2018 Games for Change Festival: Full Schedule

9:45am EDT

Keynote - Augmenting Journalism: Immersive Storytelling at The New York Times (25 min)

A look at how we are using augmented reality to expand on our immersive storytelling initiatives, and how we are using this technology to enhance our journalism.

Speakers

Graham Roberts

Director of Immersive Platforms Storytelling, The New York Times

Graham Roberts is an award-winning journalist at The New York Times, focusing on innovation in visual journalism. As Director of Immersive Platforms Storytelling, he leads a team that explores new approaches in video, motion graphics, and virtual/augmented reality. This also includes... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 9:45am - 10:10am EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

XR for Change Summit, Keynote

10:10am EDT

Keynote - How Virtual and Augmented Reality Technology Will Impact and Transform Healthcare (25 min)

Recent studies have shown that VR/AR technology can provide breakthrough solutions that address difficult problems in healthcare; by enabling objective assessments, improving clinical interventions, enhancing medical training and by facilitating patient education. This presentation will provide an overview of how Virtual and Augmented Reality Technology will impact medicine, clinical care, and personal health and wellness, and how it will help to facilitate the shift of medicine to direct personal care.

Speakers

Walter Greenleaf, PhD

Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Stanford University

Walter Greenleaf, PhD is a research neuroscientist and medical product developer working at Stanford University. Walter is known internationally as an early pioneer in digital medicine and virtual environment technology. With over three decades of research and product development... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 10:10am - 10:35am EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

XR for Change Summit

11:00am EDT

Panel - XR for Good - The Creators' Perspective (45 min)

This panel brings together creators who are all using immersive XR technologies to tell stories for social impact.

Moderators

Lauren Burmaster

PM, VR for Good, Oculus

Lauren leads the VR for Good Program at Oculus, focused on driving efforts on social good content in virtual reality as well as developing external projects bringing together creatives, developers and nonprofits to deliver impactful experiences. She holds an MA in Development Economics... Read More →

Speakers

Jesse Ayala

Creative Director, Fovrth Studios

Jesse (Jesus) Ayala is a director and immersive storyteller at Fovrth Studios (GoFovrth.com). Ayala is a 2017 Facebook/Oculus Creators Lab VR for Good filmmaker, and a 2016 Future of Storytelling for Good creative fellow. Ayala’s films have premiered at the American Film Institute, Tribeca Film, Cannes Next, SxSW Film Festival, Sheffield DocFest, and SCAD FutureFest.Aya... Read More →

Shannon Carroll

Creative Director, Vivid Story

Shannon Carroll is an artist and Creative Director at Vivid Story, a NYC-based studio harnessing the power of visual storytelling for causes. They are a Certified B Corporation championing positive social impact and sustainability. She produces compelling visual narratives for social... Read More →

Asad J. Malik

Founder, 1RIC

Asad is a native immersive artist working exclusively with Augmented Reality as a medium of non-fiction storytelling. His work revolves around what he calls “cultural augmentation” — a displacement of holograms that allows viewers to access what their environment would regard... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 11:00am - 11:45am EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

XR for Change Summit, Panel

11:25am EDT

Science in VR - An immersive future in design for social impact (20 min)

In creating social change and mitigating climate change, we will need a different language that bridges across disciplines and breaks the limits of collaboration. At VR Sci Labs, we think that science needs storytelling, a new medium, and bridging many people in its application and communication. A visual language opens up paths for science to explore human behavior, our physical realities, and our limitations to grasp complexity holistically.

Speakers

Liridona Sopjani

Researcher, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

A design punk loving science, exploring tech development with potential to achieve sustainability goals such as Clean Tech, IoT, Immersive Tech and their application in important city domains such as mobility and sustainable lifestyles. Her research focuses in socially and environmentally... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 11:25am - 11:45am EDT
Room 105

XR for Change Summit, Talk

12:00pm EDT

The Expanding Role of Libraries in Education (20 min)

Libraries have undertaken considerable reform over the past years, and are taking an increasingly important role in digital literacy for children and adults alike. We will discuss how we are partnering in this important space to democratize education.

