De Montfort University Games Festival Speaker Biographies
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The document provides biographies for several speakers at the DMU Games Festival. It introduces Tre Azam who is the founder and CEO of MyndPlay, a brainwave technology company, and discusses his background in therapy and media. It also briefly mentions David Burden who develops virtual world applications for healthcare training and several other speakers who will discuss topics ranging from Shakespeare and Mandela to brain-controlled entertainment to using games in healthcare.
De Montfort University Games Festival Speaker Biographies
- 1. DMU Games Festival Speaker Biographies Tre Azam Feb 26th “Using brainwave technology in serious games” Feb 28th “Myndplay and brain controlled interactive entertainment” Tre Azam is founder and CEO of MyndPlay; a London based brainwave technology and immersive media solutions company and creator of the World's first mind controlled interactive video and movie platform. Tre has always had a passion for the mind and qualified as a therapist in 2010; which is how he came to combine his 2 passions of media and the mind to create MyndPlay. Tre however is most famous for his part in the BBC Apprentice in 2007 and his subsequent radio show on LBC. David Burden Feb 27th” Virtual Worlds for healthcare training” David Burden (aka Second Life’s Corro Moseley) is one of the world’s most respected developers of virtual world applications, particularly in Second Life. His fantastic knowledge and understanding of the potential of virtual world technologies is perfectly matched with his modesty and generosity of spirit in supporting the activities of the Serious Games Institute. David’s company, Daden Ltd has pioneered and developed many important applications for virtual worlds, including the ability to visualise real world data in three dimensions through the Datascape virtual control room application within second Life. David is a deserved winner of a number of international awards for his work and his evangelising for virtual worlds has played an important role in developing the West Midlands global presence in this sector. Jacqueline Cawston Feb 25th “Shakespeare! Mandela! – immersive digital culture” Feb 26th “Drugs or Games? – a look at the development of Games for Health” Jacqueline Cawston’s role is to develop global and national consortiums in the new digital media arena. She manages a multi million pound portfolio of projects, linking industry with academics and cutting edge digital media companies. Working with serious games, virtual worlds, augmented reality and related digital media technologies for pc, mobile and tablet she has developed a wide range of projects in health, education, arts and heritage including health games for autism and dating violence and cultural projects with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and the Robben Island Museum in South Africa about the story of Nelson Mandela.
- 2. Sean Clark Feb 28th “Bridging Art and Science” Sean Clark is a digital artist, a PhD researcher, the director of web/mobile developer Cuttlefish and the curator of Interact in Leicester. In his commercial work he is interested in social networking, mobile multimedia, collaborative computing and location-aware information systems. In his arts work he is inspired by systems theory, the nature of interactivity and creative explorations of flow and connectedness. As a researcher he has published over 20 research papers and have spoken at numerous conferences and seminars. He has an Honours Degree in Computer Studies from Loughborough University, a Masters in Digital Arts from Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London and is currently working towards a practice-based PhD in Systems Theory and Digital Arts at De Montfort University Annette Crisp Feb 27th” Engaging with Avatars as Preparation for the Real World” Annette Crisp is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Criminology, Psychology and Policing at De Montfort University who has, for the past few years, created and used machinima and avatar action as the foundation for her teaching of practice based and theoretical concepts. In addition to Criminology students Annette has developed presentation materials for Probation and Police Training This presentation will review some of the materials that Annette has used when teaching students in criminology related disciplines to engage students and prepare them for future practice. Annette will focus and show examples of her work particularly to future practitioners on domestic violence, media, crime and justice process and anti-social behaviour. Ernest Edmonds Feb 28th “Immersive Systems: Experience and Engagement” Ernest Edmonds is a pioneering digital artist and international expert on creative human-computer interaction. He has exhibited computer- based and systems art around the world since 1970. He has created internationally recognised research groups at Leicester Polytechnic, Loughborough University and at the University of Technology, Sydney. He currently has two part-time positions, Professor of Computation and Creative Media in the University of Technology, Sydney and Professor of Computational Art at De Montfort University. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Transactions, fast track, section of the leading MIT Press journal Leonardo. His most recent exhibition was at Site Gallery in Sheffield from last November until February.
