Members
Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller is Professor of Future Interfaces at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia), where he leads the award-winning Exertion Games Lab. Previously, he was at RMIT, Stanford, University of Melbourne, Microsoft Research, MIT Media Lab, Fuji-Xerox Palo Alto Labs, Xerox Parc, and industrial research organization CSIRO. He featured on the top 100 human-computer interaction (HCI) researcher list and was the first Australian-based researcher to be selected to chair the CHI conference: HCI’s highest-ranked publication outlet. Floyd’s games have featured on the BBC, ABC, Discovery Science Channel, and in Wired magazine, and they have been played by more than 20,000 players, across three continents.
Floyd’s personal site
Floyd’s Twitter
Nathan Is a Research Fellow at Monash University (Melbourne Australia). In his current role at Exertion Games Lab, Nathan designs and develops novel closed-loop physiological systems from Ideas to working prototypes. Through his research, Nathan evaulates these bespoke systems through a mixture of phenomenological and neuroscientific methodologies to better understand how technology can be designed to be experienced as extensions of the human body. Outside of academia, Nathan is also an indi game developer, and co-founder of Cosmologic Studios. Twitter: @Symbionical | Github: @Symbionical | Website: https://www.nathansemertzidis.com
Rakesh Patibanda graduated from the Exertion Games Lab and CiART Lab, RMIT University with a Masters in Design (by research). For his master’s research, he wrote a thesis on understanding the design of breathing exercise games. His background is in electronics and communications engineering with professional experience of being the director and game design/development lead of GoLive Gaming Studios. He has also worked on enterprise gamification projects such as 7 Cups and Reputada. His research interests lie at the intersection of serious games and human-computer interaction (HCI). He is currently working as a Senior User Experience Designer at RMIT University while pursuing his Ph.D. at the lab under the supervision of Prof. Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller and Associate Professor Jonathan Duckworth. Currently, he is a Doctoral student at the Exertion Games Lab, Monash University under the tutelage of Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller and the memory expert from UTS, Elise van den Hoven who runs the Materialising Memories lab.
He loves playing video games on his PS4 (username is rakeshpatibanda – feel free to connect) and wakes up at odd times to watch an Arsenal and Barcelona match (Australia! Why are you ahead in time?!). He also loves to cook, read, and trek sometimes. You can check his Instagram page for his cooking photos (you’d definitely want to come home!). You can read more about his work on his personal website and contact him via LinkedIn, facebook, twitter, Instagram or via email.
Jialin Deng is a PhD candidate, researching interactive food.
Aryan is a PhD candidate at the Exertion Games Lab interested in designing playful body manipulation technology with pneumatics. He is also interested in fabrication technology, construction toolkits, and augmented and virtual reality. He completed his bachelors in electronics engineering and specialises in building end-to-end HCI systems.
I am a PhD candidate at Exertion Games Lab, Monash University, Australia. My current interest is developing interactive systems for water activities. I have an MSc in Electrical Engineering and a BSc in Physics Engineering at the Technological University of Pereira (Colombia), where I developed research in human-computer interaction and physiological computing. My previous projects have focused on researching virtual environment applications and biocybernetic adaptation for physical rehabilitation and education.
Christal Clashing is a PhD candidate at the Exertion Games Lab working on interactive play in aquatic environments. Christal did her MRes and BSc(Hons) under the Department of Sports and Exercise Science at the University of Portsmouth. She has a history of watersports involvement as an Olympic swimmer (2004), an ocean-rower (Atlantic in 2018 & Pacific in 2023 upcoming), and as a recreational freediver. She has worked for seven years as an adventure guide and a swim instructor in both Antigua and Costa Rica. Christal recently published a short story inspired by her aquatic experiences. Her website is christalclashing.com
Hi! I’m Nathalie, a Dutch PhD candidate at the Exertion Games Lab, and the Materialising Memories Research Programme, which is part of UTS, Sydney. I’m researching how to design interactive systems for memory support, with a focus on systems that help two people to use their bodies while being involved in shared remembering. I have a background in industrial design engineering. I specialise in human centred design, co-design and design for specific users. I believe that design should empower people to live the lives they envision for themselves.
