Steve Reid is the studio manager and one of the original founders of Red Storm (1996), the company know for creating the Tom Clancy line of games and helping to establish the genre of squad-based tactical shooters. After a successful run as an independent developer/publisher, Red Storm was acquired by Ubisoft (2000). The studio's most recent work is the multiplayer gameplay for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 for Xbox 360.

Before games, Steve received a Master of Fine Arts degree from East Carolina University. He has taught a variety of college art disciplines and now collaborates with local and national colleges as an advisor on digital art curriculum. Steve has participated as an advisor, moderator, panelist and guest speaker at the Game Developer Conference, E3 and other industry events.

A 26-year veteran of the video game industry, Brenda Brathwaite is a game designer, professor and Chair of game development and interactive design at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. She has worked on 22 internationally known titles, including Def Jam: Icon, Playboy: The Mansion, Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes, the award-winning Wizardry series and the award-winning Jagged Alliance series of video games. According to a 2007 article in Next Generation magazine written by Ernest Adams, Brathwaite is the longest, continuously serving woman in video game development today. She also plays well with others, is "pro" level at Wii Bowling, has her own d10s and rocks at Guitar Hero.

Arun Shukla is the founder of Gamevolve, a tool-set for real-time multi-dimensional collaboration for video gamers and game developers community. Arun has 25 years of cross-industry international experience. He is an engineer and master in management.

Christine Heneghan began her tenure in the Gaming Industry as a Spokesperson for Nintendo in 1993. She also held positions in Quality Assurance and Media Relations for Interactive Magic. She is currently a Co-Founder and Human Resources Manager for Virtual Heroes, Inc in RTP. She holds a BFA from Syracuse University and an MFA from the University of Illinois.

Daniel Barbour is a game designer and founding member at Shattered Reality Interactive, an independent game development studio. He is one of 10, full-time employees where he works on a next-generation sci-fantasy MMORPG. With his strong technical skills and broad understanding of the MMOG genre, he fills many different roles at SRI as needed.

Shattered Reality Interactive was founded upon a dream in August of 2005, after much hardship was fully-funded in March of 2007, and opened it's studio doors in San Francisco, CA in July of 2007. As an independent game developer, Shattered Reality Interactive takes strides in innovation in hopes of further advancing the MMOG industry as a whole.

Gregory "GRASH" Walek is an experienced game developer who has used 3ds Max professionally on several projects. Mr. Walek has worked on major titles such as Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Batman: Begins. He is a Graduate of the Guildhall @ SMU and student work from there was shown at the Independent Game Festival at the Game Developers Conference. Given his experience and background, Mr. Walek provides an unique view and understanding of 3ds max which is applicable and useful within the game industry. He currently teaches at NHTI while rocking out and planning world peace through domination with a new game.

James Cowgill has been in game development since 1996 and has held a variety of roles from Lead Game Designer to QA Manager to Producer. He has contributed to a number of commercial, serious game and simulation titles including "America's Army", "Asheron's Call", "Warbirds", "Adaptive Thinking & Leadership" and "SimPatient". He is currently a Senior Game Designer with Destineer Studios in Raleigh contributing to several commercial game and simulation products in development.

Rodney Harper has worked with tabletop and computer games for more than 20-years. Starting out as a module writer and game designer for various tabletop wargames in the late 80's and 90's he created one of the first online communities for gamers on the early World Wide Web that was known as Department of War. In 1998 he gave up the illustrious career of being a Fisheries Biologist and went to work in games full time with Interactive Magic as their Sr. Webmaster and Community Manager. From there, he moved around various game companies in the RTP area and settled down at Vicious Cycle, Inc. where he was a Producer for 5 years and shipped many titles on PS2, Xbox, Wii, DS and PSP. Having the opportunity to move into publishing, he took the position of Development Manager at Destination Software, Inc. and now oversees the development of their annual catalog of titles for the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PS2, Xbox and PC.

Jim Van Verth is an OpenGL Software Engineer at NVIDIA, where he works on device drivers for NVIDIA GPUs. Prior to that, he was a founding member of Red Storm Entertainment, where he was a lead engineer for eight years. For the past nine years he also has been a regular speaker at the Game Developers Conference, teaching the all-day tutorials "Math for Game Programmers" and "Physics for Game Programmers." His background includes a B.A. in Math/Computer Science from Dartmouth College, an M.S. in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and a M.S. in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

John O'Neill is the president and a founding member of Spark Plug Games, LLC. Prior to establishing the company, John was the director of business development for Vicious Cycle Software and responsible for the cutting-edge middleware solution, the Vicious Engine. John was responsible for managing the Vicious Engine brand and built strategic relationships between developers and publishers alike. He drove the internal focus for the Vicious Engine technology as it applied to client needs, negotiated contracts and license sales, and directed marketing and public relations engagements. John began his games industry career at MicroProse in 1994, as a programmer on a variety of cross-platform projects and ultimately built business and vendor relationships with industry leaders and hardware vendors. Working internationally, he successfully established and managed the consulting branch for InstallShield Software, Ltd., and continued to build clients around the world, which included many in the Fortune 500. Along with his extensive gaming industry and professional consulting experience, he also brings his academic training in computer science with a Bachelor of Science degree from North Carolina State University.