- 3. David Fried Feb 25th “Using Interactivity to Create A Great User Experience” Feb 26th “Virtual Rehab: Interactive Technologies in Healthcare” David Fried is the General Manager of Virtualware UK, a company within the Virtualware Group that designs and develops interactive and immersive installations for a wide variety of sectors. As a trained architect, he worked in Canada, the UK and Spain before deciding to open his own company specializing in interactive marketing solutions in 2003. David joined Virtualware Group in 2011 bringing a decade of know-how and real world experience of touch technologies and interactive content development to the company. Since then he has headed up the company Innodevices which develops proprietary interactive solutions for Virtualware Group as well as being responsible for the UK market. Nick Higgett Feb 25th “Virtual Romans - Digital Heritage and Gaming” Feb 27th “Virtual Romans - Digital Heritage and Gaming” Nick Higgett is Programme Leader for MA Multimedia Design at De Montfort University and is also project director for the Virtual Romans Project. This project is funded by Leicester City Council and its aim is the3D digital reconstruction of Roman Leicester Ratae Corieltavorum. http://www.facebook.com/VirtualRomans He is also currently leading and working on several Connected Communities AHRC funded projects concerned with Digital Heritage and also the creation of a National Heritage Project Network. Duncan Lawson Feb 26th “Putting gaming into healthcare , what can we learn ?“ Duncan Lawson , born and educated in Scotland, graduated with Bsc Hon,s Degree in Plymouth , and went windsurfing building one of top teams in the UK in the early ‘80’s , where he learnt many of his marketing and business skills. He is the Founder of Fithealth Ltd and purchased Instyle Aerobiking, and rebuilt the company to fund the development of what has become the Webracing™ concept. Developing integrated cardio fitness products that link in virtual world over web, with ability for activity data to be recorded and collated on central server database. He recently combined his medical knowledge with interactive fitness to kick off research into Parkinson’s disease.
- 4. John Martin Feb 25th “Beat the Ministry – Wartime Farming Game” John Martin is a Reader in Agrarian history in the Faculty of ADH. He has written several books and numerous articles dealing with the issue of food security. He was appointed Series Consultant for the BBC’s “Wartime Farm” and subsequently the WF Christmas Special. He is the co-author of the Open University (OU) booklet which accompanied the series acted as an adviser in the production of the OU “Beat the Ministry” game. This provides the opportunity for participants to compare their performance with that of the Ministry in directing the wartime food production campaign (1939-45). Dylan Menzies Feb 28th “Next Generation Environmental Sound Synthesis for Virtual Worlds” Dr Dylan Menzies is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Technology at De Montfort University. He research includes work in spatial sound theory, loudspeaker arrays, binuaral sound, modelled sound synthesis for virtual environments, musical synthesis and interface design. He holds a PhD from the University of York and has also worked as a design engineer for Sony Professional Audio. Dylan is a keen saxophonist. Jude Ower Feb 27th£ Social Network Games for Charitable Causes” Jude Ower has spent 11 years in the games industry, creating games for training, education and raising awareness. Her passion is using game play to make the world a better place. Jude founded PlayMob, creating the world's first platform profitably connecting games to social good. A win win for all. She has taken the company through raising angel and seed capital in order to build and scale the platform. She is now in the process of taking it global and signing up strategic partnerships. Jude also has a passion for ideas, entrepreneurship and innovation. Voted top 100 women in Tech in Europe, Growing Business 'Young Gun' 2012, and Shortlisted on Red's Hot Women Awards 2012 and runner up Young Entreneur of the Year 2012. Built Playmob up to be winner of Best Start Up 2012 Launch Conference and finalist in Europas 2011 and BBAA awards. BAFTA games judge, member of NEXTERS, UKIE (UK Interactive Entertainment), and speaker at various events such as Iod, MADE Festival, SXSW, Women in Games, Browser Games Forum, Games for
- 5. Brands, London Games Conference, Social Games Summit and Tech@State. Also a Titan for Doug Richards School for Creative Kate Owen Feb 26th “Developing an immersive 3D sling and hoist simulation” Kathleen (Kate) Owen, Back Care Advisor has worked at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) since August 2005. She trained as a nurse, qualifying many years ago in adult general nursing. Kate’s current role is to devise and undertake appropriate moving and handling training and training programmes for all GOSH employed staff, to undertaken on-site and small group training. Another dimension to Kate’s role is to advise and give assistance regarding complex moving and handling issues along with product information and advice. Kate also develops the Trust’s policy, procedures and guidelines for moving and handling, along with investigations of moving and handling accidents and incidents when required. Cat Oxley Feb 26th “Developing an immersive 3D sling and hoist simulation” Cat Oxley, Learning