Nathalie’s personal site
Xiang Li worked at the Exertion Games Lab as a research assistant (and still has a strong connection with the lab) from 2020 to 2021 and he is currently a Ph.D. student in Intelligent Interactive Systems at the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. He also joined the Center for Metaverse and Computational Creativity at the HKUST (Guangzhou) as a Visiting Ph.D. scholar in 2022. He received his dual Bachelor’s degrees from both Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University and the University of Liverpool. Prior to it, He worked as a Research Intern at Carnegie Mellon University, IP Paris, and the University of Tokyo. His main research interest lies in Human-Computer Interaction, at the intersection of Mixed Reality, Bodily Interfaces, Sensing Technologies, and Computational Interaction. As a technical HCI researcher, it’s unbelievable that the thing he dislikes most is writing code. Twitter: @XiangHCI and his homepage: https://dynasty-li.github.io
Dr. Sarah Jane Pell is an artist, researcher and diver most noted for her work in the field of ‘Aquabatics’. Dr. Sarah Jane Pell is currently a Chair of the European Space Agency (ESA) Topical Team Art & Science (ETTAS) responsible for the ESA Arts Initiative (EIA). Dr. Pell has 17 years experience as a visual artist and interdisciplinary researcher working most notably large scale collaborative art & science research with a specific emphasis in the performing arts, human movement, and underwater diving and habitat technologies. She received a PhD Visual Arts from Edith Cowan University, WA and was awarded Best PhD abstract Art & Science (English Language) 2007 from Leonardo LABS, MIT US. She is the first “artist” alumni of both the International Space University FR and Singularity University, NASA Ames. She led the NASA-ISU Luna Gaia: closed loop habitat for the Moon project, 2006- and her first Space Art payload was launched on-board SPRITE-SAT Payload H-IIA JAXA Japanese Space Agency (GOSAT) 2009. She is an ADAS Part 2r Commercial Diver with over 1500hrs in-water time logged and she regularly contributes to space analogue design and undersea habitat mission research, aquatic outreach and ocean awareness. She also serves as an Australian Standards Committee Member advising Australia’s Prime Minister on Diving in Australian waters. Sarah is a regular public speaker, international exhibiting artist and performer, awarded Australia’s only TED Fellow. Her work has been featured broadly from TED, to Time Magazine, ABCTV and Artlink. Sarah believes underwater play is all part of preparing humans for future life in outer space.
Official Website: www.sarahjanepell.com
Twitter: @aquabatics
Justin Dwyer is a globally recognised, multi-award-winning digital artist. He is co-creative director and artist with the art-technology duo PluginHUMAN. Justin specialises in media art installations, real-time projection mapping (TouchDesigner), electronic music (AbletonLive), and he reimagines new hardware technologies. He has exhibited internationally – Asia, North America, Australia. Winner of 2020 and 2018 Good Design Award.
