Arnav Jhala

Education

• A.B. Gujarat University (India), 2001
• M.S. North Carolina State University, 2004
• Ph.D. North Carolina State University, 2009

Positions

• Adjunct Associate Professor in the Engineering Graduate and Professional Programs

Courses Taught

• GAMEDSGN 590: Advanced Topics in Game Design, Development & Innovation

Publications

• Widman L, Allison BA, Burnette JL, Grossman JM, Lankster A, McCrimmon J, et al. A Digital Program to Promote Sexual Communication Between Early Adolescents and Parents: Development and Acceptability Testing Results. Journal of Sex Research. 2025 Jan 1;
• Forbes GC, Wang J, Villalobos-Arias L, Jhala A, Roberts DL. Action-Dependent Optimality-Preserving Reward Shaping. In: Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems Aamas. 2025. p. 2523u20135.
• Cardona-Rivera RE, Jhala A, Porteous J, Young RM. The Story So Far on Narrative Planning. In: Proceedings International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling Icaps. 2024. p. 489u201399.
• Forbes GC, Gupta N, Villalobos-Arias L, Potts CM, Jhala A, Roberts DL. Potential-Based Reward Shaping For Intrinsic Motivation. In: Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems Aamas. 2024. p. 589u201398.
• Chen YC, Jhala A. Collaborative Comic Generation: Integrating Visual Narrative Theories with AI Models for Enhanced Creativity. In: Ceur Workshop Proceedings. 2024. p. 98u2013111.
• Spencer D, McKeown C, Tredwell D, Huckaby B, Wiedner A, Dums JT, et al. Student experiences with a molecular biotechnology course containing an interactive 3D immersive simulation and its impact on motivational beliefs. PloS one. 2024 Jan;19(7):e0306224.
• Freitas F, Berreth T, Chen YC, Jhala A. Characterizing the perception of urban spaces from visual analytics of street-level imagery. AI and Society. 2023 Aug 1;38(4):1361u201371.
• Banerjee S, Potts CM, Jhala AH, Jaselskis EJ. Developing a Construction Domain-Specific Artificial Intelligence Language Model for NCDOT's CLEAR Program to Promote Organizational Innovation and Institutional Knowledge. Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering. 2023 May 1;37(3).
• Jhala A, Cheng Y, Goodwin J, Singh MP, Anwar M, Davis L, et al. A Digital Communication Twin for Addressing Misinformation: Vision, Challenges, Opportunities. IEEE Internet Computing. 2022 Jan 1;26(2):36u201341.
• Potts CM, Savaliya A, Jhala A. Leveraging Multiple Representations of Topic Models for Knowledge Discovery. IEEE Access. 2022 Jan 1;10:104696u2013705.
• Chaudhary MS, Jhala A. Computational Support foru00a0Trope Analysis ofu00a0Textual Narratives. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics. 2022. p. 529u201340.
• Javidi H, Widman L, Lipsey N, Brasileiro J, Javidi F, Jhala A. Redeveloping a Digital Sexual Health Intervention for Adolescents to Allow for Broader Dissemination: Implications for HIV and STD Prevention. AIDS education and preventionu202f: official publication of the International Society for AIDS Education. 2021 Apr;33(2):89u2013102.
• Miller C, Jhala A. An Observer-oriented Theory of Creativity and Aesthetic Measure. In: Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society Comparative Cognition Animal Minds Cogsci 2021. 2021. p. 1036u201341.
• Chen YC, Jhala A. A Computational Model of Comprehension in Manga Style Visual Narratives. In: Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society Comparative Cognition Animal Minds Cogsci 2021. 2021. p. 1153u20138.
• Martin D, Jhala A. BeClone: Behavior Cloning with Inference for Real-Time Strategy Games. In: Ceur Workshop Proceedings. 2021.
• Potts CM, Jhala A. Narraport: Narrative-Based Interactions andu00a0Report Generation withu00a0Large Datasets. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 2021. p. 118u201327.