Speakers

Dan Ayoub

General Manager - Mixed Reality Education, Microsoft

Dan Ayoub is the General Manager for Mixed Reality Education at Microsoft. He oversees the development and execution of products and strategy aimed at using this groundbreaking technology to improve learning outcomes for students of all ages around the world. Dan has over 20 years... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 12:00pm - 12:20pm EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

XR for Change Summit, Talk

12:00pm EDT

Panel - VR is Complicated: The Potential for VR in Education from Student and Teacher Perspectives (45 min)

We have been studying VR in schools for the past four years working with teachers, technology coaches and students from elementary through high school across North America with over 3000 students. Our goal has been to move beyond the “wow” factor of VR and into the relative value of the technology, understanding its authentic integration into curriculum. Specifically, we will be sharing findings regarding emerging technology in schools, empathy, value, ethics and perspective taking as a result of VR. Come join us as we share student and teacher voices and discuss possibilities for future research directions.

Speakers

Lisa Castaneda

Co-Founder & CEO, foundry10

Lisa is a co-founder and the CEO of foundry10, a philanthropic educational research organization. She has a Masters degree in Education and was a classroom teacher for 10 years. She is actively involved in research and community endeavors at foundry10 which span an array of arts and... Read More →

Marie Graham

Educator, VR Lab Coordinator, Mount Vernon School

Marie Graham is a maverick teacher who leads and learns with an amazing group of students at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School in Atlanta, Georgia. Partnering with Alienware, her school has created a VR/AR lab where students are seeking to create content that positively impacts the... Read More →

Jessica Ochoa Hendrix

CEO & Co-Founder, Killer Snails

Jessica Ochoa Hendrix, CEO of Killer Snails, has worked in K-12 education since 2003. Prior to co-founding Killer Snails, she worked as an educational consultant whose clients included Relay Graduate School of Education and the Charter Network Accelerator. Previously, she worked... Read More →

Steve Isaacs

Teacher, Game Design and Development, Bernards Township Public Schools

Steve Isaacs is an educator with over 25 years of experience. He’s an edtech influencer, community builder, and leader in the area of game-based learning and teaching Game Design and Development. Steve has been part of a wide scale research study on VR in the classroom with foundry10... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 12:00pm - 12:45pm EDT
Room 105

XR for Change Summit, Panel

12:25pm EDT

Making A New Reality (20 min)

The scale of disruption coming with the advent of immersive media, biomedia, connected environments, artificial intelligence promises to impact every aspect of our societies. The stakes are too high for limited inclusion in the design of the future of media. How do mitigate the pitfalls of the past and achieve something we have not realized in 500 years of mass media? Kamal Sinclair shares highlights from a research project aimed at investigating this question.

Speakers

Kamal Sinclair

Director, New Frontier Labs, Sundance Institute

Kamal Sinclair serves as the Director of the Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Labs Program, which supports artists working at the convergence of film, art, media and technology; as a Consultant to the Ford Foundation's JustFilms program; and as artist and producer on the Question... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 12:25pm - 12:45pm EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

XR for Change Summit, Talk

2:00pm EDT

Exploring Racism in VR (20 min)

Might immersive and interactive experiences of racism in VR be an effective tool in the fight for racial equality? This session will explore the case of this attempt from academic teams at Columbia and Stanford who joined forces over a year-long collaboration. The session will cover what was accomplished, lessons learned and challenges for future work in this area.

Speakers

Courtney Cogburn

Assistant Professor, Columbia University

Dr. Cogburn is an assistant professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work and Population Research Center. Her research is broadly focused on the role of racism in producing racial inequities in health with a particular focus on cultural racism. Her work also explores... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 2:00pm - 2:20pm EDT
Room 105

XR for Change Summit, Talk

2:00pm EDT

Panel - Real Talk: What VC's Look For in XR Startups (45 min)

What does it take to get your XR startup off the ground? Panelists from some of the leading venture capital firms in the XR space reveal what they look for in companies and how startups can make themselves more appealing to outside investors.

