Edward Bakst is an award winning designer/director who, over 25 year career as an independent artist, created short animated films for such national and international clients as: Smithsonian, MTV, SCI-FI, Nickelodeon, ABC, NBC, Ajinomoto-Japan, VIASA Airline, HBO, UNICEF, Showtime, Sesame Street. His projects have won international awards for creativity, innovation, imagination and originality. SIGGRAPH Electronic Theatre presented 3 of his short films; others also won in Europe’s IMAGINA, NY Film Festival, ASIFA, WORLDFEST, BPME, NCGA, HOUSTON International Festival, British ONLINE, US Film Festival. Edward is a recipient of a GUGGENHEIM Fellowship. The last decade Edward embarked on an academic career conceiving, designing, developing, running and consulting on launching of new creative programs at Pratt in NY, Columbia University, art colleges in Colorado and Michigan. He spearheaded development of a new School of Art, Design & Media in Singapore, and design of its unique building. He consulted on shaping design, vision and launching of the School of Technology for the Arts in Singapore. Via infinite powers of ideas, Edward has realized worlds inspiring imagination by breaking away from reality and gravity bound thinking. His time independent, metamorphic ideas, and ability to visualize them, are now harnessed by shaping concepts exploring interactivity and technology as a “magic wand”.

Boris deRuyter is Principal Scientist, Media Interaction Department, Philips Research Europe. He heads the capability cluster called “Cognitive & Behavioral Insights" in a focal area of the “Balanced Lifestyles Solutions” sector.

Parvati Dev leads Innovation in Learning Inc., a new company that develops online learning environments with high-resolution video, for immersive face-to-face interaction. Virtual hospitals and homes, with virtual patients and families, are used for medical education as well as in patient education and medical marketing.  From 1990 to 2007, she led the SUMMIT Research Laboratory for Learning Technologies at Stanford University, where her research included studies on simulation and game-based learning. She has worked on the research and teaching staff at M.I.T., Boston University, and Stanford, as well as leading product development for three-dimensional imaging at CEMAX, a medical imaging company. Dev’s background includes her doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering on computer models of the brain at Stanford University.  She is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology.

Bonnie De Varco is a Media X Distinguished Visiting Scholar. DeVarco is an author, curator and research consultant on visualization and design science. She leads efforts to research, explore and develop new opportunities for telecollaboration, visualization, education and cross-disciplinary problem-solving using advanced satellite and network technologies, visualization and open source tools. She served as chief archivist for the Buckminster Fuller Archives, acquired by Stanford University in 1999. She continues her work with the Fuller Collection at Stanford University as a research consultant and content expert. She is completing Invisible Architecture II, a book on Buckminster Fuller’s design science approaches.

Renate Fruchter is Founder and Director of the Project-Based Learning Lab in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Her research studies collaboration technologies for multidisciplinary, geographically distributed teamwork and e-Learning. Results include concepts and tools to facilitate teamwork in rich information and collaboration technology settings, enabling remote show-and-tell, remote context-based coaching, automonous collaborative environments, and reuse of rich contextual knowledge from a corporate memory.

Dan Gillette is a design principal at Greenleaf Medical Products, director of virtual reality products and CFG Health Systems, and director of the Education and Behavioral Healthcare Initiative at the Greenleaf Institute. He has held research and teaching positions at Stanford University (product design, engineering, assistive technology), UC Berkeley (disability studies and product design), Mills College (computer science), and CSU Monterey Bay (assistive technology and curriculum development). Additionally, Dan has extensive experience as a curriculum designer and learning specialist at the middle school, high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels, both in private practice and in school settings. From 2002-2008, Dan was chair of the Innovative Technology for Autism Advisory Board at Cure Autism Now, and later Austism Speaks. Previously, Dan had a ten year career as a musician and composer, as well as a stint as a bicycle courier.

Jeff Heer is Assistant Professor, Computer Science. His research interests include studying human-computer interaction, visualization, and social computing.  He is author of the prefuse and flare toolkits for interactive visualization and previously worked at (Xerox) PARC, Microsoft Research, IBM Research, and Tableau Software.

Carl Hewitt is Professor Emeritus of EECS at MIT and Visiting Professor at Stanford. Hewitt is known for his work on: the design of Planner (a pioneering programming language based on plans invoked by assertions and goals); comparative schematology; knowledge representation; concurrency theory and concurrent programming; the Scientific Community Metaphor with Bill Kornfeld; automatic storage reclamation (garbage collection) with Henry Lieberman; ORGs (Organizations of Restricted Generality) ; participatory semantics with Carl Manning; organizational commitment; strongly paraconsistent logic; privacy friendly client cloud computing; participatory behavioral model checking; and semantic integration.

Chuck House, Executive Director of Media X at Stanford University created 12 product lines at HP, led the Intel Research Collaboratory, and has advised 25 start-up companies. He is IEEE Fellow and ACM Fellow, was 1996-1998 ACM President, and co-author of forthcoming, The HP Phenomenon.