• Banerjee S, Potts CM, Jhala AH, Jaselskis EJ. Neural Language Model Based Intelligent Semantic Information Retrieval on NCDOT Projects for Knowledge Management. In: Computing in Civil Engineering 2021 Selected Papers from the ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering 2021. 2021. p. 779u201386.
• Guimaru00e3es M, Prada R, Santos PA, Dias J, Jhala A, Mascarenhas S. The Impact of Virtual Reality in the Social Presence of a Virtual Agent. In: Proceedings of the 20th ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents Iva 2020. 2020.
• Maniktala M, Miller C, Margolese-Malin A, Jhala A, Martens C. M.I.N.U.E.T.: Procedural Musical Accompaniment for Textual Narratives. In: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. 2020.
• Wu HY, Santarra T, Leece M, Vargas R, Jhala A. Joint Attention for Automated Video Editing. In: Imx 2020 Proceedings of the 2020 ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences. 2020. p. 55u201364.
• Miller C, Dighe M, Martens C, Jhala A. Crafting Interactive Narrative Games with Adversarial Planning Agents from Simulations. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics. 2020. p. 44u201357.
• Robertson J, Harrison B, Jhala A. Interactive summarization for data filtering and triage. In: Proceedings of the 33rd International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference Flairs 2020. 2020. p. 252u20137.
• Miller C, Jhala A. Modeling novel solutions to creative problem solving tasks with subjective observers. In: Proceedings of the 33rd International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference Flairs 2020. 2020. p. 112u20137.
• Robertson J, Jhala A, Young RM. Efficient choice enumeration for narrative world design. In: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. 2019.
• Harmon S, Maxwell R, Jhala A. Operationalizing conflict strategies in a board game. In: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. 2019.
• Miller C, Dighe M, Martens C, Jhala A. Stories of the town: Balancing character autonomy and coherent narrative in procedurally generated worlds. In: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. 2019.
• Summerville A, Martens C, Harmon S, Mateas M, Osborn J, Wardrip-Fruin N, et al. From mechanics to meaning. IEEE Transactions on Games. 2019 Mar 1;11(1):69u201378.
• Behrooz M, Robertson J, Jhala A. Investigating the Use of Word Embeddings to Estimate Cognitive Interest in Stories. In: Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society Creativity Cognition Computation Cogsci 2019. 2019. p. 1388u201394.
• Behrooz M, Robertson J, Jhala A. Story quality as a matter of perception: Using word embeddings to estimate cognitive interest. In: Proceedings of the 15th Aaai Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Aiide 2019. 2019. p. 3u20139.
• Althagafi A, Wu HY, Jhala A. MIDB: A web-based film annotation tool. In: Ceur Workshop Proceedings. 2018.
• Wu HY, Si M, Jhala A. Preface. Ceur Workshop Proceedings. 2018 Jan 1;2321.
• Wu HY, Jhala A. A joint attention model for automated editing. In: Ceur Workshop Proceedings. 2018.
• Chen YC, Robertson J, Jhala A. Abstractions for narrative comprehension tasks. In: Ceur Workshop Proceedings. 2018.
• Behrooz M, Mobramaein A, Jhala A, Whitehead J. Cognitive and Experiential Interestingness in Abstract Visual Narrative. In: Proceedings of the 40th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society Cogsci 2018. 2018. p. 136u201341.
• Guimaraes M, Santos P, Jhala A. CiF-CK: An architecture for social NPCS in commercial games. In: 2017 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games Cig 2017. 2017. p. 126u201333.
• Behrooz M, Jhala A. Modeling social interestingness in conversational stories. In: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. 2017.
• Guimaraes M, Santos P, Jhala A. Prom week meets skyrim: Developing a social agent architecture in a commercial game. In: Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems Aamas. 2017. p. 1562u20134.
• Thorne BR, Nelakkutti H, Reinhart J, Jhala A. ProcDefense - A Game Framework for Procedural Player Skill Training. In: Aaai Workshop Technical Report. 2017. p. 132u20134.
• Guimaraes M, Santos P, Jhala A. Prom week meets Skyrim. In: Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems Aamas. 2017. p. 1790u20132.
