Chris MacDonald:
Associate Professor, Ryerson University
Chris MacDonald is a professor, writer, speaker and consultant on ethics. MacDonald has been at the Ted Rogers School of Management since August 2012. His expertise in the field of ethics has led to him receiving a number of awards over the years, including being named one of the “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics,” by Ethisphere magazine. MacDonald has also been recognized as one of the “Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behaviour” by Trust Across America in 2011 and 2012. A philosopher by training, MacDonald is also the creator and co-editor of the Business Ethics Journal Review and the author of the highly regarded Business Ethics Blog. MacDonald has a strong commitment to leadership studies, as demonstrated by his continued development of programs that enable students to become leaders, including an “Ethical Reasoning” module that is now taught to all LAW 122 students.
Tom Bessai:
Managing Director, Design Fabrication Zone (DFZ) at Ryerson University
Tom Bessai is a registered architect and founding partner with Maria Denegri of the Toronto-based architecture firm Denegri Bessai Studio. Projects from the studio have been published nationally and internationally. He has recently established DBS Fabrication, a satellite research and production workshop that augments the computing, design and prototyping facilities of the practice. Tom is an Assistant Professor at the J.H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture at the University of Toronto.
The building design and construction industry is very compelled to take advantage of the new technologies and techniques that will revolutionize current building practices. At the forefront of research and innovation in this area are both academic researchers and academic/professional affiliations, all with close links to industry.
Michael Carter:
Director - Industry Relations, Master in Digital Media Program;
Adjunct Professor, RTA School of Media, Ryerson University
Michael Carter (Hon. BA, University of Western Ontario; Post-Graduate Certificate in Computer Graphics, Sheridan College; Post-Graduate Diploma in Computer Animation, Sheridan College; MEd, University of Toronto) is a PhD candidate in Archaeology and Bioarchaeology at the University of Western Ontario. He has developed and taught college and undergraduate courses in digital media, animation, film and television production, computer graphics, and maintained a successful 20-year career in the computer animation film and television business as a producer, executive producer, and executive. His current research is primarily focused around the theory and method of Virtual Archaeology. Michael currently co-Directs the Master in Digital Media, an innovative, interdisciplinary, entrepreneurial, and experiential graduate program embedded within the DMZ.
Angelika Seeschaaf Veres:
Associate Professor, The Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD)
Angelika Seeschaaf Veres is an industrial designer, educator and researcher utilizing an interdisciplinary, human centered approach to the design and making of furniture, products, retail interiors and fashion. She is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Industrial Design Program at OCAD University. Her design studio eeaa design has been working for international clients such as Herman Miller, Jaime Hayon and Nike in London U.K. and Toronto for over 10 years.
Her current research work called BESPOKE with OCAD U’s Data Materialization Lab and Zero Footprint Lab is assessing tools and methods to create customized products for anthropometric fit and biomechanical needs. Her current study into the democratization of design is seeking to hone in on the one size fits one methodology for everyday objects using 3D printing, mass and local manufacturing techniques and anthropometric data sets. She recently launched a range of customizable eyewear with Toronto based start-up Guild eyewear.
BESPOKE seeks to kick-start next generation industrial design in Canada in a new landscape of hacking, modification, and bespoke manufacture, enabling customization capabilities and disrupt existing and create new market for products at the intersection of medical and everyday objects.
Deven Desai:
Associate Professor, Georgia Tech
Deven Desai joined the Scheller faculty in fall of 2014 in the Law and Ethics Program. Prior to joining Scheller, Professor Desai was an associate professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law. He was also the first, and to date, only Academic Research Counsel at Google, Inc., and a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy.
Professor Desai's scholarship examines how business interests, new technology, and economic theories shape privacy and intellectual property law and where those arguments explain productivity or where they fail to capture society's interest in the free flow of information and development.
Ala Roushan:
Assistant Professor, The Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD)
Ala Roushan is a creative practitioner engaged in speculative design research, academic writing, curatorial practice and teaching. She holds an Assistant Professorship at OCAD University, Faculty of Design and previously taught at Ryerson University, Faculty of Communication and Design. Ala is a Ph.D. candidate at the European Graduate School in the Digital Design program focused on the implications of the digital landscape. Her interests include investigating advanced digital processes and computational logics in unraveling the generative potential of material intelligence and emergent aesthetics. Ala obtained a Master of Arts in Advanced Architectural Design at the Städelschule Frankfurt, Germany.
Ala is the co-curator of Flip Project Space, a collaborative curatorial project for contemporary art based in Naples, Italy. Through exhibitions and publications Flip addresses various aspects of contemporary artistic practice by reevaluating the intricate networks between object, content, concept, form and space.
