M2PI Case Studies Virtual Seminar: Ben MacAdam

In this talk, I will describe the life of a researcher working in the games industry. Along the way, I’ll introduce some of the research we do at CD PROJEKT RED and the kinds of technical challenges we deal with. I’ll also talk about how I found myself in this field after completing a theory-based PhD, and my experiences with the MITACS program both as a postdoctoral fellow and later as an industrial partner.

The talk will include a few case studies where mathematical intuition didn’t quite line up with practical results—such as motion planning in robotics and the role of geometry and symmetry in machine learning—but where those missteps led to unexpected and interesting developments.