Members
Dr. Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller directs the Exertion Games Lab and is co-director of the Centre for Game Design Research at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.Floyd’s research has spanned four continents, including research posts at the University of Melbourne (Australia), MIT Media Lab (USA), Media Lab Europe (Ireland), Fuji-Xerox Palo Alto Laboratories (USA) and Xerox Parc (USA). Floyd was also leading a team of 12 researchers at the Commonwealth and Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). He has been a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Stanford University (USA). Floyd has also been a Microsoft Research Asia Fellow and has worked at Microsoft Beijing (China) with the research teams developing Xbox’s Kinect. Floyd’s research work was presented at the top conferences in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) and computer games, including several best paper nominations. Floyd’s Exertion Games work has been shortlisted for the European Innovation Games Award (next to Nintendo’s Wii Fit), received honorary mentions from the Nokia Ubimedia Award, was commissioned by Wired’s Nextfest, exhibited worldwide and attracted substantial international research funding, including numerous grants from the US, the Australian, the UK and the German Government. His team’s Exertion Games were played by over 20,000 players across 3 continents and were featured on the BBC, ABC, Discovery Science Channel and Wired magazine.
Floyd’s personal site
Floyd’s Twitter
Dr. Betty Sargeant PhD, B.A (Hons), B.Ed, is an award-winning creator: artist, author and designer. She has been the Melbourne Knowledge Fellow (2015-17), creator-in-residence at the Asia Culture Centre (2016 & 2017, South Korea), Fellow of the International Specialised Skills Institute (2016) and in 2016 she won the Consensus Innovation Award in recognition of her progressive design work. She is now creator-in-residence at the Exertion Games Lab.
Twit – @BettySargeant
Web – www.bettysargeant.com
Blog – www.bettysargeant.tumblr.com
Justin Dwyer is an award winning artist who creates immersive audio-visual experiences. Winner of 2017 Premier’s Design Award-Digital Design (w/ Betty Sargeant). Top 5 Lumen Prize (global award) finalist for his 2014 work Floating Worlds. He has designed a number of Virtual Reality works including his 2016 work Ablaze, and has been artist-in-residence at Banff Centre and the Asia Culture Centre.
www.pluginhuman.com , @pluginhuman, Twitter , Facebook, Instagram

Game Blog: www.8brit.co.uk
Jonathan’s Twitter
From an early age, through self-directed play, Ti instinctively began to develop her ability to think through design – making pinch pots with clay, architectural models with paper, and even spending three weeks obsessively recreating a scale model of the Titanic using cardboard and coca cola bottles in grade 5. When Ti grew up she pursued a formal design education and graduated from RMIT’s industrial design and communication design degrees – the latter with first class honours and a 4.0 GPA. This achievement placed her in the top 2% of graduates at RMIT in 2017 and for this she was listed on the Vice Chancellor’s List of Academic Excellence. Beyond those numbers, this path developed her fluency in the language of design and strengthened her ability to think through design. Ti now views design as a way to question the world around her and to provoke thought. An odd mix of interests in design, science and entrepreneurship has led Ti to pursue a PhD investigating how design can be applied to developing more human healthcare technology. Some people think Ti has a strong ability to think strategically, but actually, she’s just following her happy instincts. Simply stated, she has the instincts of a panda bear and not that of a race horse.
www.designerlybeings.com Instagram: designerly.beings


Yuyang ‘Eric’ Zhang is engaged in projects aimed at making meaningful improvements to people’s lives by developing and implementing body-system partnerships, most notably in the form of novel augmented eBikes. Eric is also an electrical engineer accredited by Engineers Australia and a programmer. He originally graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Master’s degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2018.
Eric is a lover of Australian Iconic hats – Akubra, and he claims one day he will collect all the types of hats from Akubra. Will his dream come true?