Ali Mazalek:
Associate Professor, RTA School of Media, Ryerson University
As a Canada Research Chair in Digital Media and Innovation, Mazalek works at the forefront of trends in computing and interaction design that support a tighter integration of the physical and digital worlds. She designs and develops tangible and embodied interaction systems that enable people to be more creative across both science and art disciplines. Her research interests include the design and application of emerging physical sensing and digital media technologies to areas such as narrative expression, abstract thinking, and scientific modeling, as well as the study and use of embodied cognition as a framework for tangible and embodied interaction design. She has published her research in a range of academic conferences and journals, delivered guest lectures in both academia and industry, and exhibited her media art works and interfaces at numerous galleries and festivals. Mazalek received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the MIT Media Lab and a Hon. B.Sc. in computer science and mathematics from the University of Toronto. She is a member of the inaugural cohort of the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.
Mazalek founded and directs the Synaesthetic Media Lab (Synlab) at Ryerson and Georgia Tech, a research playground where physical materials, analog sensors, and digital media happily co-exist and come together in novel ways to support creativity and expression. The lab’s approach combines theoretical study and scientific research with technological development and artistic practice
Benjamin Dillenburger:
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Benjamin Dillenburger is a practising architect and assistant professor in architecture at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto. He previously worked as a senior lecturer in the CAAD group at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology’s architecture department in Zurich. He holds a Master of Advanced Study degree from ETH Zurich and a Master of Architecture Degree of the Technical University Kaiserslautern.
Benjamin has an extensive body of artistic design work, having been shortlisted for the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program and his projects include the Digital Grotesque installation at the FRAC Archilab 2013 exhibition. He recently exhibited work at the Art Basel / Design Miami.
Matt Ratto:
Associate Professor, University of Toronto
Matt Ratto is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto and directs the Semaphore Research cluster on Inclusive Design, Mobile and Pervasive Computing and, as part of Semaphore, the Critical Making lab. His work explores the intersections between digital technologies and the human life world, with a particular focus on new developments that trouble the divide between online and offline modes of production. Ratto is an expert on 3D printing and digital fabrication, having carried out research on this topic since 2009. His research also addresses pervasive and ubiquitous technologies including wearable computing and the Internet of Things. Ratto created and ran the ThingTank from 2009-2011, a collaborative project between private, non-profit, and academic partners working collectively on new IoT products and services.
His work crosses both the boundaries between the digital and physical world and the divide between humanities and engineering disciplines. He coined the term ‘critical making” in 2007 to describe work that combines humanities insights and engineering practices, and has published extensively on this concept. Matt received his PhD from the University of California, San Diego.
Craig Barr:
Founder and Artist, Polymorphic3D
Craig Barr has more than 17 years of experience in 3D animation, visual effects, software production and content creation. He brings unique experience to the presentation, communication, and research challenges in these disciplines . Having produced over 100 Technical and Feature videos for software and hardware products and workflows, Craig is also a "Top-Rated" and "Featured Speaker" having presented at numerous Industry events over the years including: GDC, Siggraph, NAB, and Autodesk University. He has authored tutorials for 3D World and 3D Artist Magazine, as well as chapters on production pipelines for books. Craig’s educational background offers a unique blend of both science and animation.
Greg Sims:
Assistant Professor, The Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD)
Greg Sims is a designer, inventor, and educator specializing in 3D design, digital fabrication (3D printing, laser cutting etc.) and jewellery. He teaches studio courses as well as courses in digital design and fabrication at OCAD University in Toronto.
Sims’ work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. With a sense of humour, Sims' work challenges conventions, finding new and meaningful expressions that question the role of jewellery within society. His interest in innovative methods of production and industrial techniques, combined with a vast knowledge of materials have led to many opportunities beyond jewellery. In 2013 Sims, organized and curated Making It Real, an international exhibition of digitally fabricated objects. From 2007-11, he worked as a design engineer with the @lab research facility at NSCAD and Dalhousie University, designing and manufacturing collapsible, responsive structures on an architectural scale (tents, stage sets and furniture). He continues to design and manufacture prototypes and products for various clients as well as building an active studio practice.
Athomas Goldberg:
President, Lifelike and Believable Animation Design
Athomas Golderg is President of Lifelike and Believable Animation Design. Prior to founding Lifelike and Believable, Athomas has worked for some of the biggest names in interactive entertainment including THQ (Technical Animation Director), Microsoft Studios, and Electronic Arts.
Athomas is a computer graphics industry veteran with a passion for real-time interactive character animation and 20 years of experience as an artist, research scientist, company executive, animation systems architect and gameplay animation director for AAA titles across all major platforms and genres. He work encompasses application of 3D technologies through AR/VR, virtual production, and live digital performance using real-time motion capture.
Andrew Nelson:
Associate Dean, Research and Operations, Department of Anthropology, Western University
Dr. Andrew Nelson's research interests are centred in two of the major sub-fields of anthropology, biological anthropology and archaeology. In the field of biological anthropology his research focus is human evolution. In the field of archaeology his research focus is the study of human remains from ancient cultures.