Neil Jacobstein is Chairman and CEO of Teknowledge Corporation, a knowledge systems software company that started in 1981 in Palo Alto. He chaired the American Association for Artificial Intelligence’s 17th Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence conference in 2005. Jacobstein became a Senior Research Fellow in the Digital Vision Program at Stanford University in 2006, and is currently a Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Stanford’s Media X Program. He has been Chairman of the 501c3 Institute for Molecular Manufacturing (IMM) since 1992. He is the principal co-author of the Foresight Guidelines for the responsible development of molecular nanotechnology, and has given technical and public interest talks worldwide on the future of nanotechnology. In 1999, Jacobstein was selected as an Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow. He received his BS in Environmental Sciences, Summa cum Laude from the University of Wisconsin, and an MS in Human Ecology and Community Health Sciences from the University of Texas, in conjunction with an environmental simulation program at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Jacobstein was a Graduate Research Intern in the Learning Research Group at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, and a consultant in PARC's Software Concepts Group. He spent four years doing renewable energy and environmental research as a Research Associate at the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems. Jacobstein has served on the Technology Advisory Board for the U.S. Army’s Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation Command, and a variety of industry and nonprofit advisory boards. He has given seven Aspen Institute Socrates Seminars on the opportunities and risks of future technologies. He is a member of Business Executives for National Security, as well as AAAS, AAAI, IEEE, and ACM.

Panos Markopoulos (Ph.D. Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London) is a computer scientist specialized in Human Computer Interaction. He is an associate professor at the Department of Industrial Design, in the Eindhoven University of Technology. His research concerns Ambient Intelligence and Interaction Design and Children. He is the author of over 120 publications and first author of Evaluating Children's Interactive Products (Morgan-Kaufmann) and an editor of the upcoming book by Springer, Awareness Systems: Advances in Theory, Methodology and Design.

Clifford Nass (Ph.D., Sociology, Princeton University) is the Thomas M. Storke Professor at Stanford.  He is a professor of communication with appointments by courtesy in computer science, education, sociology, symbolic systems (cognitive science), and science, technology, and society.  He has written three books: The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Televisions, and New Media Like Real People and Places (Cambridge University Press); Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and Advances the Human-Computer Relationship (MIT Press); and the forthcoming If a Computer Can Do It, So Can You: The Science of Simple Rules for Social Relationships (Penguin Portfoio)—as well as over 125 papers in the areas of human-technology interaction and statistical methods.   He has consulted on the design of over 250 information products and services for many of the Fortune 100. 

Tracy Penny-Light teaches in the Sexuality, Marriage, and Family Studies and History programs at St. Jerome’s University in the University of Waterloo where she employs ePortfolios in her teaching.  Prior to coming to St. Jerome’s, she managed strategic learning projects for the VP, Learning Resources and Innovation, at the University of Waterloo. That work included introducing electronic portfolios to the campus in a number of programs including Accounting and Financial Management, History, Co-operative Education and Residence Life. Tracy's ongoing research focuses on ePortfolio implementation and the ability for reflection in ePortfolios to transform the student experience. In addition to her teaching and research, she leads the University of Waterloo team who are members of Cohort III of the Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research, is a member of St. Jerome's CASTL Institutional Leadership team, and was founding Co-Editor of the MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT).

Neerja Raman, Senior Fellow, Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Media X atStanford University, is a seasoned executive in innovation research and new business creation. In June 2009, she was named “Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business” by AABDC for her research in business models and metrics for technology-based solutions for sustainable development. She is coach and mentor for social entrepreneurs and corporate CSR groups.  Prior to joining Stanford, Neerja was Director, Strategic Planning and founder of the Imaging Systems Lab at Hewlett Packard Labs which delivered product ideas and advanced research for HP’s flagship printing, digital imaging and multi-media businesses. Neerja has served for two terms on the advisory committee for Cyber-Infrastructure, National Science Foundation, an initiative launched for improvement of science education in the United States. A Women in Technology International, Hall of Fame inductee, Neerja is a recipient of various technical and citizenship awards including recognition by the California State Senate and Federation of Indo-Americans. She is a board member of several non-profits, is a frequent speaker at global conferences, and has written an acclaimed leadership and management book ‘The Practice and Philosophy of Decision Making’.  Neerja’s blog, Digital Provide: from Good to Gold, is a resource for investors and entrepreneurs interested in social business creation. Her research has also been published in conference proceedings, magazines and as book chapter “Eco-Stacking: A Strategy for Success in Social and Business Agendas”. Neerja is a graduate of the Kellogg Executive Program, Northwestern University, and has Masters Degrees from S.U.N.Y Stony Brook, New York and Delhi University, India.

Byron Reeves is Professor ofCommunication, Co-Founder of Media X and the HSTAR Institute (Human Science Technology Advanced Research) and group leader in the LIFE program. Reeves’ research focuses on the psychological processing of media. He studies the emotional and physiological responses to interactive technology, including new studies on the location of neuroprocessing of human-based and computer-based virtual interactions.  Results also include recent findings and developments in multi-player games for entertainment, learning and work, including solutions for information overload in enterprise collaboration, innovation and leadership. Byron Reeves’ recent work in applying the science of how game ingredients can be used for serious business – e.g., consumer engagement in energy and climate change, particularly a prototype of multi-user software with an energy utilization focus.

Howard Rheingold is Consulting Professor in the Department of Communication and is author of Tools for Thought, The Virtual Community, and Smart Mobs. He has been editor of Whole Earth Review, The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog, founding executive editor of Hotwired, founder of Electric Minds, and is a non-resident Fellow of the Annenberg Center for Communication, USC, 2007. Rheingold has taught courses in Participatory Media and Collective Action, Virtual Community/Social Media, and Digital Journalism. He is grantee of the HASTAC/MacArthur Foundation.

Joyce H.D.M. Westerink (1960) studied physics and took her Ph.D. in 1991 on the human-oriented topic of perceived image quality. She joined Philips Research and specialized on human perception, emotion and cognition related to consumer products. Written output of her work can be found in some 50 articles in books and international journals and 20 patents and patent applications.