Jim Bizzocchi

Associate Professor

Biography

Jim Bizzocchi is a filmmaker currently working in video art and installation.  His research interests include the aesthetics and design of the moving image, interactive narrative, and the development of computational video sequencing systems. He is interested in the effect of new technologies on cinematic visual expressions such as split-screens, layered imagery, image transitions, and stereoscopic cinema.  He is an active and widely exhibited video artist, working in the genre of Ambient Video.  His work in interactive narrative includes ongoing extension of the computational capabilities of his Dada Processor video presentation and sequencing system.  Jim loves teaching.  He has been a classroom teacher for 45 years, and is a recipient of the Simon Fraser University "Excellence in Teaching" award.

Steve DiPaola

Professor

Biography

Steve DiPaola, active as an artist and a scientist is director of the Cognitive Science Program at Simon Fraser University, and leads the iVizLab (ivizlab.sfu.ca), a research lab that strives to make computational systems bend more to the human experience by incorporating biological, cognitive and behavior knowledge models. The lab creates computation models of very human ideals such as expression, emotion, behavior and creativity typically for the gaming, sciences, arts, and health fields. He is most known for his AI based computational creativity (darwinsgaze.com) and 3D facial expression systems. He came to SFU from Stanford University and before that NYIT Computer Graphics Lab, an early pioneering lab in high-end graphics techniques. His computer based art has been exhibited internationally including the AIR and Tibor de Nagy galleries in NYC, Tenderpixel Gallery in London and Cambridge University’s Kings Art Centre. The work has also been exhibited in major museums, including the Whitney Museum, the MIT Museum, and the Smithsonian.

Carman Neustaedter

Associate Professor

Biography

Dr. Carman Neustaedter is an Associate Professor in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University.   Dr. Neustaedter specializes in the areas of human-computer interaction, interaction design, domestic computing, and computer-supported collaboration.  He is the director of the Connections Lab, an interdisciplinary research group focused on the design and use of technologies for connecting people through technology. This includes design for families and friends, support for workplace collaboration, and bringing people together through pervasive games.  Dr. Neustaedter was formerly a Research Scientist at Kodak Research Labs and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Rochester, NY.  He received his BSc, MSc, and PhD from the University of Calgary.

Bernhard Riecke

Associate Professor, Graduate Chair

Biography

I am a psycho-physicist and Cognitive Scientist who’s excited about study­ing how humans orient in vir­tual and real envi­ron­ments. I received my PhD in Physics from the Tübingen University in Germany and researched for a decade in the Virtual Reality group of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany. After a post-doc in Psychology at Vanderbilt University I joined the School of Interactive Arts & Technology of Simon Fraser University as an assis­tant pro­fes­sor in 2008. My research approach com­bines fun­da­men­tal sci­en­tific research with an applied per­spec­tive of improv­ing human-computer interaction.

I com­bine multi-disciplinary research approaches and immer­sive vir­tual envi­ron­ments to inves­ti­gate what con­sti­tutes effec­tive, robust, embod­ied and intu­itive human spa­tial cog­ni­tion, ori­en­ta­tion and behav­iour (and many other things as you can see on the projects pages). This fun­da­men­tal knowl­edge is used to guide the design of novel, more effec­tive human-computer inter­faces and inter­ac­tion par­a­digms that enable sim­i­lar processes in computer-mediated envi­ron­ments like vir­tual real­ity (VR) and multi-media. These improved inter­faces can then enable and inspire fur­ther research, both fun­da­men­tal and applied.

Ron Wakkary

Professor

Biography

Ron Wakkary is a Professor in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT) where he established the Everyday Design Studio, a design research studio that explores interaction design. Wakkary’s research investigates the changing nature of interaction design in response to everyday design practices like home life, DIY, amateur experts, hobbyists, and sustainability. In the spirit of design research, Wakkary aims to be reflective and generative, uncovering new and emergent practices of design that help to shape both design and its relations to technologies. Wakkary publishes regularly in design and human-computer-interaction journals and conferences. He is an Editor-in-Chief of ACM interactions, Director of the Interaction Design Research Centre at SFU, member of the SIGCHI Executive Committee, and a member of the Steering Committee for Tangible Embedded/Embodied Interaction (TEI). His research is funded by NSERC, SSHRC, GRAND-NCE, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, among others.