ISTerre PhD Students Honored at the Scientific Game Jam in Tokyo

The Scientific Game Jam took place last November in Tokyo. This event brings together PhD students from all nationalities and students in programming, graphic design, sound design, etc., to create a video game inspired by their research topic.

Participants, jury, and organizers for the final photo of the Scientific Game Jam Tokyo 2025

The Namazu’s Fault team in action : discussions, brainstorming, sketches…

This year, fifty participants, divided into nine interdisciplinary teams, took on the challenge of transforming, in a single weekend, the complexity of a young scientist’s research into a captivating video game. Once language and disciplinary barriers were overcome, each team leveraged the skills of its members to turn science into play. Each team can be proud of their game, which serves as a powerful tool to share scientific knowledge with a broad audience.

Three PhD students from Université Grenoble Alpes participated this year, including two from ISTerre : Mathilde Dehue and Zaccaria El Yousfi, whose travel was sponsored by the French Embassy in Japan.

Our two PhD students stood out, bringing honor to ISTerre :

Zaccaria El Yousfi won the ‘Golden Pixel’ award for the game Namazu’s Fault, based on his research in seismology.

Mathilde Dehue won the Best Sound award for the game Dr. Nova’s CarbonQuest, focused on reducing the carbon footprint of concrete.