Moderators

Mia Tramz

Editorial Director of Enterprise, TIME Magazine

Mia Tramz is Editorial Director of Enterprise and Immersive Experiences at TIME, overseeing all enterprise projects across platforms and media. Tramz, an Emmy-nominated virtual reality producer, is charged with ensuring the brand’s impact both on and off its owned and operated... Read More →

Speakers

Tom Emrich

Partner, Super Ventures

Sometimes called the “man from the future” Tom Emrich is a leading voice in augmented reality, virtual reality and wearable tech. He is committed to driving adoption and innovation in technology which is augmenting the human experience.Tom is an active investor and founding partner... Read More →

John Spinale

Partner, JAZZ Venture Partners

John’s an investor, advisor, and entrepreneur, with a career spanning 25 years in the consumer media and entertainment technology space, where he built and led companies that touched hundreds of millions of consumers around the world. He is a co-founder of JAZZ Venture Partners... Read More →

Martina Welkhoff

Founding Partner, WXR Fund

Martina Welkhoff is a serial entrepreneur and investor with growth and acquisition experience. She’s a Founding Partner at the WXR Fund, a venture fund focused on women-led AR/VR companies, and a Venture Partner at Jump Canon, a San Francisco fund focused on underrepresented founders... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 2:00pm - 2:45pm EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

XR for Change Summit, Panel

2:25pm EDT

Building Social and Communication Skills using VR for Children with Autism (20 min)

In this session, I will describe the challenge of learning content for children with autism in VR, the strategy Floreo has taken to prove that VR generalizes to real-world development, and show the incredible potential for VR to build a next-generation of training tools.

Speakers

Vijay Ravindran

CEO, Floreo Inc.

Vijay Ravindran is the CEO and co-founder of Floreo, developing VR tools and training for the autism community. Previously, Vijay was an early Amazon engineer starting in 1998 and later led the collection of teams responsible for consumer purchasing at Amazon. In this role he also... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 2:25pm - 2:45pm EDT
Room 105

XR for Change Summit, Talk

3:00pm EDT

XR and Science: Immersive technologies as a Blank Canvas to augment our minds (20 min)

The next generation of human-computer interaction will radically change the way we interact with one another, with other computational systems, how we buy and sell, how we create and produce, how we research, and how we perceive the world and affect it. This session aims to share a few of the projects we’ve been working on with partners like IBM, HTC, United Nations and Unity to accelerate this change, + other technologies to keep an eye on in our road to transcendence.

Speakers

Boo Aguilar

Director, Blank Canvas

Technological evangelist, director, developer, futurist and Researcher of human-computer interaction processes, Boo shipped seminal work for immersive mediums like VR, AR and MR, many of them with early access invitations to use the world’s first kits of many technologies like the... Read More →

Adam Horowitz

Scientific Storyteller, MIT Media Lab / Blank Canvas

Adam is a Master's student in the Fluid Interfaces group. His work aims to augment human awareness, translating advances in neuroscience into design of interventions and experiences. Adam believes technology can show us parts of ourselves that remain otherwise invisible, opening doors... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 3:00pm - 3:20pm EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

XR for Change Summit, Talk

3:00pm EDT

Project Briefs: XR for Change Summit (35 min)

Derek Ritzenberg (Technology Project Specialist, Montgomery County Public Schools)
Making XR a Reality for Education: How XR impacts student learning in the classroom

Tamara Patton (Doctoral Candidate, Princeton University)
Virtual Reality for Nuclear Arms Control and Disarmament

Sophie Wright (COO/Co-Founder, Human Interact)
Using Voice AI in VR to Make an Emotional Connection

Speakers

Tamara Patton

Doctoral Candidate, Princeton University

Tamara Patton is a doctoral candidate in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Her research centers on arms control and disarmament treaty verification challenges related to nuclear weapons... Read More →

Derek Ritzenberg

Technology Project Specialist, Montgomery County Public Schools

With 15+ years in education and 10+ years in video game development, Derek has been at the forefront of designing immersive virtual experiences to impact student learning. Derek pilots VR studies in Special Education, hosts annual student game development competitions, runs STEMBright... Read More →

