We have an incredible lineup of internationally reknown keynote speakers this year.

 

Randy Hinrichs

Ran is the CEO of 2b3d, a multi- award winning Internet media company, focused on immersive technology solutions for the enterprise, government agencies and educational institutions. Randy’s experience spans two decades in the high tech industry, serving in strategic technology positions while at Microsoft Research to advance eLearning, ePublishing and eScience. Ran has held positions on several science and engineering boards and committees, including Advisor to Virtual Worlds at the University of Washington, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, and the National Academy of Engineering’s committee on Educating the Engineer of 2020. He has published several books and articles, his most recent being Transforming Virtual World Learning in 2011, and Engaging the Avatar, and a Chapter in Oxford's Handbook on Virtuality on the psychology of the avatars both in 2012. He holds various patents and awards in multi-point Internet based video conferencing, web based learning, influencer data mining, and digitizing medical health records while at Microsoft Research. Randy also serves on the faculty at the University of Washington's iSchool, where he is creator and faculty for their Certificate in Virtual Worlds. Ran wants to transform key business communications through green virtual world technologies, where you are likely to run into his avatar on any given day. Full bio (http://media.wix.com/ugd/ 9d60bcc086b5370dd74d3ed26fa072e3.ugd?dn=Randy%20Hinrichs%20Bio%20(2).pdf )

 

James Blascovich

Jim Blascovich is the director and co- founder of the Research Center for Virtual Environments at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Professor Blascovich has served as the president of international scientific societies, including the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, and he has been invited to lecture on social neuroscience and virtual reality topics worldwide. He is an author of multiple books and publications. He most current book, he co-authored with Jeremy Bailenson: Infinite Reality: The Hidden Blueprint of our Virtual Lives (P.S.). Full bio at http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/blascovich/.

 

Michelle Fox

Dr. Michelle Fox serves as the Chief Strategist for Education and Workforce Development, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, US Department of Energy. Dr. Fox provides strategic direction for education and workforce development programs, especially through the integration of advanced learning technologies. While at DOE, she has been using her extensive background in developing and evaluating technology including games, simulations and virtual worlds to develop new kinds of training and education. She is also working on the design, development, deployment and evaluation of the National Training and Education Resource (NTER), an open source collaborative toolset that enables users to create and manage learning, training and research in virtual worlds. She was recently recognized by an AFFIRM Leadership Award for this work and the National Institute of Building Science’s 2011 Institute Honor Award. Prior to joining DOE, Fox served as Vice President of the Learning Technologies Program at the Federation of American Scientists, a non-profit research group. Fox earned her B.A. at Trinity College, Hartford, CT; her M.A. at King's College, London; and her doctorate at Oxford University.

 

Charles Wankel

Charles Wankel received his doctorate from New York University. He currently serves the Rotterdam School of Management as a dissertation committee member and honorary posts include Vice Rector of the Poznań University of Business. He has edited or authored more than 30 books, including the American Library Association’s Outstanding Reference Source of 2009 Award-winning Encyclopedia of Business in Today’s World (SAGE Publications). Other recent volumes include Higher Education in Virtual Worlds, Alleviating Poverty through Business Strategy (Palgrave Macmillan), and Management Education for Global Sustainability (Information Age Publishing).

 

Recent journal publications include “Management Education Using Social Media” (Organization Management Journal). He has been the recipient of top awards for best paper, service and technology from the Academy of Management, the premier scholarly society for his discipline. He has been a visiting researcher and lecturer in many nations, including as a Fulbright Fellow, and with support from the United Nations Development Program and the Open Society Fund. He has developed training programs for thousands of Fortune 50 company managers, including ones for IBM Learning Services and McDonald's Corporation, and executive programs for Columbia University School of Business, and in the oil industry in Siberia. Full bio at http:// www.stjohns.edu/academics/graduate/tobin/facultyadmin/wankel.stj.