Andrii Matviienko is a visiting researcher at the Exertion Games Lab at Monash University and a postdoctoral researcher in the Telecooperation Lab at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany. He received my Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Oldenburg while working at the Media Informatics and Multimedia Systems group with Susanne Boll. During his Ph.D. time, he visited the Multimodal Interaction Group at the University of Glasgow (UK), where he worked with Stephen Brewster on assistance systems for cycling children in cities with missing cycling infrastructure. His research focuses on assisting technology in urban environments. He designs, constructs, and evaluates multimodal and mixed reality interfaces for vulnerable road users. In particular, he investigates how to make evaluation environments for micro-mobility safe and realistic and what future micro-mobility, e.g., self-driving bicycles, can look like. Additionally, he focuses on how adult and child cyclists interact with assistance systems designed for collision prevention, navigation, and traffic behavior recommendations. Previously, he investigated ambient light displays for car navigation, tangible awareness systems for work colleagues, and educational systems for children. Website: http://andriimatviienko.com
Dr Betty Sargeant is a multi-award-winning, internationally recognised media artist. Betty creates multi-sensory immersive art installations that socially and physically engage audiences. Betty has exhibited internationally (Asia, Europe, North America, Australia). She has won Good Design Awards (2020 and 2018) and a Premier’s Design Award (2017) for her progressive artworks. She was the Melbourne Knowledge Fellow (2016), was creator-in-residence at the Asia Culture Centre (South Korea, 2016-17). Betty’s PhD was ranked top three at the CHASS Prize (2015). Betty has created media art installations for institutions such as the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (Taiwan, 2018), Questacon (the National Science and Technology Museum, Australia, 2018) and the Asia Culture Centre (South Korea, 2016 & 2017).
Twit – @BettySargeant
Web – www.bettysargeant.com
Siyi Liu is a PhD candidate at the Data Visualisation and Immersive Analytics Lab (DVIA Lab) at Monash University and also supervised by the Exertion Games Lab. She is researching superpower interactions with negative effects within HCI. She is also interested in biosensor and gesture interactions in Mixed Reality. She holds a Bachelor of Accounting and a Master of Artificial Intelligence.
Affiliated/Past Members
Hi, my name is Yan Wang. I am an HCI researcher and interaction developer. I received my Ph.D. in information technology at Monash University, Australia in 2021. I am interested in exploring interaction techniques for augmented multisensory interactions. With my multidisciplinary background, I have been working on enriching eating/drinking experiences via augmented auditory interaction for my Ph.D. research. I develop concepts and interactive eating systems that can contribute to the hospitality and digital health industry by using the human-centered design approach. I am passionate about solving systemic problems by integrating design strategies and interactive technology to deliver value to our community and society.
https://yanwangux.com/
I’m Zhuying Li, an Associate Professor at PALM Lab, School of Computer Science and Engineering, Southeast University (SEU), China. I am interestd in developing humanized technology that helps people to be more attune to themselve, others, and the world. In particular, I have done research in the topic of Human-computer Integration (HInt), investigating how bodily-integrated technologies such as ingestibles can be designed to be interwoven with everyday life to augment one’s daily experience. Before joining SEU, I did my PhD at Exertion Games Lab, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Australia.
https://zhuyingli.info/
Twitter: @Zhuying_Li94
Josh Andres is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University (ANU). Josh’s research focuses on human-computer interaction and cybernetics to study the relationship between humans, AI-enabled cyber-physical systems and the natural environment as a whole ecosystem. Josh is an Associate Researcher at the Exertion Games Lab at Monash University AU, Research Fellow at the Wellth Lab Southampton University UK, and has served in the SIGCHI executive committee as chair of awards in the 21-22 cycle and as assistant to the general chairs for the 2020 CHI conference. He has published at various top-tier conferences such as CHI, DIS, CHIPLAY, IUI, TEI, KDD, and UbiComp; his work has drawn international media coverage from the likes of Openbci, Newatlas, The Age, Zdnet, Channel 7, Channel 9 and Insiderobotics. In addition, Josh’s PhD work received the ACM SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award, and he is also the recipient of two Development Fund Grants. Josh regularly reviews for various conferences and has held various co-chair positions. Before joining the ANU, he spent seven years at IBM Research working on HCI, UX, AI and health, Blockchain, Future of work, and EdTech, where he also co-invented over 20 patents. The decade prior, Josh worked across various industries (banking, healthcare, retail, legal, and education), leading the design of multi-device experiences enjoyed by millions of users. He is a volunteer soccer coach in his free time and enjoys practising callisthenics and making smoothies.
