Scott Nicholson is currently on sabbatical at MIT where he is infusing everyone with boardgame enthusiasm. His main research focus while at MIT is to create a toolkit for allowing groups of students to use a boardgame toolkit and simple parameters to develop their own boardgame to learn about a subject.
A few weeks ago he did an open talk about himself, boardgames and what he is doing at MIT and his research focus. He is an excellent lecturer so it is worth a watch.