunanan, J. Dobies, J. Grow and M. Smith, “Planet Diggum: Multi-point Touch and Gesture Control of Gaming Environments,” in Proceedings of the Distributed Multimedia Systems Conference (DMS’2007), San Francisco, CA, 2007.