theunicornweb.wordpress.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshita-kurra-b6710a138
https://www.facebook.com/harshitakurra
Instagram: Harshita Kurra (@hershey_kur)
Eshita Arza is a final year undergraduate student of IIITDM, India. She flew all the way to the city of Melbourne to work as a Visiting Research Fellow at Exertion Games Lab. She is currently working on a project in the field of Human Food Interaction. Eshita is passionate about Machine Learning and Human Computer Interaction, and is looking forward to work on amazing projects in the intersection of the two. She plays guitar, badminton and she also loves to cook. So if you are ever hungry, you know who’s door to knock!
www.linkedin.com/in/eshitaarza
www.facebook.com/eshita.arza


Yash Mehta is a final year computer engineering student of IIITDM Kancheepuram and has recently joined Exertion Games Lab as a Visiting Research Student. He is an enthusiast, having expertise in the field of Human Computer Interaction. He has started working on Human Food Interaction Project under Dr. Floyd and Dr. Rohit.Lawn Tennis is his favourite sport so if he is not in the lab you know where to find him ! You can also find him at https://m.facebook.com/mehtayash88
Dr. Tuomas Kari, D.Sc. (Econ. and Bus.Adm.), is a visiting postdoctoral researcher from the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. His background is in information systems science, and his main research interest lays in the use of technology in everyday life, especially in the context of health and wellness. His research has mostly been from the user-centric perspective among such topics as exergaming, sports- health- and wellness technology use, self-tracking, user behavior and experience, gamification, and physical aspects of eSports. His research has mostly been from the user-centric perspective among such topics as exergaming, sports- health- and wellness technology use, self-tracking, user behavior and experience, gamification, and physical aspects of eSports. Outside the research life, he likes to do sports and especially orienteering. Give him a map and he will lead you to the X. In addition, he loves to venture around the world with a constant look for new food and restaurant experiences. For his visit in Exertion Games Lab, he took a laptop, a restaurant guide, and seven pairs of sports shoes. work twitter: @TuomasKari
Affiliated/Past Members

Gina Moore has a background in fine arts (drawing, painting and sculpture) and more than ten years of industry experience as a 3D animator. As an artist intrigued by the mysterious nature of visual perception, her experience working with both traditional and digital creative tools has led her to contemplate the differences and similarities between traditional and digital media. How does the experience of using paint differ from the experience of using 3D software? What would be the outcome of approaching 3D software with the concerns of a painter? These questions provide the motivation behind her current PhD research project which also explores issues related to materiality, embodiment, play and creativity. The Exertion Games Lab provides an energetic, friendly and inspiring research environment for this project.Gina’s prior education includes a BA (Fine Arts) from Curtin University, a Postgraduate Diploma (Animation and Interactive Media) from RMIT University, and a Master of Arts (by Research Project) from RMIT University.Gina’s website
Wouter Walmink has recently joined the lab as a visiting researcher. He is a multi-disciplinary interaction designer with a background in Industrial Design (TU/e) and is co-founder of studio:ludens, a company creating design tools for non-designers.Wouter’s talent is understanding how to merge new forms of interaction and technology to create meaningful user experiences. In the past 5 years he has developed a range of design tools among with the pattern creator Repper (>120K user-created patterns), Magic Box (2x Unlimited Design Contest winner) and a range of tools for the world-renowned design agency Droog. His aim at the Exertion Games Lab is to apply his industry experience in the academic context and create a deeper understanding of creativity and play in exertion games.Wouter secretly uses weighted comparison tables in Excel to make arbitrary decisions between close-to-equal options.Wouter’s personal site
Wouter’s business site
Wouter’s Twitter
Chek Tien Tan is currently a co-director of the Games Studio at the University of Technology, Sydney. He is also a Lecturer with the School of Software in the Faculty of Engineering & IT. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the National University of Singapore (NUS). Chek is particularly interested in applied research and teaching domains especially in games and interactive media technologies. In research, Chek’s publications span across the domains of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computer Graphics. He has held various key appointments at leading academic conferences, including SIGGRAPH Asia and the Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment. He currently also sits on the academic advisory board for the annual Sydney International Animation Festival. With the industry, Chek has worked alongside Ubisoft to develop employee training programs whilst he was an Assistant Professor at the DigiPen Institute of Technology. He also runs the Kinect Labs with Microsoft Australia. In the media, Chek has appeared as guest experts on the Good Game television show on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Enquiring Minds on Television Sydney (TVS), as well as exclusively interviewed on the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) and wrote invited articles on The Conversation. More about Chek: chek.gamesstudio.orghttps://twitter.com/