• Summeryille A, Behrooz M, Mateas M, Jhala A. What does that ?-Block do? Learning latent causal affordances from mario play traces. In: Aaai Workshop Technical Report. 2017. p. 991u20138.
• Martens C, Summerville A, Mateas M, Osborn J, Harmon S, Wardrip-Fruin N, et al. Proceduralist Readings, Procedurally. In: Proceedings Aaai Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference Aiide. 2016. p. 53u20139.
• Santarra T, Jhala A. Communicating intentions for coordination with unknown teammates. In: Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems Aamas. 2016. p. 1423u20134.
• Santarra T, Jhala A. Adapting plans through communication with unknown teammates. In: Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems Aamas. 2016. p. 1526u20137.
• Martens C, Summerville A, Mateas M, Osborn J, Harmon S, Wardrip-Fruin N, et al. Proceduralist readings, procedurally. In: Aaai Workshop Technical Report. 2016. p. 53u20139.
• Sarratt T, Jhala A. Policy communication for coordination with unknown teammates. In: Aaai Workshop Technical Report. 2016. p. 567u201373.
• Harmon S, Jhala A. Imaginative recall with story intention graphs. In: Openaccess Series in Informatics. 2015. p. 72u201381.
• Albrecht SV, Barreto AMS, Braziunas D, Buckeridge DL, Cuayu00e1huitl H, Dethlefs N, et al. Reports of the AAAI 2014 conference workshops. In: AI Magazine. 2015. p. 87u201398.
• Harmon S, Jhala A. Revisiting computational models of creative storytelling based on imaginative recall. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics. 2015. p. 170u20138.
• Behrooz M, Swanson R, Jhala A. Remember that time? Telling interesting stories from past interactions. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics. 2015. p. 93u2013104.
• Sarratt T, Jhala A. RAPID: A belief convergence strategy for collaborating with inconsistent agents. In: Aaai Workshop Technical Report. 2015. p. 23u20138.
• Sarratt T, Jhala A. Tuning belief revision for coordination with inconsistent teammates. In: Proceedings of the 11th Aaai Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Aiide 2015. 2015. p. 177u201383.
• Sarratt T, Pynadath DV, Jhala A. Converging to a player model in Monte-Carlo Tree Search. In: IEEE Conference on Computatonal Intelligence and Games Cig. 2014.
• Leece M, Jhala A. Opponent state modeling in RTS games with limited information using Markov random fields. In: IEEE Conference on Computatonal Intelligence and Games Cig. 2014.
• Maltzahn C, Jhala A, Mateas M, Whitehead J. Gamification of private digital data archive management. In: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. 2014. p. 33u20137.
• Morgens SM, Jhala A. EduCam: Cinematic vocabulary for educational videos. In: Aaai Workshop Technical Report. 2014. p. 57u201360.
• Horswill I, Jhala A, Dill K, Orkin J, Shaker N, Si M, et al. Preface. Proceedings of the 10th Aaai Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Aiide 2014. 2014 Jan 1;xiiiu2013xiv.
• Zhang B, Jhala A. Mid-scale shot classification for detecting narrative transitions in movie clips. In: Aaai Workshop Technical Report. 2014. p. 64u201371.
• Leece M, Jhala A. Sequential Pattern mining in StarCraft:Brood War for short and long-term goals. In: Aaai Workshop Technical Report. 2014. p. 8u201313.
• Bates D, Jhala A. Multi-modal analysis of movies for rhythm extraction. In: Aaai Workshop Technical Report. 2014. p. 14u20137.
• Sarratt T, Morgens SM, Jhala A. Domain-specific sentiment classification for games-related tweets. In: Aaai Workshop Technical Report. 2014. p. 32u20134.
• Alston C, Jhala A. Automating camera control in games using gaze. In: Aaai Workshop Technical Report. 2014. p. 7u201313.
• Sarratt T, Jhala A. Leveraging communication for player modeling and cooperative play. In: Aaai Workshop Technical Report. 2014. p. 14u20137.
• Gomes P, Paiva A, Martinho C, Jhala A. Metrics for character believability in interactive narrative. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics. 2013. p. 223u20138.
