Welcome!
- I’m an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Cal Poly SLO. Before joining Cal Poly, I completed my PhD at the University of Southern California in the HUMANS lab alongside Annenberg Game Lab.
Research Summary
- My recent projects use player behavior traces and communication data from multiplayer games to understand cooperation, generosity, and team performance.
- Before moving into computer science, I trained in bioengineering and worked on data-driven biomedical research, including community-based efforts, visualization of high-dimensional data and improving prognostic modeling for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Looking ahead, I’m interested in building “open social media” infrastructure with Osmo that enables transparent, reproducible, and human-centered research on online communities—tools and datasets that make it easier to study platform design choices, social dynamics, and interventions while taking privacy and governance seriously.
Publications in CS
- Bisberg, A. J., Shahik, S. J., Zeng, Y., Morstatter, F., Chen, E., Ferrara, E., and Williams, D. (2025). “Communication Patterns Predict Team Skill in Multiplayer Online Games.” Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW).
- Bisberg, A. J., Chen, E., Twyman, M., Williams, D., and Ferrara, E. (2025). “STRIVE: Socio-behavioral Taxonomy Representation for Interactive Virtual Environments.” Proceedings of the Foundations of Digital Games Conference (FDG).
- Chen, E., Bisberg, A. J., and Ferrara, E. (2024). “Can You Play Anything Else? Understanding Play Style Flexibility in League of Legends.” Auxiliary Paper, IEEE Conference on Games (CoG).
- Bisberg, A. J., Jiang, J., Zeng, Y., Chen, E., and Ferrara, E. (2022). “The Gift That Keeps on Giving: Generosity is Contagious in Multiplayer Online Games.” Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW).
- Bisberg, A. J., and Ferrara, E. (2022). “GCN-WP: Semi-Supervised Graph Convolutional Networks for Win Prediction in Esports.” Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Games (CoG).
- Bisberg, A. J., and Cardona-Rivera, R. E. (2019). “SCOPE: Selective Cross-validation Over Parameters for Elo.” Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE). (Oral + poster acceptance rate: 49%.)
- Huang-Isherwood, K. M., Kim, S. S. Y., Williams, D., and Bisberg, A. J. (2022). “Women Hold Up (More Than) Half of the Sky: Examining Gameplay Motivations, Behaviors, and Social Capital in a Multiplayer Game Popular Among Female Players.” Revista Internacional de Sociología, 80(4).
Publications in Bioengineering
- Hill, S. M., et al. (Qutub Lab and DREAM Challenges collaboration). (2016). “Inferring causal molecular networks: empirical assessment through a community-based effort.” Nature Methods, 13(4), 310-318.
- Noren, D. P., et al. (Qutub Lab and DREAM Challenges collaboration). (2016). “A crowdsourcing approach to developing and assessing prediction algorithms for AML prognosis.” PLoS Computational Biology, 12(6).
Curriculum Vitae
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Alexander J. BisbergSan Luis Obispo, CAUpdated: January 2026
Educational Preparation
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Ph.D., Computer Science — University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) May 2025
Dissertation: Competitive and social success in multiplayer online games.
- M.S., Computing (Data Analytics) — University of Utah (Salt Lake City, UT) May 2020
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B.S., Bioengineering — Rice University (Houston, TX) May 2015
Graduated with Distinction in Research and Creative Work.
Employment History
- Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Software Engineering — California Polytechnic State University (San Luis Obispo, CA) Sept 2025–present
- Data Science Intern — Electronic Arts (Remote) May 2024–Aug 2024
- Data Science Intern — Riot Games (Remote) May 2023–Aug 2023
- Data Science Intern — Riot Games (Remote) May 2022–Aug 2022
- Data Science Intern — Activision Blizzard (Remote) May 2020–Aug 2020
- Data Science Intern — Zillow Group (Seattle, WA) May 2019–Aug 2019
- Data Scientist / Full Stack Engineer — Harvest Exchange (Houston, TX) Apr 2016–May 2018
- Co-founder — Data Is Beautiful Solutions (DiBS) (Houston, TX) Feb 2014–Apr 2016
Awards, Honors, and Honorable Mentions
- Travel Award, Foundations of Digital Games Conference 2025
- Best Paper Award (Game Studies Division), NCA 109th Annual Convention 2023
- First Year PhD Fellowship, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California Fall 2020
Publications
Peer-reviewed conference papers
- Chen, E., Bisberg, A. J., Williams, D., Seif El-Nasr, M., Ferrara, E. (2026). “Change is Hard: Consistent Player Behavior Across Games with Conflicting Incentives.” Submitted to CHI.
- Bisberg, A. J., Shahik, S. J., Zeng, Y., Morstatter, F., Chen, E., Ferrara, E., and Williams, D. (2025). “Communication Patterns Predict Team Skill in Multiplayer Online Games.” CSCW.
