Penn Nursing student named IGDA scholar

Videos games have often been criticized as bad for your health — until now.

Matthew Lee, a doctoral student at Penn Nursing, was awarded an International Game Developers Association scholarship — one of the most coveted awards in the game developer community — for his work on video games and mental health, according to a release. Lee’s the only Philadelphia-based 2014 scholar of the group of 16. 

Originally from California, Lee worked with an interdisciplinary team to build AppHappy: Journey to the West, a mobile game designed to teach stress management.

AppHappy combines proven psychological practices, like cognitive behavioral therapy, with a role-playing framework. Lee and his team are currently prototyping the mobile app, and expect to launch in 2015.

Lee, a graduate of the Interactive Media Program at the University of Southern California, is now a member of Penn Nursing’s Health Technology Innovation Incubator. The incubator is meant to create collaboration between nursing students and other professionals in a diverse range of fields.