His Twitter handle is @ExperiencePlay
Rich Byrne is a Welsh software developer and researcher who has joined the Exertion Games Lab as a PhD candidate. His primary research interest lies in the area of augmenting mobile technology to aid human experience – particularly in the realms of encouraging active lifestyles and helping individuals to improve physical performance and achieve their own goals. After obtaining a Bachelors in Computer Science from Swansea University (Wales, UK), Richard went on to pursue a Research Masters at Swansea’s Future Interaction Technology Lab, which specialises in Human-Computer Interaction and Interaction Design. Here he was able to explore his research interests by pursuing projects such as: using spatial audio to control running pace, determining a persons mood from their walking gait and encouraging physical activity with mobile devices. After time spent working as a professional software developer at a security company, Richard decided he wanted to return to the world of academia and joined Nottingham University as a Project Developer. Whilst there he became aware of the work of the Exertion Games Lab and decided to apply for a position.An avid climber, he wishes to investigate how (and if) technology and climbing can be combined in order to either improve, complement or alter the close experience climbers share with their outdoor passion.He has vowed to start running again as he refuses to be the only member of a lab specialising in “Exertion Games” who is carrying extra weight.Website: www.richbyrne.co.uk twitter: @triard
Game Blog: www.8brit.co.uk
Jonathan Marquez graduated from Bachelor of Arts (Games Graphics Design) and Bachelor of Arts (Creative Media) Honours Program from RMIT University. For his Honours program, he wrote an exegesis about how game level design can emote fear from a player and made an Unreal map to accompany his findings. Jonathan is a visual artist and an occasional programmer. Right now, as a volunteer he is finding ways he could apply his findings about emotion into exertion games as well as doing various projects to improve his knowledge. He is currently working on an iPhone app that can show friend connections beyond political and cultural borders.Jonathan does not like knives pointing at him.Jonathan’s portfolio
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
Bob Jarvis is an accomplished audio-visual artist based in Melbourne, Australia. Working across live video, performance, music, animation and software development, he holds a Bachelor of Music from Adelaide University and a Masters of Computing from RMIT which he applies to the development of tools for live, audio-visual performance. His piece for chamber orchestra and live projection, “Concerto for Light Sculpture“, which won The Vice Chancellors Award at The International Space Time Concerto Competition in 2012. Concepts of that piece were extended in the 2013 work “Luminesce“, a collaboration with Gian Slater and her choir Invenio which explored emergence and the visualisation of musical arrangement. Luminesce went on to win in the live category of the International Visual Music Awards in 2015. Other examples of his work have been exhibited at The National Gallery of Victoria, The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, The Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens, Hawkes Bay MTG, Museum De Lakenhal and The Heide Museum of Modern Art. He once wrote an app for orangutans.
Joseph La Delfa is researching how play in public spaces can reduce loneliness in young people. He is interested in evoking behaviors and attitudes that alleviate loneliness and isolation, even if it means breaking with social norms to do so. He explored these themes as a freelance product design engineer before joining the Exertion Games Lab, where he now aims to use exertion games as a catalyst for proactive mental health. He thinks travelling to former Yugoslav and Soviet Union countries is a legitimate pastime and guaranteed good time. Also, he likes dancefloors, fungi and cephalopods
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?
Kurra Harshitha is a final year Computer Science Engineering student of IIIT Chennai, India with an interest in writing, coding & learning new things. Having acquired a newfound love for Human Computer Interaction, she decided to apply for an Internship at the best possible place and flew all the way to Melbourne, Australia. Currently, she is a visiting research intern at Exertion Games Lab, RMIT University. She has started working on Human Food interaction under Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller and Rohit Ashok Khot. On the other hand Kurra likes making friends from different countries and is an amateur photographer with an itch for traveling. Believes coffee can cure anything. Loves cats and hopes she owns a Persian or Scottish fold cat one day.
