Kate Compton (Ph.D. ’19, computer science) came to UC Santa Cruz to explore how to build better tools for human creativity.
Earlier in her career, she worked on Spore, a game that allowed players to design and evolve their own creatures, shaping entire worlds. As a particle effects artist, she used algorithms to create planetary landscapes, even calling herself a “geological choreographer.”
The game’s creature creator was widely praised for making users feel creative and skilled, but when a later tool failed to evoke the same response, Compton wanted to understand why—leading her to pursue a Ph.D. at UCSC.
Compton found support at UCSC from Baskin Engineering Professors of Computational Media Michael Mateas and Jim Whitehead, as well as a community that valued both technical innovation and artistic expression.
During her time at UCSC, she developed Tracery, an open-source text-generating tool now widely used for chatbots and game narratives.
Since earning her Ph.D., Compton has taught at Northwestern University, worked with Silicon Valley startups, and is now the director of play at The LEGO Group.
This block group hides your featured image, remove this block group to show your featured image again.