Chad Toprak is a passionate game designer and researcher at the lab who holds a Bachelor of Arts (Digital Art) degree at RMIT University.With the intention of doing further research and studies in games and digital play, Chad has recently completed Honours in the Exertion Games Lab and is currently undertaking a PhD degree. His passion lies in social, playful and pervasive games, with evoking playfulness through ludic interventions as one of his main research interests.Chad actively participates in and contributes to festivals and events such as Freeplay. He has previously co-organised and curated RMIT’s Games Open Day (’09-’12) and 2011 Games Graduate Exhibition.
In his spare time, Chad likes to indulge in rapid game development.
Chad’s website
Chad’s Twitter
Ginger-Lee holds “Puppy Preschool” and a “Level 1” certificate from Perfect Spot dog training. She enjoys vigorous physical activity, as well as quiet periods of deep contemplation on matters such as “the hard problem of consciousness”. Ginger’s unique physical characteristics, as well as her laconic demeanour and razor-sharp intelligence, make her a valued research assistant and an indispensable member of the Exertion Games Lab team.
With a Bachelor in Information Design and a Master in Media & Interaction Design from the University of Applied Sciences (Graz, Austria), Helmut has worked at Brand New School (New York, USA), the Institute of Language Arts at the University for Applied Arts (Vienna, Austria), BETA the Lab for Design & Communication (Graz, Austria) and the Handheld Augmented Reality Lab at the University of Technology (Graz, Austria).
Furthermore Helmut adds ketchup to everything he eats.Helmut’s website: www.research.anstalt3000.com
William Goddard is a professional game developer who has recently started his Honours degree at RMIT. Before moving down from Brisbane, William worked at Halfbrick Studios on titles such as Fruit Ninja where he was inspired by the creativity and innovation at this successful indie studio and working in small collaborative teams. William is now exploring play enabled by human-computer interaction innovations both as both their contexts and technologies change now and evolve in the future. His other interests include games for social change, processes of game development, and games as artistic expression, among other things. William holds a Bachelor of Information Technology with Distinction from Queensland University of Technology where he has also tutored in game design projects and agile software development topics.

Amy’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/sby666

Anushka’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/A_nush_ka
Anushka’s Research Blog: http://a-nush-ka.tumblr.com/
Robert Cercós is a chilean industrial engineer. He is currently doing a PhD at the Exertion Games Lab focused on increasing the physical activity of a group of people by using digital games and wearable computing devices like pedometers. He also holds a Master of Information Systems from The University of Melbourne, where he became interested in HCI and pervasive computing. In the past, he worked as the Operations Manager of a frequent flyer program, dealing with a huge database of activities from more than 5 million members. Before that, he worked doing music for TV series and also producing, arranging and playing electric guitar for several chilean pop/rock/romantic music artists.
Emmanuel el-Khoury is a mechanical engineer from the Technical University of Munich, who hails from Lebanon but grew up in Germany. He is currently developing a research project at the Exertion Games Lab about how semi autonomously moving office furniture, that are coupled to self monitoring devices, can be used to reduce health risks. He has studied both at the Technical University of Munich and Universitá degli studi di Pisa. In Germany he is completing his Masters in Product Development and Management. The search for the blue flower has brought him to Australia, let’s see whether he can find it this century.http://twitter.com/emmanuel_khoury
http://www.linkedin.com/in/emmanuelelkhoury
Eberhard’s Twitter

