Michael Gourlay

Dr. Michael J. Gourlay works as a Senior Software Engineer at Electronic Arts, as a lead software engineer on Madden NFL 2011. He previously worked on the procedural animation system used by EA, and on the upcoming title, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). He was also a lead programmer on NASCAR. He architected the visual effects system used in EA games worldwide and developed algorithms for interactive, high-bandwidth online applications. He also teaches at the University of Central Florida (UCF) Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA), an interdisciplinary graduate program that teaches programmers, producers and artists how to make video games and training simulations. Prior to joining EA, he performed scientific research using computational fluid dynamics and the world's largest massively parallel supercomputers. His previous research also includes nonlinear dynamics in quantum mechanical systems, and atomic, molecular and optical physics. Michael received his degrees in physics and philosophy from Georgia Tech and the University of Colorado at Boulder.