Sophie Wright

COO/Co-Founder, Human Interact

Sophie Wright is the COO and Co-Founder of Human Interact, a VR firm specializing in Voice AI. Sophie holds a BSME in Mechanical Engineering and has worked for Ford, Mitsubishi, Cummins Engine Company, and Amtrak. Her experience as a process optimization engineer focused on change... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 3:00pm - 3:35pm EDT
Room 105

XR for Change Summit, Mini-Talk

3:20pm EDT

Storyworlds in Virtual Reality (20 min)

Explore a world that combines cutting-edge machine learning (ML) and virtual reality (VR) to create a truly innovative, intuitive, immersive world that puts every child at the center of the story.

Speakers

Resham Sidhu

Creative Director, AKQA

Resh Sidhu is award-winning Creative Director at AKQA, based in New York. She is one of the most well-regarded names in Virtual Reality driving the medium forward with her fearless creativity and innovative approach. Her diverse portfolio ranges from mixed reality, digital experiences... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 3:20pm - 3:40pm EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

XR for Change Summit, Talk

3:45pm EDT

Virtual Reality, Actual Divide. (20 min)

In wealthy places XR may assist your workers in manufacturing a product, and later in training them to fix it. Or support your treatment of phobias or anxiety. Or educate your children in a way that lets them understand complex issues better and faster. If you live in a connected place you have access to technologies that help you survive and thrive. But for many of the world’s most disconnected people advances in technology are threatening to leave them behind. This talk explores why and how UNICEF is investing in XR applications to identify scalable solutions that can solve real problems, strengthen its interventions and provide same technological advances to children from UNICEF programme countries as to their peers in other parts of the world.

Speakers

Chris Szymczak

VR/AR Lead, UNICEF Innovation, UNICEF

Chris leads XR portfolio at UNICEF Ventures, the funding arm of UNICEF that invests in early-stage open source frontier technologies that carry promise to advance UNICEF’s programmatic work in the near future and have a positive impact on humanity.

Saturday June 30, 2018 3:45pm - 4:05pm EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

XR for Change Summit, Talk

3:45pm EDT

XR Brain Jam: Project Pitches (45 min)

Join us for the conclusion of our XR Brain Jam. Games for Change will feature four of the best VR games built during the two-day Jam which took place earlier in the week. Participating teams of developers paired with neuroscientists will showcase their experiences and give insights into the development process.

SenseScape
Diagnosing concussions and monitoring recovery by quantifying brain function via an EEG device during a virtual sensory processing challenge.

My, Myself & I
A game-based approach to manipulate subject experiences in fMRI scanners to explore the brain activity associated with presence and embodiment.

Head On
Using augmented reality to encourage eye contact in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Bent Spoon
A proof-of-concept of using EEG brain-wave reading technology to interact with a digital environment

Speakers

Dave Culyba

Assistant Teaching Professor, Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University

Dave received a B.S. in Computer Science and a Master’s in Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon University. He has since worked at Electronic Arts as part of the team that created the computer game Spore, was a co-founder of the startup Interbots which worked on combining... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 3:45pm - 4:30pm EDT
Room 105

XR for Change Summit

4:10pm EDT

To Mars We Go: Designing the Future of Humanity (20 min)

Humans have had our sights on Mars, but what will life be like once we get there? Join Joanna Popper as she presents Mars Home Planet and how thousands around the world are using XR to design, create and experience life on Mars.

Speakers

Joanna Popper

Global Head of Virtual Reality for Location Based Entertainment, HP

Joanna Popper is a Hollywood and Silicon Valley media executive. She recently became HP’s Global Head of Virtual Reality Location Based Entertainment. Prior she was EVP of Media & Marketing at Singularity University and VP Marketing at NBCUniversal. Joanna developed a TV show partnership... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 4:10pm - 4:30pm EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

XR for Change Summit, Talk

4:45pm EDT

Show Me The Money - How to Fund VR Projects (20 min)

For the VR industry, there seems to be one question on everybody’s mind: “Where’s the content?” If you ask content developers, though, they might pose a counter question: “Where’s the money?” With VR hardware adoption moving slowly, developing VR content is a risky endeavor. Join this session to hear Filament Games CEO Dan White's insider tips on practical ways to pursue VR funding, drawing on Filament’s experiences seeking and securing funding for two VR titles.