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
Dr. Tuomas Kari from the Natural Resources Institute Finland visited the lab in 2018. 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, and gamification. Currently he is investigating virtual nature solutions. Outside the research life, he likes to do sports and especially orienteering and trail running. 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
Mario Boot: My colleagues and describe me as bright, curious, and outgoing as well as easygoing. On the professional side, my expertise lies mainly in human-computer interaction, user experience design, and large-scale international business services. Previously I completed a traineeship as solution designer on intelligent workplace solutions at Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. Currently I am pursuing a Master of Science degree in Information Sciences at the University of Amsterdam. In the Exertion Games Lab, I am working on a playful experience in which players can feel each other’s body temperature in the form of changes in temperature in a wearable heating pad. In this scenario I am exploring how temperature feedback can influence bodily awareness. In addition, back home in the Netherlands I engage passionately in volunteering efforts. I educated elderly immigrants on essential digital skills, and I have been peer-educator to inform visitors of international music festivals in The Netherlands and abroad on safer nightlife and substance use. In my spare time I like reading about psychology, history, and religion. I love spending time with family and friends – preferably by exploring pristine wilderness in remote corners of the world.
Last but not least, in a prior life I have sold 10.000s of hamburgers.
Felix Brandmueller is a visiting Master student from Vienna, studying Medical Computer Science at the Technical University of Vienna (TU Wien). He’s interested in combining the fields of medical applications and games and therefore created a game which uses ingestible sensors called GutsGame. His bachelor thesis was about Serious Games for Stroke Patients, which also follows that direction. His other interest lays in traveling and exploring different cultures as for example Iceland, Indonesia and lately Australia. Also he is an amateur photographer, which definitely makes a good team with traveling. His rule for eating foreign food: if it smells awful but tastes good, it’s strange but okay; however if it’s smells odd and tastes disgusting you probably shouldn’t eat it, especially when local people are laughing at you.
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
Peter Arnold joined the Exertion Games Lab as a visiting researcher from LMU Germany from September 2016 until April 2017 with a broad background in HCI. He is a master student for Media Informatics and in the progress of finishing his studies in Munich where he mainly took courses in human-computer learning environments and multimedia programming and also gave tutorials for the lecture “Digital Media” for bachelor students. For his master research project and his master thesis he visited RMIT to develop a multisensory mobile virtual reality game called “You Better Eat to Survive!”, which won the Student Games Competition at CHI ’17 in Denver in the category “Innovative Interfaces”. Peter is interested in creating novel interaction techniques for modern games such as virtual reality games, that use underexplored bodily interactions, for example eating, as a way to control part of the games.
“What got me a little concerned was that instead of shooting the flare gun into the sky to call for help to get rescued from the island in my game most people tried immediately to shoot a peaceful bird sitting nearby.”
Twitter: https://twitter.com/p3t3yp3t3
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/ChekTienTan
Mads Møller Jensen is a visiting PhD student from the Ubiquitous Computing and Interaction Group at Aarhus University, and holds a Master in Computer Science. Mads’ interest lies within exploring the opportunites and possibilities that exist in the combination of IT systems and sports, and the title of his PhD is “Interactive sports-training systems”. In other words, Mads is trying to combine exertion games with sports training to leverage the quality of training and make it more fun! His approach is to build prototypes of interactive sports-training games and see what happens when athletes try them out.
You can find more about his research on: mmjensen.com
He also has a Twitter profile: @themoller13, but his is yet to post his first tweet.
Jayden is a Researcher in Game and Interaction Design at the Exertion Games Lab. At the Exertion Games Lab he works on projects in the research areas of human-computer interaction, games, movment-based interaction, interactive technology design for interactive entertainment and player experience design. He completed his Honours thesis in 2013 on the topic of ‘i-dentity: Innominate Movement Representation as an Engaging Game Element’ at RMIT University Melbourne.