Dr. Nelson's work in human evolution involves the detailed analysis of morphological and metric traits of the bones of the skeleton of primates, fossil hominids and modern humans. His recent research has focused on growth and development in fossil hominids, particularly Neanderthals. He is also interested in the reconstruction of body size in extinct hominids, and how body size has changed over the course of our evolution.
His research involves the use of non-destructive imaging in Bioarchaeology. This area of interest involves the use of radiography and other 2D and 3D imaging techniques to non-destructively capture and analyze human skeletal remains and archaeological artifacts. Specific methods include plain film x-ray, CT scanning, microCT scanning and laser scanning. Specific subjects of analysis include Moche pots, stone and shell beaded pectorals, skeletal remains from many sites and Egyptian and Peruvian mummies. The use of paleoradiology and virtual imaging in the analysis and presentation of Egyptian mummies has been a particularly fruitful area of research.
Stephen Fai:
Associate Professor, Carleton University
Dr. Stephen Fai is an Associate Professor at the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University where he teaches in the design studio and chairs the PhD program. He is the Director of the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS).
Dr. Fai’s research is focused on the development of integrated digital workflows for architectural rehabilitation and conservation. His current projects involve documentation and dissemination of ethno-cultural methods of construction; biomedical visualization (including 3D technologies), as-found building information modelling, and digitally assisted fabrication.
Julielynn Wong:
Founder, 3D4MD
Dr. Julielynn Wong is a public health physician, innovator, and educator. As a pioneer in 3D printing medical devices in austere environments, Julielynn was the first to 3D print medical supplies at the Mars Desert Research Station. She designed a solar-powered mobile 3D printer that can be transported in a carry-on suitcase to produce medical supplies in remote, off-grid communities. As an educator, Julielynn launched the first 3D printing learning activity for students and teachers at Canada’s only Challenger Learning Centre. Dr. Wong proposed the "3D AstroMed Devices" Challenge, which was launched for the 2015 NASA International Space Apps Challenge. Julielynn regularly lectures on 3D printing and innovation in healthcare and is a frequent contributor to various media outlets including ABC News, Forbes, and the Huffington Post.
Fanny Sie:
Head of Imaging, MaRS Innovation
Fanny Sie is the Head of Imaging for MaRS Innovation (Technology and Venture Development), working with researchers and start-up companies to commercialize promising imaging and fabrication technologies across a range of medical and industrial applications.
Fanny’s past research and development experience includes novel optical and imaging devices utilized for treatment target optimization for cancer patients. She also has experience in digital fabrication using biomaterials.
Ojelanki Nqwenyama:
Professor, Ryerson University
Dr. Ojelanki Ngwenyama is currently Professor of Global Management and Director of the Institute of Innovation and Technology Management, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada; Visiting Research Professor, Department of Information Systems, University of Cape Town; Guest Professor at Halmstad University, Sweden; and Docent in Information Systems University of Jyväskylä, Finland. In 2012 he was VELUX Visiting Professor of Information Technology Management, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark; and in 2011 he was Andrew Mellon Foundation Mentorship Professor in Information Systems, UCT. Ojelanki has been a member of the faculties of Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto; Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; School of Business, Virginia Commonwealth University; Department of Computer Science, Aalborg University; and Aarhus Business School, University of Aarhus, Denmark. In 2009 he received D.Phil (Honoris Causa) from the Faculty of Engineering, University of Pretoria for International Contributions to Research Methods in Information Systems.
Farid Shirazi:
Associate Professor, Ryerson University
Farid Shirazi, B.Eng., MSc. Computer Security, Ph.D. is a Senior Researcher at Institute for Innovation and Technology Management at Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada. He is currently an Associate Director and an Associate Professor of the Ted Rogers school of Information Technology Management. Dr. Shirazi's research focuses mainly on the impact of ICTs on the social and economic development. His main research interests are IT-enabled sustainability and development, Cloud Computing, E-government strategies, Green IS management as well as the ethical and security perspectives associated with the introduction and use of ICTs.
Norman Shaw:
Associate Professor, Ryerson University
Dr. Norman Shaw’s research focus is to find out what motivates individuals to use technology and why some people adopt advanced features more readily than others. His current research is focused on consumer acceptance of the digital wallet. Retail, hospitality, and other industries, may experience significant benefit from the insight gained from the analysis of their customer transactions and interactions.
Prior to joining the Ted Rogers School of Business at Ryerson University, Dr. Shaw was Chief Information Officer for a Toronto based retailer that operated over 1,000 stores with such recognizable names as Harry Rosen, Tip Top, Fairweather and Bluenotes. Norman was has experience in the world of hospitality as Vice President in charge of technology for a hotel management company that operated hotels under the flags of Marriott, Holiday Inn and Hard Rock