- Bisberg, A. J., Chen, E., Twyman, M., Williams, D., and Ferrara, E. (2025). “STRIVE: Socio-behavioral Taxonomy Representation for Interactive Virtual Environments.” FDG.
- Chen, E., Bisberg, A. J., and Ferrara, E. (2024). “Can You Play Anything Else? Understanding Play Style Flexibility in League of Legends.” Auxiliary Paper, IEEE CoG.
- Bisberg, A. J., Jiang, J., Zeng, Y., Chen, E., and Ferrara, E. (2022). “The Gift That Keeps on Giving: Generosity is Contagious in Multiplayer Online Games.” CSCW.
- Bisberg, A. J., and Ferrara, E. (2022). “GCN-WP: Semi-Supervised Graph Convolutional Networks for Win Prediction in Esports.” IEEE CoG.
- Bisberg, A. J., and Cardona-Rivera, R. E. (2019). “SCOPE: Selective Cross-validation Over Parameters for Elo.” AIIDE. (Oral + poster acceptance rate: 49%.)
Peer-reviewed journal papers
- Huang-Isherwood, K. M., Kim, S. S. Y., Williams, D., and Bisberg, A. J. (2022). “Women Hold Up (More Than) Half of the Sky: Examining Gameplay Motivations, Behaviors, and Social Capital in a Multiplayer Game Popular Among Female Players.” Revista Internacional de Sociología, 80(4).
- Hill, S. M., et al. (Qutub Lab and DREAM Challenges collaboration). (2016). “Inferring causal molecular networks: empirical assessment through a community-based effort.” Nature Methods, 13(4), 310-318.
- Noren, D. P., et al. (Qutub Lab and DREAM Challenges collaboration). (2016). “A crowdsourcing approach to developing and assessing prediction algorithms for AML prognosis.” PLoS Computational Biology, 12(6).
Peer-reviewed presentations (non-archival)
- Liu, M., Gao, Z., Bisberg, A. J., and Williams, D. (2024). “From Isolation to Compassion: A Natural Experiment of How Stay-at-Home Orders Unleashed a Wave of Virtual Altruism.” 74th Annual ICA Conference.
- Huang-Isherwood, K. M., Li, Y., Jang, E., Bisberg, A. J., and Kim, D. (2023). “Future Time Perspective and In-Game Social Capital in Three Cultures.” NCA 109th Annual Convention. (Winner of the NCA Best Paper Award from the Game Studies Division.)
- Tan, L., Kim, S. S. Y., and Bisberg, A. J. (2023). “Intergroup Contact, Contact Heterogeneity, and Cross-group Friendship: Behavioral Evidence from a Global Prosocial Mobile Game.” NCA 109th Annual Convention.
Conference Participation
- “Communication Patterns Predict Team Skill in Multiplayer Online Games.” Presentation at CSCW 2025, Online Interactions with Friends and Strangers track (Bergen, Norway).
- “STRIVE: Socio-behavioral Taxonomy Representation for Interactive Virtual Environments.” Presentation at FDG 2025, Game Analytics and Visualization track (Graz, Austria).
- “The Gift That Keeps on Giving: Generosity is Contagious in Multiplayer Online Games.” Presentation at CSCW 2022 (Remote).
- “GCN-WP: Semi-Supervised Graph Convolutional Networks for Win Prediction in Esports.” Presentation at IEEE CoG 2022 (Remote).
- “SCOPE: Selective Cross-validation Over Parameters for Elo.” Poster presentation at AIIDE 2019 (Atlanta, GA).
Grants
Funded
- Tinker Thinking Machines Teaching Grant. $250 / student (~20 students) in credits towards the Tinker LLM training platform.
In review
- Bisberg, A. J. (PI) and Wright, A. (Co-PI). “The Open Social Lab: A human-centered research platform for social media” (Research Track). Noyce School RFP AY 25-26. Amount requested: $35,416.00. Submitted: 12/15/2025.
Service
Academic service
- Cal Poly CSSE Department — Curriculum Committee Fall 2025–present.
- Game Analytics and Visualization Track Co-chair, ACM Foundations of Digital Games (FDG) 2026.
- Programming committee member: AIIDE 2024; The Web Conference 2023; IEEE CoG 2022; AIIDE-GAW 2021; FDG 2021.
- Reviewer: CSCW 2024 Posters; The Web Conference 2023, 2022, 2021.
Professional service
- Volunteer, Bikerowave Nov 2023–Aug 2025.
- Data Ambassador, DataKind 2018–2020.
Courses
- Winter 2025
- CSC 581: "Computer Support for Knowledge Management"
- Fall 2025
- CSC 203: "Project-based Object-oriented Programming and Design"
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Below are some photos of me outside, my favorite place to be. -