 

Jesse Schell

Jesse Schell has taught Game Design and led research projects at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center since 2002. Jesse is also the CEO of Pittsburgh’s largest videogame studio, Schell Games, and the former chairman of the International Game Developers Association. In 2004, he was named one of the world’s Top 100 Young Innovators by Technology Review, MIT’s magazine of innovation. Before coming to Carnegie Mellon, he was the Creative Director of the Disney Virtual Reality Studio, where he spent seven years as designer, programmer and manager on several projects for Disney theme parks and Disney Online. Before that, he was a software engineer at IBM and Bell Communications Research, and a writer, director, performer, juggler, comedian, and circus artist for both Freihofer's Mime Circus and the Juggler's Guild.

 

Kevin Holloway

Psychologist/SME
Computerworld Honors Program 2012 Laureate for T2 Virtual PTSD Experience in Second Life
National Center for Telehealth and Technology (T2)
Health Applications in Virtual Worlds Panel

 

Kevin is a clinical psychologist at the National Center for Telehealth and Technology (T2), a component center of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury. He serves as the lead and subject matter expert of T2’s Virtual Worlds program, which aims to leverage the affordances of virtual worlds technology to improve access to and quality of psychological health care services to Service Members, Veterans, and their families. Dr. Holloway led the creation and development of the T2 Virtual PTSD Experience in Second Life, for which T2 is honored to have been selected as a Computerworld Honors Program 2012 Laureate. Dr. Holloway is the Principle Investigator in a study exploring the feasibility of providing Prolonged Exposure treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a virtual world environment. He also serves as an Associate Investigator on a number of other studies, including a randomized, controlled trial of the efficacy of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy compared to Prolonged Exposure for the treatment of combat- related PTSD. Dr. Holloway received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Brigham Young University in August, 2004, and earned a Certificate in Virtual Worlds from the University of Washington in August 2009.

 

Douglas Maxwell

MSME Science and Technology Manager Virtual World Strategic Applications U.S. Army Simulation & Training Technology Center (STTC) MOSES Virtual World Project

DoD Virtual Worlds Panel

 

Douglas Maxwell conducts research into the use of virtual environments for strategic applications as a Science and Technology Manager for the U.S. Army Research Lab, Simulation and Training Technology Center in Orlando, Florida. He is the founder of the Military Users of Virtual Worlds working group and servers as a virtual world technology advisor to the Office Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Readiness. He is responsible for the Enhanced Dynamic Geosocial Environment (EDGE) architecture development and deployment. He is the director of the Military Open Simulator Enterprise Strategy (MOSES), which servers over 350 military, civilian government, academic and industry users. Mr. Maxwell is exploring extremely flexible virtual environments such as real time terrain warping in response to explosions, context switching artificial intelligence behavior models, and computational steering in response to user input. He was awarded a patent related to automated terrain generation and multiple engineering and innovation excellence awards from the U.S. Navy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a master of science in Mechanical Engineering with a significant course background in software engineering. Mr. Maxwell is currently pursuing a Ph. D. in Modeling and Simulation at the University of Central Florida.

 

Barbara Endicott-Popovsky

Director, Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecuity Academic Director, Master of Infrastructure Planning and Management University of Washington

Cybersecurity in Virtual Worlds Panel

 

Director for the Center of Information Assurance and Cybersecurity at the University of Washington, designated by the NSA as a Center for Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education and Research, Academic Director for the Masters in Infrastructure Planning and Management in the Urban Planning Department of the School of Built Environments and holds an appointment as Research Associate Professor with the Information School. Her academic career follows a 20-year career in industry marked by executive and consulting positions in IT architecture and project management. Her research interests include enterprise-wide information systems security and compliance management, forensic-ready networks, the science of digital forensics and secure coding practices. For her work in the relevance of archival sciences to digital forensics, she is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Scientists. Barbara earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science/Computer Security from the University of Idaho (2007), and holds a Masters of Science in Information Systems Engineering from Seattle Pacific University (1987), a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Washington (1985) and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pittsburgh.

 

Workshops (May 16) and Government Project “poster” sessions (May 17) will posted to the website no later than April 30.