Joshua’s Twitter
Joshua’s research blog
Danielle Wilde holds a PhD in Body Technology Poetics, from Monash University Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture and CSIRO Division of Materials Science and Engineering, Australia. She also holds an MA in Interaction Design from the Royal College of Art in London, has a background in circus arts and a penchant for participation. She is trained in a number of performance techniques, that inform her approach to embodied engagement in playful as well as pragmatic contexts. By placing the body central to her research, and engaging the body through the imagination and the imagination through the body, Danielle is able to blur boundaries between disciplines and question the divide between art and everyday life. Her work, through process and outcomes, questions how we design, create and live. In 2009 Danielle was honored with an inaugural Australian Prime Minister’s Australia Award to undertake research at The University of Tokyo. Her PhD was awarded the 2012 Monash University Vice Chancellor’s Mollie Holman Medal for excellence. She has undertaken Research Fellowships and Artist Residencies at STEIM, Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music in Amsterdam, The Pervasive Interaction Lab at the Open University, UK, The Department for Design, Architecture and the Built Environment at Nottingham Trent University, UK and has been resident at the Creative Systems Lab at Sussex University, UK. Her work is exhibited and published widely.daniellewilde.com
d on twitter
Timothy Jeffs is currently studying a Bachelor of Arts (Animation and Interactive Media) at RMIT University. A keen animator and cartoonist, Tim also loves making games and is part of the team responsible for the development of the Waterfall Climber at the lab. Tim is interested in creating unique experiences for people, pushing the familiar into new contexts and situations to create something new. He has mainly worked with Flash and ActionScript 3.0 when developing games but is constantly extending his knowledge in other software and languages.Tim is a terrible rock-climber.
Chris Berry has a Bachelor of Information Technology (RMIT). He is a PhD student at the GEElab investigating enjoyable experiences within vehicles. His interests include interaction systems incorporating lessons learnt from years of playing games and procedural methods of content creation and modification. Chris has worked for RMIT on multiple research projects as a technical adviser and programmer since his first year. Alongside his research, Chris is collaborating with a local game developer on a new web-based game to be released in 2012! Some examples of his work are:www.games.rmit.edu.au/vroom
www.games.rmit.edu.au/assetgen
Alan Chatham is a visiting researcher at the Exertion Games Lab. After graduating Pomona College with a degree in economics, he spent the last 3 years designing innovative video game controllers, including the award-winning OpenChord guitar. Having a particular interest in how designers can create systems to alter user behaviour, he is currently researching how scoring systems influence player motivation.He is also a champion bodybuilder.Alan’s Tumblr about his UnoJoy project.
Harry Lee is an independent game designer passionate about play, puzzles, and people. He loves creating fun experiences that make people think, infused with clever design and playful narrative. Harry is currently studying medicine at Monash University and making award winning games with his studio, Wanderlands. At the lab, he aims to violently collide his medical and ludic interests, and his research into the playful applications of electrical muscle stimulation is the beautiful lovechild of that curious union.Harry derails metaphors like a steamroller.Harry’s website
Harry’s Twitter
Alexander Perrin is soon to undertake his second year in digital arts (games) at RMIT. He is passionate about the visual arts- specifically 3-dimensional graphics development, but also takes great interest in bringing things to life with the use of programming (Have a look at his website). Outside his studies, Alex appreciates architecture, cats and bicycles.Alex is in and out of the lab assisting with the general design of a kinect game project utilizing projection upon the body.
Atticus Bastow comes from a strong music performance background, having studied music (specifically Drums and Percussion) for over 10 years. After completing a Bachelor degree in Music Performance, Atticus decided to follow a pathway exploring the limitless possibilities of sound, freeing himself from the rigidity of music theory.