Kertis Henderson is a producer at Oasys Mobile, a mobile game developer and publisher. He is the president and a founding member of Lich King Studios, a local independent game development group . He's been tinkering with video game programming for decades. Kert taught a Post-Xpo class on "Programming the GBA" at the 2006 DGXpo and a session on "Video Games in Education" in 2007. His favorite game systems are the Commodore 64 and the DS.

Lee Hammock began writing in the role playing game industry in 1996 while attending the University of Georgia. After graduating with a bachelors in English and Management Information System, he moved to New York City where he worked in advertising for a time before moving on to DC Comics. In 2004 he left DC Comics to pursue a full time writing career, working on projects such as the Vs. Trading Card Game by Upper Deck, the ENnie-nominated role playing game Dawning Star, and numerous licensed comic books including the Halo Graphic Novel. In September or 2005 he joined Fallen Earth as a Writer/Game Designer and now serves as the Lead Game Designer.

Lee Sheldon has written and designed 20 video games including the award-winning The Riddle of Master Lu; Dark Side of the Moon; Wild Wild West: The Steel Assassin; and most recently three games based on Agatha Christie novels: And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express and Evil Under the Sun. He has worked on massively multiplayer worlds for companies such as Cyan (URU:Ages Beyond Myst) and Disney (Disney's Virtual Kingdom), as well as an experimental multiplayer X-Box project for Microsoft. His book Character Development and Storytelling for Games is required reading at many game developers and in game design programs at some of the world’s most distinguished universities. Lee is a contributor to several books on game design including Game Design: An Interactive Experience from Charles River Media and Second Person from MIT Press; and is a regular lecturer on game design and writing in the US and abroad. Before his career in video games Lee wrote and produced over 200 popular television shows, including Star Trek: The Next Generation, Charlie's Angels, and Cagney and Lacey. As head writer of the daytime serial Edge of Night he received a nomination for best writing from the Writers Guild of America. Lee has been twice nominated for Edgar awards by the Mystery Writers of America. His first mystery novel, Impossible Bliss, was re-issued in 2004. Having recently worked on two new games for the Nintendo Wii, Lee also consulted on a virtual world recreating jazz clubs of the 1940s and 50s in Oakland, California and Virtual Congress for former congressman Lee Hamilton’s Center on Congress. Lee is currently a professor at Indiana University where in addition to teaching game design and screenwriting he is working on his own narrative-driven world Londontown; and an ARG funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Marq Singer has had a long and varied career. He spent the late 80's and early 90's working in the film industry in a variety of projects and roles, which ranged from general crew for TV commercials to special effects for horror films, including the minor cult-classic Killer (1989). He is a co-author of "Java Applets and Channels: Without Programming" and has contributed to the popular "Game Programming Gems" series. He has given multiple lectures on a variety of game-related topics. Since 1998, he has been working in the games industry serving in a number of engineering functions including physics, animation, UI and AI. Currently, he is a physics programmer for Red Storm Entertainment, a division of Ubisoft, working with both the Havok(tm) engine and custom dynamics. The most recent title that he worked on was Rainbow Six: Lockdown for the PS2 and PC.

Marx Myth has been into art since he was 4 years old and has spent a lifetime honing his skills and mindset. He originated in fine arts, along the way he has abided in realms of education (traditional public schools and non-traditional post-secondary), health care (psychiatric counseling and care), illustration/concept freelance art, and once again found myself in gaming. He currently manages an art team for Lockheed Martin 3D Learning Solutions creating interactive simulations and serious games technology using UltiSim and Data Visualization using UltiVis.

Republic of Fun offers a refreshing approach to interactive games by being immersive and intriguing, whimsical and strategic, challenging yet attainable. Originally an offshoot of 3Dsolve, it became it's own standalone company once Lockheed Martin bought the mother company. Marx serverd as Art Director on two titles with this start-up company: "Merv Griffin’s Crosswords" and "Scrabble Journey".

Nic Allen is a programmer at Oasys Mobile in Cary. He has specialized in 3D graphics using anything from DirectX and XNA to the Nintendo DS. Nic enjoys making creative action and adventure games.

Rachit Shukla is the Founder of IdeaBahn, an open source ideation platform that brings life to new business ideas leveraging enterprise and community knowledge. Rachit is a graduate from Wharton Business School at University of Pennsylvania.

