Plenary Speakers

 

 

  William (Bill) Buxton

  Principal Researcher
  Microsoft Research

 

Bill is the author of, Sketching User Experiences:  Getting the Design Right and the Right Design.  A Principal Researcher at MSR, he has a 30 year involvement in research, design and commentary around human aspects of technology.  He was a researcher at Xerox PARC, and Chief Scientist of Alias Research and SGI Inc. He has been awarded three honourary doctorates, is co-recipient of an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement, received an ACM/SIGCHI Lifetime Achievement Award, and is a Fellow of the ACM. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto and Distinguished Professor of Industrial Design at the Technical University Eindhoven. 

 

  Seth Cooper

  Creative Director, Centre for Game Science
  Department of Computer Science and Engineering
  University of Washington

 

Seth Cooper is interested in using video games to solve difficult real-world problems. He is chief architect and lead designer of Foldit, a video game which has allowed over 100,000 players to contribute to biochemical scientific research. He has also developed several game technologies for real-time crowd simulation and character control that have been licensed by game companies. 

   

  David Dill

  Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
  Stanford University

 

David L. Dill is a Professor of Computer Science and, by courtesy, Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He has an S.B. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1979), and an M.S and Ph.D. from Carnegie-Mellon University (1982 and 1987).

Prof. Dill has research interests in a variety of areas, including computational systems biology and the theory and application of formal verification techniques to system designs, including hardware, protocols, and software. He has also done research in asynchronous circuit verification and synthesis, and in verification methods for hard real-time systems. Since 2003, Prof. Dill has been working actively on policy issues in voting technology. He is the author of the "Resolution on Electronic Voting", which calls for a voter-verifiable audit trail on all voting equipment, and which has been endorsed by thousands of people, including many of the top computer scientists in the U.S.

  Chad Gaffield

  President
  Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada 
  (SSHRC)

 

Chad Gaffield, one of Canada’s foremost historians, was appointed president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) in September 2006. His appointment followed a 20-year career at the University of Ottawa, during which he held a University Research Chair and various other positions, including founding director of the Institute of Canadian Studies. He has won many awards for his teaching, research and innovations related to computer-based, interdisciplinary and multi-institutional collaboration.

Chad Gaffield, un des plus éminents historiens du Canada, a été nommé président du Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines (CRSH) en septembre 2006. Avant, il menait depuis 20 ans une carrière à l’Université d’Ottawa, où il a occupé une chaire de recherche et a été directeur fondateur de l’Institut d’études canadiennes. Il s’est également vu décerner de nombreux prix pour son enseignement sa recherche ainsi que ses théories et ses méthodes novatrices résultant d’une collaboration informatique interdisciplinaire et multi-institutionnelle.

Games Panel Speakers 

  

  Jason Della Rocca

  Founder & Senior Consultant
  Perimeter Partners 

Jason is the founder of Perimeter Partners, a consultancy that provides strategic level guidance and expertise to companies and organizations on the boundary, or perimeter, of the game industry.  Jason has been a member of the game industry for more than a decade, and has worked at IGDA, CMP, Quazal, Matrox Graphics, Silicon Graphics and Price Waterhouse. He blogs at www.realitypanic.com.

  

 
  Sean Gouglas

  Associate Professor, Humanities Computing and History & Classics
  University of Alberta 

Sean Gouglas is the Director of the Humanities Computing program and an associate professor in the Department of History and Classics. He is also the Director of the CFI-funded VITA Research Studio, and the founder of Gouglas Consulting. His various research interests include the exploration of New Media narrative forms, the role played by coroners in shaping Canadian legal-medical history, and the application of statistical and Geographic Information Systems technologies to colonial settlement histories. Sean holds a B.A. from King’s College at the University of Western Ontario (1992) and a M.A. and Ph.D. from McMaster University (1992 and 2001).

  Bart Simon

  Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
  Concordia University

 

Bart Simon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia and the Director of the Technology, Arts and Games research centre. His areas of expertise include game studies, science and technology studies and cultural sociology. His game studies research crosses a variety of genres, platforms and modalities looking at the relation of game cultures, socio-materiality and everyday life. Some of his work is represented in journals such as Games and Culture, Game Studies and Loading. He has a Ph.D. (Sociology/Science Studies) from the University of California at San Diego (1998).

  Su Skerl

  Founding Member and Chapter Organizer
  Women in Games International Vancouver

 

Su Skerl has been involved in the gaming industry since 1996 with a skill set that includes art, production, marketing, PR and instructional design. She is an active volunteer of several industry groups including Full Indie, a local community that forges connections between independent game developers and enhances creative and developer culture, and the Vancouver chapter of the Special Interest Group for Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH). Su is a founding member and Chapter Organizer of the Vancouver chapter of Women in Games International, which promotes the inclusion and advancement of women in the global games industry. Su has held instructional positions at the Art Institute of Vancouver and the Vancouver Film School.