Steven Collins

For other people with the same name, see Stephen Collins (disambiguation).

Steven Collins
Alma materTrinity College Dublin
Known forHavok physics engine, Kore Virtual Machine
Scientific career
FieldsComputer graphics, Physics engines
InstitutionsTrinity College Dublin, Havok, King Digital Entertainment
ThesisWavefront tracking for global illumination solutions / Steven Collins. (1996)

Steven Collins is a computer scientist who has founded and acted as CTO of several companies in the area of computer graphics and video games. Formerly a professor of computer graphics in the Department of Computer Science in Trinity College, Dublin, was co-manager of the GV2 Research Group.[1] Born in Dundalk, County Louth, his interests in computing began with the Commodore 64 where he single-handedly developed and released the games Badlands and Herobotix.[2]

He is also a co-founder of Havok, a company which provides physics simulation software for computer games and films. The company was sold to Intel in September 2007 for €76M.[3][4]

In 2007, Collins started the MSc in Interactive Entertainment Technology course in Trinity College Dublin, where he acts as course director and lectures in real-time rendering.[5] He is quoted as saying that the course was started in order to educate the "future captains of industry" in reference to the games industry. Both Collins and Hugh Reynolds were awarded the Trinity College Dublin Innovation Award for 2007, for their work in co-founding Havok.[3] In March 2008, Collins and Reynolds co-founded "Kore Virtual Machines", a company dedicated to designing computer gaming virtual machines, using the Lua programming language. In October 2007, Kore was purchased by Havok and integrated into their software suite as Havok Script.[6] Collins is currently Chief Technology Officer of King Digital Entertainment, a leading mobile game publisher.[7]

  1. ^ GV2: the Graphics Vision and Visualisation Group
  2. ^ Collins, Steven (1 May 1998). "Game Graphics During the 8-bit Computer Era". ACM SIGGRAPH. 32 (2). Retrieved 25 February 2010.
  3. ^ a b TCD Innovation Award showcases University and Industry Links Archived 2011-06-06 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ NovaUCD Entrepreneurs Live! Seminar Series: Dr Steve Collins, co-founder Havok
  5. ^ MSc. IET homepage Archived 2008-05-27 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Alexander, Leigh. "Havok Buys Kore Virtual Machine". Gamasutra. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
  7. ^ "Meet Swrve". Swrve. Retrieved 6 January 2014.