Shivam Parab

What did you do before joining dBs?  

Before joining dBs, I had just graduated from University of Staffordshire with a degree in games design and programming over 3 years and landed a job at Newcastle and Stafford College as Lecturer for Games and Interactive Media for a year after doing an internship at INFINITY27. I carried out classes for games design and development in Unity and other interactive media and also taught basic 3D modelling in Maya. Now I am pursuing a full time degree in MSc. Software Engineering at University of Staffordshire and working part-time.
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Why did you first get into game development and programming?  

I started off my academic career in computer engineering, as early on I enjoyed programming and graphics design work, through which I discovered that my passion for programming could be combined with my passion for video games and problem solving. I decided to focus on game development and moved to the UK when I was 20 as a student, as it has some of the best universities and institutes in the world for game development.
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Any special areas of interest?  

Besides creating video games, I am also interested in getting into mobile and app development, especially with the new AI trends and technologies. I am keen on picking up new skills and expanding my knowledge. Other than that exploring the world, as I’ve already made the move on a solo trip out to the UK for the last 5 years and now am looking forward to even more opportunities to travel and tour and see some more places.‍

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What do you love most about what you do?

When it comes to working as a lecturer or teacher, I love the feeling of pride I get from seeing my students succeed and during the day to day classes. It is a great feeling to know that someone has understood a certain concept that they might have been trying to learn and watching them innovate and make their own projects and discuss it with them.

Having been a student myself a couple years ago and even being one currently as I do my master's, I enjoy seeing a different perspective as a lecturer and getting an insight on how things work while also being able to just get along with the students easily and understand the pressures of deadlines and other life challenges and help them out as and when they ask for it.

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Tell us about your proudest career moment?

Proudest career moment would be seeing my former students from my first lecturing job at college around my university campus as they’ve started their first year in university while I'm doing my master's at the same time and they run up and say hi and call me the “cool” ex lecturer.

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What do you get up to outside of your role at dBs? 

I love trying out different video games and love a good story-based game. On the other hand I play your average MMOs and FPS games. To get away from gaming I also love reading and just stepping out of my comfort zone and trying new things. For my master's, I am currently working on creating an adaptive learning AI for a serious game so definitely riding the AI trend.

Tell us something our students may not know about you?

I’ve got an American accent because of all the Hollywood movies and 'Hardy Boys' book series I read as a kid.