Atticus’ music performance and composition experience ranges from minimal ambient and digital music synthesis (including a large focus on MAXMSP), to arranging for Big Band jazz ensembles and orchestras.
His sound design palette is similarly diverse, having sculpted sonic pieces for numerous disciplines including Dance, Animation, Film and experimental video art, as well as approaching the computer as a performative music tool in both solo and ensemble environments.
Atticus is currently undertaking a Bachelor of Fine Arts at RMIT, specializing in Sound Design.
My name is Sebastiaan Pijnappel. Optimist, perfectionist and life-lover for 25 years, designer of novel interactive products for 6.5 years.
Eric Dittloff is a video director fascinated by games and their designers.Working with members of the Exertion Games Lab has offered the opportunity to work with the researchers of complex and sometimes nuanced ideas. The challenge in their projects is to introduce details and the project’s mood in the simplest and most elegant way possible. As a recent graduate of RMIT’s Media program, he finds the Exertion Games Lab is an excellent environment to refine his understanding of the content, form and experience of different media. He hopes to profile separately the Exertion Games Lab and the nature of game design as it relates to society in the immediate future.Eric is secretly terrified of his internal organs being replaced by aliens in the night and, unaware, waking up as a cyborg.Eric’s portfolio.
Ho Hsin Yang is a game designer, programmer and developer that has graduated in a Bachelor of Design in Games from RMIT. Yang originally studied Electrical & Mechatronics Engineering at UniSA in South Australia, though he found himself very much into the modification of games ever since the first release of Half-Life in 1999. He eventually found his passion in games and its development after being introduced to programming and design.Yang is now currently involved in the development of a few indie game titles and lends his skills as a developer and designer, and mainly a programmer to the Exertion Games Lab at RMIT University. He has a love deep down for anything augmented or virtual that combines physical space, body and mind together with a digital world to create an intensely immersive and deep experience.He sometimes wonders though if the Exertion Games Lab took him in not for his skills, but as a provider of some of the finest trance music.Yang’s website: http://mainframerodent.weebly.com
Yang’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/hamsteyr
Dr Rohit Ashok Khot was the Deputy Director of the Exertion Games Lab; and Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at RMIT University, Australia. Rohit’s research embodies interdisciplinary strength and explores the amalgamation of design and technology in a creative way.
Dr Khot’s track record includes 39 scholarly publications in last 7 years, the majority of which appear in highly competitive HCI conferences and journals and include one best paper and one honorable mention (top 5%) award. Dr Khot’s research also appeared on 30+ press articles including a cover story on Mashable Australia, IEEE Spectrum and TV coverage on Channel 9 News and ABC News 24. He has won prestigious awards including IBM PhD fellowship (2014-2015), 2017 RMIT HDR Prize for Research Excellence (2017), RMIT Vice-chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2017-2019) and SIGCHI Development Fund Grant (2017,2018). Dr Khot is also involved in organization and management of the Special Interest Group meetings, workshops and symposiums at leading international conferences specifically around food and play, besides serving on program committees for leading international HCI conferences, including DIS and TEI.
Rohit is passionate about playful Human-Food Interaction (HFI) and has an ambitious goal to alter the common perception that food cannot be healthy and pleasurable at the same time.
Twitter handle: @rohitashokkhot
More about him: http://datamaterialities.org/, http://rohitashokkhot.com
Ruth Sancho Huerga has worked on the stage for more than 20 years. She studied Theatre Studies in Laboratorio de Teatro William Layton (Madrid), Drama in Collegi del Teatre (Barcelona), English Philology and a Postgraduate in Digital Literature (University of Barcelona). She is an actress, poet, playwright and theatre director. Her curiosity and interest in new technologies pushed her to experiment, create and research on the interrelation between movement, poetry and digital art. In 2011 she was awarded with the Australian Endeavour Postgraduate Award to study in RMIT University.