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Avoiding financial crises could be child’s play
Developing interactive and fun computer games that teach people about property investment could hold the key to avoiding future global financial crises.
That was the assertion made by University of the Sunshine Coast PhD student Steven Boyd of Sunshine Beach when he competed in USC’s annual Three Minute Thesis competition on Thursday 21 July.
Mr Boyd, 33, was today judged the winner of the contest for USC Higher Degree by Research students and claimed $1,000 in prizemoney and the opportunity to compete at a national event in September.
He was one of five finalists in the Three Minute Thesis competition, which was just one session of USC’s week-long annual University Research Conference.
Given just 180 seconds to distil years of research, Mr Boyd started his presentation by saying the “edutainment” games movement of the 1990s had failed because the games were not fun.
He said a more dynamic approach that provided as much excitement and involvement as today’s interactive children’s games was needed.
“What if we could make a game which could teach or simulate how housing market cycles act, which was as much fun as sling-shotting angry birds at pigs?” he asked.
“Then we could have 400 million homeowners, financiers and policy makers better equipped to avoid the next GFC.”
Mr Boyd said his research looked at the relationship between games and property education, particularly how to overcome traditional property teaching shortcomings and which gaming environments were most suitable.
“I have modelled an iApp and prepared an in-class investment game simulating the property cycles of the past decade on the Sunshine Coast,” he said.
Mr Boyd’s PhD supervisors are Professor of Property and Development Mike Hefferan and Information Systems Lecturer Dr Shah Miah.
Research Conference organisers also awarded several other prizes to University academics today. They were:
- Best overall presentation – Business academic Barbara Haddon
- Best early career researcher presentation – Environmental Economist Graham Ashford, and Senior Lecturer in Marketing Dr Dawn Birch.
- Best poster – PhD student Colleen Stieler-Hunt and supervisor Associate Professor Christian Jones.
— Terry Walsh