Tim Ryan is a multi-disciplinary interaction designer who has joined the Exertion Games Lab to conduct a PhD research project. With a background in interactive media and an interest in blending physical and virtual experiences in public play spaces, Tim is exploring the realm of unstructured sport with a focus on the implications of Interactive Sports Flooring and Virtual Social Facilitation. Tim holds a Masters in Animation and Interactive Media and a Masters of Art in Public Space from RMIT University. Each of these academic research projects combined sport, art, design and technology to create innovative interactive experiences for surfers and skateboarders.Tim’s sports & games credentials – competent at many, champion at none!Personal website/blog – www.mayswell.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.
Helmut Munz is a PhD candidate at the Exertion Games Lab.He loves pixels, polygons & key frames.
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 Huggard, is Geelong based game designer, researcher and artist who has recently graduated RMIT University with a Bachelor of Design (Games) Degree. She has also previously graduated Gordon Institute of Tafe, with a Diploma in Applied Fashion Design & Technology. Through these years of study, Amy found her passion for games, research and art and is inspired to bring these elements together and continue to discover new and exciting things. Therefore, Amy will be undertaking her Honours Degree at the Exertion Games Lab in 2013.Furthermore Amy hopes to continue to learn and push herself further into the field of games and explore their limitless possibilities. In doing so, she aspires to share her new found knowledge with others, and open people up to the possibilities of games, and the importance of fun and play as a lifestyle.When Amy is not glued to her laptop screen, or procrasti-baking (procrastination in the form of baking), she can be found outdoors pottering in her veggie garden, running very long distances or just relaxing in the sun.Amy’s Portfolio Website: http://amyhuggard.weebly.com
Amy’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/sby666
Elena Márquez Segura is a Spanish Telecommunication engineer who found in Scandinavia the spark she was missing in her degree, which came about within the field of Human and Computer interaction (HCI). At KTH in Stockholm, she studied the master of Interactive Systems Engineering. During that time, she started working in Mobile Life under the supervision of Annika Waern. This was when Elena realised that she could —and would!— devote the following years to take play and playfulness really seriously. Mobile Life was just the place for it, with its thrilling and inspiring multidisciplinary environment, which has challenged, supported, and motivated her to the point of staying in Sweden one winter after the next, for over 5 years. After her master studies, Elena started her PhD, first in Mobile Life and then in Uppsala University, supervised by Annika Waern, Kristina Höök, and Barry Brown. Her studies revolve around designing for, and researching, the emergence of playfulness in technology—supported physical activities that happen within a group of people. In December 2014, Elena presented her licentiate thesis: “Body Games: Designing movement-based play in co-located settings”, examined by Oskar Juhlin; with Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller as her opponent. After the licentiate, Elena followed Floyd to Melbourne, to do a three month internship within the Exertion Games Lab @ RMIT. She has barely started here and she is already delighted in the lab, both for the great people around, and also for the inspiring space that Floyd is building. Elena specially likes the high hammock they have installed, and the egg-hammock, which she would take up during every writing workshop. She is trying to contribute to the environment by enthusiastically suggesting to install a hammock for yoga, aerial work, and acrobatics. As part of her evil plans, Elena envisions the whole lab getting inspired while rocking in their hammocks. Elena’s website.
Anushka De Mel (Otherwise known as ‘Chet’) is a Melbourne based game designer, researcher and artist who has recently graduated with a Bachelor of Design (Games) Degree at RMIT University. Having acquired a newfound love and appreciation for research that intends to alter the way in which we think, art, game and (even) embrace, Anushka plans on undertaking her Honours Degree at the Exertion Games Lab in 2013. Furthermore, as part of it, she hopes to fascinate, provoke and terrify others with her creations as well as open them to new ideas that are only possible through the medium of games. Finally, when she’s not game-storming, sketching or thinking on the benefits of close physical proximity (between strangers), Anushka spends much of her time making lists and watching random, yet inspirational, videos which feature mutant robot monkeys, fluffy unicorns and badass sheep.Anushka’s Website: http://anushkademel.weebly.com/
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.
