┬аUmran Ali, BSc, M.A, PGCHE, FHEA, was born in 1978 in Manchester, England. After graduating (BSc in 2004, and later ┬аwith an M.A in 2005) Umran worked as a freelance 3D artist & creative designer, and then as a visiting lecturer and private tutor teaching across Art & Design, 3D, CGI and Animation. Umran later joined the School of Media, Music & Performance ┬аat the University of Salford as a lecturer in creative media, and taught across a variety of areas from design, production, & project management for video games, specifically around creative design and production of virtual environments.
From 2006 to 2012 Umran acted as Programme Leader for the BSc (Hons) Computer & Video Games programme at the University and was responsible for curriculum design, programme management and developing the programme's partnerships with a variety of major industry partners. Many of Umran's students since, have gone on to work in the creative industries including the videogame industry┬а
Umran's freelance work included several large projects ranging from PlastiCity; a Will Alsop driven project visualising the regeneration of Bradford city centre in a fully interactive form, the Virtual Jean Claude virtual knowledge space project recreating the French composer Jean Claude Risset, into a 3D avatar, to working on projects in partnership with UK based organisations such as the DarkHorse organisation, BT and the Foundation for Art & Creative Technology (FACT).┬а
Umran currently works as a senior lecturer in creative media, at the University of Salford. and continues to explore virtual natural environment design through his teaching and research, maintaining a deep interest in the meaning, impact, and design of natural spaces.
In his spare time, Umran is a keen videogames player, and landscape photographer.┬а