Innovations Lead at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). In 2007 Cat established GOLD – GOSH’s Online Learning & Development portal, enabling all staff to have access to learning and educational resources 24/7, at work or home. Her role involves the design, development and implementation of online learning, games-based learning and the use of social media/collaborative learning within the NHS. Cat’s passion for online learning encourages staff to use and experiment with the emerging technologies bringing into their day-to-day activities learning as part of the Trust’s educational strategy. Lucia Pannese Feb 26th “Virtual Environments for Games Based Reflective Learning focused on health applications” Feb 27th “SuperHUB: Engaging Citizens for Green Mobility” Lucia Pannese has more than 15 years management experience in innovation & research projects with a special focus on technology enhanced learning solutions. She is the Founding Director of imaginary, a leading European Serious Games developer where she acts as CEO and manager for international (research) activities. Lucia is heavily involved in European research around Serious Games and digital interactive technologies for learning and training across several sectors, particularly health and care, smart cities and societies, culture and business. With numerous Italian and international publications and presentations about Serious Games, learning and training, she is often invited at international conferences dealing with the Serious Games and digital interactive technologies topics.
- 6. Lorenzo Picinali Feb 28th “3D Audio Applications for the Blind” Dr. Picinali is currently employed as a Senior Lecturer in Music/Audio Technology in the Department of Media Technology at DMU and an active researcher in the Virtual Reality and Assisted Living (ViR.AL) and Interactive and Media Technologies (IMT) research groups. His teaching duties are in the area of audio technology, musical acoustics and digital signal processing. His research activities are mainly focused on the development of audio and haptics interactive technologies and applications for people with perceptual disabilities, in particular visually and hearing impaired individuals. He is also involved in projects linked with data sonification (in particular related with computer fluid dynamics and bio-informatics tasks), with dance and music production using immersive 3D audio technologies, and with the creation of haptic devices for training purposes. Michael Powell Feb 25th “Roslyn Chapel Project for 3D interactive visualisation” Michael Powell is the Course Leader for the Game Art Design Degree Course in the Art, Design and Humanities Faculty at De Montfort University. He is largely responsible for his course being the first Skillset industry accredited course in the UK and his graduates have a great record in securing jobs in some of the biggest names in the computer games industry. The Roslyn Chapel project is an excellent example of the very high quality visualisation standards delivered by his students. Michael is also in demand as a speaker at digital creativity conference. Martin Rieser Feb 28th “Creative Technologies: Immersive and Locative Experiences” Professor Rieser has worked in the field of interactive arts for many years. He is research Professor in the Institute of Creative Technologies in The Faculty of Art Design and Humanities at De Montfort. His art practice in internet art and interactive narrative installations has been seen around the world including Cannes; Holland, Paris; Vienna, Thessaloniki, London, Germany, Milan and Melbourne, Australia. He has published numerous essays and books on digital art including New Screen Media: Cinema/ Art/Narrative (BFI/ZKM, 2002), and has recently edited The Mobile Audience, a book on mobile and locative technology and art from Rodopi
- 7. James Roadley-Battin Feb 28th “Developing commercial games at Codemasters” James Roadley-Battin is a Lead Artist for Codemasters video games developer. Most recently he has worked on F1 Online the game. A message from James: “You’re all invited to a talk that will give insight to the challenges that we face in this rapidly changing industry. Feel free to ask questions and hear my personal thoughts. If you don’t ask any questions worry not, I’ll talk about the questions I constantly ask myself: • How do we play? • Who plays? • Why will they play? • How do we stay creative? • What is Ux? Find out why I sometimes feel like a rabbit in your headlights. How I tackle this and ultimately encourage us to develop ourselves and become creative thinkers.” James is a graduate of De Montfort University and often contributes to the Game Art Design course led by Michael Powell. He is a regular contributor at the Game Alliance Middle England (GAME) project meetings with insightful updates on trends and challenges in the games industry. Helen Routledge Feb 28th “Using 3D immersive Worlds for Health and Safety Training. With a background and passion in behavioural sciences and psychology Helen Routledge has over a decade of experience of applying behavioural and cognitive theories to highly-interactive serious games. Helen’s knowledge of psychology and game design mechanics has been applied to an incredibly varied range of solutions including team building, leadership, sales training, IT security, disease control and health and safety for some of the world’s largest and most successful organisations.