He would love to play cool solos like Slash, but his hair is definitely far from being that cool.
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
Jakob Reinhardt is a visiting student from Munich, Germany. He is working on the great project Joggobot! His background is mechanical engineering, majoring in product development, where he is currently doing his masters’ degree in. He is interested in User Experience related work and currently working on ways to include user experience design into product development processes. He sees huge potential in bringing the experiences of digital games to physical products.In his spare time Jakob likes flying through the air like crazy, with skis on his feet!
Eberhard Gräther is student of Bachelor’s degree in MultiMediaTechnology at Salzburg University of Applied Sciences in Austria. He visits the lab in order to do an amazing project, Joggobot, and acquire experience in research and user study.Besides his interest in research, Eberhard is a talented programmer and has developed a lot of games and digital simulations during his study. He started programming in C++ and did various projects using openFrameworks, amongst others a Minesweeper in 3D and an Exertion game where players have to throw balls against a projection. Soon he got interested in JavaScript and did projects with HTML-Canvas and WebGL. His biggest achievement so far was winning the Mozilla Game On Challenge with MarbleRun, a browser game he developed in collaboration with student colleagues. He finishes his Bachelor’s degree in June 2012 and has no idea what to do next. Visit his website to have look at his projects.Eberhard does not like using his big 27″ screen.Eberhard’s website
Eberhard’s Twitter
Joshua Platt is serious about games, gaming and games design. He has completed his Honours in the lab. Josh has been working in the Exertion Games Lab, designing and building game environments that immerse users in multi-sensory experiences. He enjoys combining game mechanics with physical activity; developing ideas that invoke the imagination and push boundaries. So why exertion games? Earlier this year Josh tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and underwent a full knee reconstruction. Through the rehabilitation process Josh was exposed to some very mundane and uninspiring exercises. He soon began to understand how these exercises could have a negative impact on people’s motivation, which in turn impacts their health outcomes. Josh believes there is an opportunity to transform the exercise and rehabilitation process through exertion games, potentially giving people much better recovery prognosis.Josh finds it funny that everyone has better spelling than him in the lab, and its not even his second language!Joshua’s website
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.
Christopher “Kit” Mackenzie is currently studying a double degree in Computer Science & Multimedia (Games & Interactivity) at Swinburne University. He is in the lab working on a novel Kinect body projection game. Kit previously travelled to Concordia University, Montreal, collaborating on computer graphics and artificial intelligence projects. These fields, along with Computer Vision, constitute his main interests. After graduation, he aspires to investigate collaborative A.I., particularly in the areas of robotics and 3d bioprinting. As well as computer science, Kit is also interested in entertaining people. He has previously been spotted playing the Double Bass, trained for many years within a Circus school as a contortionist, and occasionally works as a Data Wrangler & Digital effects technologist on digital film sets.While on the set of a film, Kit was almost squashed by this tank-however, they made up and Kit later enjoyed some delicious lemon slice atop the turret.
Chris Jones is an independent games programmer currently also working on the Kinect body projection game. Chris has a Bachelor of Multimedia Systems from Monash University and has recently completed his Advanced Diploma of Professional Game Development specializing in software development. Chris is currently also working with the people at Raptus Games on the IOS game Draw: the showdown.Chris feels like he is the lone PC in a world of macs.Chris’s blog
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
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.
I was born in the Dutch city of Nijmegen, and later spent time in Eindhoven (TU/e), Melbourne (RMIT) and Pittsburgh (CMU) exploring my passion for design and technology. I hold a bachelor’s and master’s in Industrial Design, and am currently applying and deepening my passion for interactivity at the Exertion Games Lab. What drives me? A deep interest in how aesthetics of human-product interaction influence our experience.
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
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.
“Every day at the Lab I feel like living in a new amazing planet, sometimes it’s scaring, and I love it!”
Ruth’s blog: http://morepoetryplease.blogspot.com.au/