Speakers

Dan White

CEO, Filament Games

As CEO and Co-founder of Filament Games, Dan White wants learning to be associated with meaning and inspiration rather than accountability and drudgery. Accordingly, he believes that learning should be highly interactive, and that game-based learning, like project- and inquiry-based... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 4:45pm - 5:05pm EDT
Room 105

XR for Change Summit, Talk

4:45pm EDT

Panel - Future of Work: The role of tech and what you should know(45 min)

This panel will dive into discussions on the changing nature of work, and will prompt panelists to imagine how immersive technologies will create better pathways for adapting to that change.

Moderators

Erin Winick

Associate Editor, Future of Work, MIT Technology Review

Erin Winick is the associate editor of the future of work at MIT Technology Review. Coming from a background in mechanical engineering, her coverage focuses on how technology is shaping the workplace of the future. She produces Technology Review's future of work e-mail newsletter... Read More →

Speakers

Dan Ayoub

General Manager - Mixed Reality Education, Microsoft

Rori Duboff

Managing Director, Head of Content Innovation / XR, Accenture Interactive

Rori DuBoff is a strategic & innovations thought leader in the extended reality (XR) space, spanning VR & AR experiences. In her current role as head of content innovation for Accenture Interactive, Rori focuses on strategically applying immersive technologies for business and brand... Read More →

Kyle Jackson

CEO, Talespin

Founded and served as an executive in five companies who collectively represent a breadth of work that includes large and complex enterprise software deployments, dozens of technology and media investments, defining and owning product strategy, investment portfolio management, and... Read More →

Kamal Sinclair

Director, New Frontier Labs, Sundance Institute

Saturday June 30, 2018 4:45pm - 5:30pm EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

XR for Change Summit, Panel

5:10pm EDT

EaseVR - A Mobile VR Application for Chronic Pain Management (20 min)

EaseVR uses mobile VR technology combined with biofeedback, game mechanics, and storytelling to provide chronic pain patients with fun, interactive breathing and mindfulness exercises, and to teach them how to have more control over their pain. This session will talk about the technical and creative challenges we faced and how we solved them.

Speakers

Vangelis Lympouridis

CDO, Applied VR

Vangelis Lympouridis is the Chief Design Officer at Applied VR where he oversees the development of a series of medical VR projects in the areas of Chronic Pain, Addiction, L&D and others. He is also teaching VR and Immersive Technologies at the Viterbi School of engineering at USC... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 5:10pm - 5:30pm EDT
Room 105

XR for Change Summit, Talk

5:45pm EDT

Keynote - Maslow's Hierarchy and the Gifts of XR (25 min)

Maslow's Hierarchy is a lens through which we can examine, question, and explore the fundamental needs of human beings across the micro and macro scales: as individuals, communities, and entire societies over time.

Utilizing a multi-disciplinary approach incorporating perspectives ranging from functional medicine to design thinking, this presentation will construct a synthesis that forms a new framework for how XR technologies can empower communities with a greater capacity to ascend the ladder.

Speakers

Gaia Dempsey

Founder & CEO, 7th Future

Gaia Dempsey is the Founder and CEO of 7th Future, a consultancy that partners and co-invests with technology leaders and communities to build and launch scalable innovation models dedicated to advancing Augmented Reality, AI, IoT, and blockchain technologies. 7th Future projects... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 5:45pm - 6:10pm EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

XR for Change Summit

6:10pm EDT

Keynote - XR and Humanity (25 min)

The past, present and future of how XR lifts mankind.

Speakers

Tom Furness

Founder & Chairman, Virtual World Society

Tom Furness is widely known as the ‘grandfather’ of virtual reality in a professional career that spans 52 years. Tom is currently a professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle, Washington and founder of the international family... Read More →

Saturday June 30, 2018 6:10pm - 6:35pm EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

XR for Change Summit, Keynote