- 8. Peter Shelton Feb 27th “Interactive Immersive Installations for the Disadvantaged” Peter Shelton is an artist, musician, experimenter and Strategic Executive of First Movement: the National Centre for Arts Installation with learning disabled people. He has lead the development of several new technology projects within First Movement including: Live Room (music technology), Towards a New Arts Language (contemporary arts technologies), Time Slices (digital video), New Worlds (internet), Level (video conferencing collaboration) and Raise (games-based intuitive interfaces).' Eric Tatham Feb 25th “Virtual Romans - Digital Heritage and Gaming” Feb 27th “Virtual Romans - Digital Heritage and Gaming” After studying for degrees in Electronics and Computer Science, and a PhD for work related to visual integration of objects in augmented reality, Eric Tatham swapped industry for academia and has since lectured in 3D Computer Graphics and Software Engineering at various UK universities, including; Coventry University, the Open University and the University of Bradford. He currently lectures in 3D Computer Graphics, Animation, and Games Programming at De Montfort University and also runs a software development company called Mixed Reality Ltd. He is a self-confessed Augmented Reality fanatic and hence, possibly, in need of counselling! Steve Thompson Feb 25th “Culture and Heritage -Real world issues in virtual world settings Feb 27th “ Engaging Communities – The Great Adventure” Steve Thompson is a Musician, Composer, Multi Media Artist, Technologist, Educator and Academic. Through his work at Teesside University he is recognised in the UK as a leading figure in the world of community engagement through Community Media and ICT. Steve has been described by "Future Democracy" as “one of Europe's most original thinkers on community engagement using new technologies”. Steve began his working life as a Steelworker at Consett Steel Works and then moved to the music industry. He has written songs for many international recording artistes such as Sheena Easton, Celine Dion, Elaine Page, Sarah Brightman, and Elkie Brooks. In recent years, Steve has managed a community radio station, taught BTEC Music Composition and BTEC Music Technology and now develops and teaches Community and Social Media for Teesside University
- 9. Kevin Williams Feb 25th “Edutainment – Interaction and Immersion” Kevin Williams is the founding chairman of the Digital Out-of-Home Entertainment Network Association (DNA) is a not for profit trade associations focused on the emerging digital out-of-home entertainment (DOE) sector; representing the rapid expansion of interactive digital based entertainment hardware, in the attractions, amusement, retail, hospitality, museum and leisure industries. Members of the association comprise developers and manufacturers alongside operators and suppliers of the technology in the sector, as well as those investing in the future of the business. David Wortley Feb 25th 28th “Welcome Introductions and Hosting” David Wortley is a Research Fellow at De Montfort University co- ordination the Games Alliance Middle England (GAME) project. He was the founding Director of the Serious Games Institute and is also a freelance consultant on the strategic use of immersive and emerging technologies such as serious games, virtual worlds and social networks. His mission is to help organisations and individuals, leverage the power of these technologies for competitive advantage and business/personal development