• Karpouzis K, Yannakakis G, Paiva A, Nielsen JH, Vasalou A, Jhala A. User modelling and adaptive, natural interaction for conflict resolution. In: Proceedings 2013 Humaine Association Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction Acii 2013. 2013. p. 719u201321.
• Riedl M, Sukthankar G, Jhala A, Zhu J, Ontanu00f3n S, Buro M, et al. The eighth AAAI conference on artificial intelligence and interactive digital entertainment. In: AI Magazine. 2013. p. 87u20139.
• Morgens SM, Jhala A. Synthetic photographs for learning aesthetic preferences. In: Aaai Workshop Technical Report. 2013. p. 83u20135.
• Horswill I, Jhala A, Dill K, Orkin J, Shaker N, Si M, et al. Preface. Proceedings of the 9th Aaai Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Aiide 2013. 2013 Jan 1;XIIu2013XIV.
• Leece M, Jhala A. Reinforcement learning for spatial reasoning in strategy games. In: Proceedings of the 9th Aaai Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Aiide 2013. 2013. p. 156u201362.
• Gomes P, Jhala A. AI authoring for virtual characters in conflict. In: Proceedings of the 9th Aaai Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Aiide 2013. 2013. p. 135u201341.
• Maraffi C, Ishikawa S, Jhala A. Inferring performer skill from aesthetic quality features in a dance game gesture corpus. In: Aaai Workshop Technical Report. 2013. p. 17u201324.
• Componation PJ, Collopy PD, Reed GS, Shapiro D, Jhala A. Development of a research agenda to explore value-based software design. In: Annual International Conference of the American Society for Engineering Management 2012 Asem 2012 Agile Management Embracing Change and Uncertainty in Engineering Management. 2012. p. 820u201330.
• Swanson R, Escoffery D, Jhala A. Learning visual composition preferences from an annotated corpus generated through gameplay. In: 2012 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games Cig 2012. 2012. p. 363u201370.
• Chen S, Duensing A, Kong P, Jhala A, Wardrip-Fruin N, Mateas M. RoleModelVis: A visualization of logical story models. In: Proceedings of the 8th Aaai Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Aiide 2012. 2012. p. 198u20139.
• Weber BG, Mateas M, Jhala A. Learning from demonstration for goal-driven autonomy. In: Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence. 2012. p. 1176u201382.
• Karpouzis K, Yannakakis G, Paiva A, Nielsen JH, Vasalou A, Jhala A. User modelling and adaptive, natural interaction for conflict resolution. In: Proceedings of the 12th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies Icalt 2012. 2012. p. 692u20133.
• Bulitko V, Riedl M, Jhala A, Buro M, Sturtevant N. Recap of the seventh AAAI conference on artificial intelligence and interactive digital entertainment (AIIDE). In: AI Magazine. 2012. p. 51u20134.
• Swanson R, Jhala A. Rich computational model of conflict for virtual characters. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics. 2012. p. 502u20134.
• Weber BG, Mateas M, Jhala A. Learning from Demonstration for Goal-Driven Autonomy. In: Proceedings of the 26th Aaai Conference on Artificial Intelligence Aaai 2012. 2012. p. 1176u201382.
• Maraffi CT, Jhala A. Performatology: A procedural acting approach for interactive drama in cinematic games. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics. 2011. p. 322u20135.
• Weber BG, Mateas M, Jhala A. Building human-level AI for real-time strategy games. In: Aaai Fall Symposium Technical Report. 2011. p. 329u201336.
• Jhala A, Young RM. Intelligent machinima generation for visual storytelling. In: Artificial Intelligence for Computer Games. 2011. p. 151u201370.
• Weber BG, Mateas M, Jhala A. A particle model for state estimation in real-time strategy games. In: Proceedings of the 7th Aaai Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Aiide 2011. 2011. p. 103u20138.
• Weber BG, John M, Mateas M, Jhala A. Modeling player retention in Madden NFL 11. In: Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence. 2011. p. 1701u20136.
• Weber BG, Mawhorter P, Mateas M, Jhala A. Reactive planning idioms for multi-scale game AI. In: Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games Cig2010. 2010. p. 115u201322.
