Hao (Richard) Zhang | Program Director, Professional Master's Programs, SFU

Hao (Richard) Zhang is a full professor in the School of Computing Science at Simon Fraser University (SFU), Canada, where he directs the graphics (GrUVi) lab, serves as the Program Director, Professional Master's Programs and also as the Associate Director, Research and Industrial Relations. Richard obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, MMath and BMath degrees from the University of Waterloo, all in computer science. His research is in computer graphics with a focus on geometry modeling, shape analysis, 3D content creation, machine learning, and computational design and fabrication.

Ryan Nadel | Senior Program Manager, Microsoft

Talk title: Mixed Realities

Once a journalist covering military action and cultural issues in the middle east, Ryan Nadel has dedicated the bulk of his career to emerging technology. As the co-founder of a startup incubator, he was an early advocate for the application of machine learning, artificial intelligence and neuro-linguistic programming in the entertainment sector. Ryan also launched a gaming platform for kids that brought augmented reality to the playground and has been applied to more than 3000 active playgrounds across North America and Europe. Outside of his own endeavours, he has consulted for Telus, Random House Pantheon, Showcase, Emerging Pictures, Vimeo and the US Dept fo Energy. Today, Ryan is a Senior Program Manager for mixed reality applications at Microsoft, leading a team focused on driving digital transformation within the industrial sector. 

Maryam Sadeghi | CEO, MetaOptima

Talk title: The Future is here - Visual Computing for Intelligent Skin Cancer Diagnostics

Maryam Sadeghi, the CEO and Co-Founder of MetaOptima Technology, completed her PhD in Computing Science at Simon Fraser University in the Medical Image Analysis lab. In 2012, she co-founded MetaOptima Technology in Vancouver, Canada, where MoleScope and DermEngine were developed for intelligent skin analytics, imaging, and management. In 2016, Dr. Sadeghi made the Business In Vancouver’s Forty Under 40 Awards List for her innovative work and successful commercialization of DermEngine (an intelligent dermatology platform) and MoleScope (a mobile dermoscope). Recently, Maryam was credited as one of BC’s most influential women in BC Business Magazine, and her company was listed as a “Ready To Rocket” business in the area of digital health.

Victor Ng-Thow-Hing | Principal Engineer, Magic Leap

Talk Title:  Taking a Magic Leap of Faith with Spatial Computing and Mixed Reality

Victor is a principal engineer at Magic Leap, which is building a mixed reality spatial computing platform for creating novel ways of interacting with digital content inside our physical world. At Magic Leap, he has worked on environment reconstruction, prototypes for AR solutions, and most recently, as the lead for Avatar Chat, a collaborative, social application in mixed reality. Previously, he was a Principal Scientist at the Honda Research Institute, working on projects ranging from digital human modeling, human-robot interaction, and augmented reality car windshields. Victor obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto Computer Science program as a member of the Dynamic Graphics Project under the supervision of Dr. Eugene Fiume.

Nima Aghdaii | Senior Software Engineer, Snap Inc.

Talk title: From Computer Graphics to Silicon Valley

Nima Aghdaii is a senior software engineer at Snap Inc., where he has been working on Ads Auction and Pacing for the past two years. He began his professional career at Facebook, where he spent five years in Spam Fighting and Ads Delivery. Prior to Facebook, Nima was a graduate student at SFU where he worked in Computer Graphics under the supervision of Dr. Richard Zhang.