Keynotes

Azam Khan

Title: Synthius: Toward a Synthetic Human

Bio: Azam Khan is Director, Complex Systems Research and Head of Environment and Ergonomics Research at Autodesk. He is the Founder of the Parametric Human Project Consortium, SimAUD: the Symposium on Simulation for Architecture and Urban Design, and the CHI Sustainability Community. He is also a Founding Member of the International Society for Human Simulation and has been the Velux Guest Professor at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, at the Center for IT and Architecture (CITA) in Copenhagen, Denmark. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Computer Science at the University of Toronto. He has published over 50 articles in modeling and simulation, human-computer interaction, architectural design, sensor networks, and sustainability. http://www.autodeskresearch.com/people/azam

Prof. Steve Mann,

Keynote title: Augmediated Reality Gaming

A professor and researcher at the University of Toronto, Steve Mann is the father of wearable computing and the inventor of HDR. More information.

Dan Scherlis

Keynote title: Bringing games from lab to marketplace: Best practices for successful commercialization

Dan is a veteran game-industry executive, focused on health games. He is Executive Producer of "BreatheFree", a smoking-cessation game being developed by Playmatics for Entertainment Science, supported by an NIH SBIR award. Working with other scientists, Dan is producing games for children with asthma or cystic fibrosis, using breath biofeedback. Dan also leads a team creating an interactive balance-trainer for fall prevention. Dan advises interactive ventures on marketing, production, creative strategy, and partnerships. Previously, Dan was founding Content Director of a mobile-games venture within telecom giant Comverse. As CEO of Turbine, Dan was Producer of Asheron's Call, an award-winning MMO published by Microsoft. At Papyrus Games, Dan led game development and publishing, and was Producer of IndyCar Racing.

Jason Della Rocca

Keynote title: Independent Entrepreneurship: The Tension Between Starving Artist and Selling Out

Jason Della Rocca is the co-founder of Executions Labs, a first-of-its kind accelerator and investment platform for independent game developers. Formerly, Jason was a game industry consultant focused on business and cluster development, working with game studios and organizations all over the world. Prior, he served as the executive director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) for nearly nine years,