• Weber BG, Mateas M, Jhala A. Applying goal-driven autonomy to starcraft. In: Proceedings of the 6th Aaai Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Aiide 2010. 2010. p. 101u20136.
• Michael Youngblood G, Bulitko V, Dill K, Jhala A, Schwab B, Riedl MO. Preface. Proceedings of the 6th Aaai Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Aiide 2010. 2010 Dec 1;
• Yannakakis GN, Martu00ednez HP, Jhala A. Towards affective camera control in games. User Modeling and User Adapted Interaction. 2010 Oct 1;20(4):313u201340.
• Chen S, Smith AM, Jhala A, Wardrip-Fruin N, Mateas M. RoleModel: Towards a formal model of dramatic roles for story generation. In: Proceedings of the Intelligent Narrative Technologies III Workshop Int3 10. 2010.
• Jhala A, Young RM. Cinematic visual discourse: Representation, generation, and evaluation. IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games. 2010 Jun 1;2(2):69u201381.
• Yannakakis G, Togelius J, Khaled R, Jhala A, Karpouzis K, Paiva A, et al. Siren: Towards adaptive serious games for teaching conflict resolution. In: 4th European Conference on Games Based Learning 2010 Ecgbl 2010. 2010. p. 412u20137.
• Jhala A, Young RM. Comparing effects of different cinematic visualization strategies on viewer comprehension. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics. 2009. p. 26u201337.
• Drachen A, Yannakakis G, Jhala A, Hitchens M. Towards data-driven drama management: Issues in data collection and annotation. In: Breaking New Ground Innovation in Games Play Practice and Theory Proceedings of Digra 2009. 2009.
• Burelli P, Jhala A. Dynamic artificial potential fields for autonomous camera control. In: Proceedings of the 5th Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference Aiide 2009. 2009. p. 8u201313.
• Burelli P, Jhala A. CamOn: A real-time autonomous camera control system. In: Proceedings of the 5th Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference Aiide 2009. 2009. p. 187u20138.
• Jhala A, Young RM. Evaluation of intelligent camera control systems based on cognitive models of comprehension. In: Fdg 2009 4th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games Proceedings. 2009. p. 327u20138.
• Jhala A, Schwartz M, Martu0300inez HP, Yannakakis G. Investigating the interplay between camera viewpoints, game information, and challenge. In: Proceedings of the 5th Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference Aiide 2009. 2009. p. 52u20137.
• Pu00e9rez Martu00ednez H, Jhala A, Yannakakis GN. Analyzing the impact of camera viewpoint on player psychophysiology. In: Proceedings 2009 3rd International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction and Workshops Acii 2009. 2009.
• Jhala A, Van Velsen M. Challenges in development and design of interactive narrative authoring systems, a panel. In: Aaai Spring Symposium Technical Report. 2009. p. 64u20136.
• Jhala A. Exploiting structure and conventions of movie scripts for information retrieval and text mining. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics. 2008. p. 210u20133.
• Cheong YG, Jhala A, Bae BC, Young RM. Automatically generating summary visualizations from game logs. In: Proceedings of the 4th Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference Aiide 2008. 2008. p. 167u201372.
• Jhala A, Rawls C, Munilla S, Young RM. Longboard: A sketch based intelligent storyboarding tool for creating machinima. In: Proceedings of the 21th International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference Flairs 21. 2008. p. 386u201391.
• Jhala A, Young RM. Representational requirements for a plan based approach to automated camera control. In: Proceedings of the 2nd Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference Aiide 2006. 2006. p. 36u201341.
• Jhala A. Darshak - An intelligent cinematic camera planning system. In: Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence. 2006. p. 1918u20139.
• Jhala A, Bares W, Young RM. Towards an intelligent storyboarding tool for 3D games. In: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. 2005. p. 367u20138.
• Jhala A, Young RM. A discourse planning approach to cinematic camera control for narratives in virtual environments. In: Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence. 2005. p. 307u201312.
• Gordon A, Van Lent M, Van Velsen M, Carpenter P, Jhala A. Branching storylines in virtual reality environments for leadership development. In: Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence. 2004. p. 844u201351.