Jack Spain is a Senior Consultant with Fuentek, a consulting firm that provides intellectual property and technology management services. Spain has over 30 years experience in strategic leadership roles with technology start-up firms and global IT organizations. With a specialization in technology commercialization, Fuentek works with a wide variety of clients to identify promising technologies and assist them in converting their ideas and inventions into marketable products. Drawing upon its unique combination of technical, business and commercialization expertise, the firm has helped organizations around the world find the technology they need. Fuentek offers training workshops, guidebooks, and instructional Web sites to help clients improve their skills in effectively managing their intellectual property. Fuentek is currently the largest NASA contractor based in North Carolina.

Randy Brown is the Virtual Heroes Chief Technology Officer. Randy has an MS in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a BS in Computer Science from Oklahoma State University. Prior to joining Virtual Heroes, he developed interactive 3D graphics software at Amoco, Digital Equipment, Ex Machina, Data General, SAS Institute, Southpeak Interactive, and the Research Triangle Institute of North Carolina. He has developed or directed scientific oil exploration, graphics library, visualization, interactive training, education, simulation, and gaming content for a wide range of commercial, government, and private customers. At Virtual Heroes he held the title of Technical Director for the Americas Army Government Applications group, and has developed content for many customers including Intel, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hilton Hotels, Warner Brothers, and the Department of Homeland Security. He is a regular speaker at many conferences including the Game Developers Conference and Games for Health.

Robert is the author of MMO Evolution and an authority on MMORPGs, virtual worlds, simulations, virtual reality and augmented reality. With more than 15 years of experience, he is a multi-talented individual with a strong combination of Business, Design, and Technical skills. His career started in 1992 at the first virtual reality entertainment company in the US where he designed several multiplayer VR games.

Recognized as an “Internet Gaming Pioneer” by Advertising Age Magazine in 1996, Robert was also called “a Founding Father of the Digital Nation” in 1998 by The Raleigh News & Observer while he was designing immersive interfaces and next-generation concepts for a 3D internet.

Robert contributes to a game industry blog at killtenrats.com under the pseudonym “Nicodemus” and is a member of the Association of Virtual Worlds and the International Game Developers Association. He is currently working on a new Augmented Reality platform and Immortal Destiny, a MMORPG based on an evolving and adapting world that is AI-driven. Robert also provides executive level consulting in the games, simulations, and virtual worlds industries.

Stephanie is a software development producer with over fifteen years experience in worldwide award-winning educational and entertainment products for companies including Activision, Electronic Arts, LucasArts and 2K Games. She specializes in localizations and has successful sim-shipped hundreds of language versions of high profile titles including the Guitar Hero series, Rock Band, the Call of Duty series, the Tony Hawk series among many others. Stephanie founded XLOC (www.xloc.com), a company that offers web-based applications for easy localization management, and works as a production consultant for interactive game companies.

Vincent has worked as a software engineer for game developers including Electronic Arts, Angel Studios (now Rockstar San Diego), The Collective (Now Double Helix Games), Studio Gigante, and Emergent Game Technologies. He has focused primarily on graphics and rendering while working on the PlayStation, PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox360, and PC. Vincent is now an Architect for Gamebryo where he focuses on long term graphics issues and research.

Susan Gold is chair of the IGDA Education SIG and serves as an academic consultant for numerous companies and schools in game education. Susan¹s work with the SIG has created many new tools for instructors in the genre. Her current focus is in organizing a knowledge base and resources for educators as well as creating curricular models for the varying academic programs. A key focus for Susan is in developing game industry relations to help build academic resources and recommendations in education. Susan is an artist, teacher, and activist with a specialization in digital art, new media and videogames. She speaks around the world on the IGDA Curriculum Framework and need for collaboration learning strategies in the classroom. Her artwork and writing have been featured in numerous galleries and museums. As an educator, Susan has helped shape a niche program in Entertainment Technology and brings her experience in curriculum design to many educational institutions. Professor Gold sits on the numerous university advisory boards throughout the world.

Suzanne Meiler is the Lead Environment Artist at Destineer Studios in Raleigh. With over 8 years experience in the game industry she has spent most of her career at Red Storm Entertainment. She has created environments on AAA titles such as the Ghost Recon series, Rainbow Six, and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2. Currently Suzanne is working on an undisclosed next generation 3rd person shooter.

Professor Simkin has been the subject of several TV, radio and newspaper reports, including the Wall Street Journal, related to using leading edge technology in curriculum which has included; Microsoft .Net Framework, programming language C# and the use of XNA in game development.

Professor Simkin has been teaching and developing computer games for over 12 years. He is the Technical Advisor to a computer game development company Moonset Studios (http://www.moonsetstudios.com/) based in New Hampshire. Many of his students have successfully obtained jobs in the computer game field. Professor Simkin has been teaching computer programming languages, such as C, C++, Java and C# and computer related technologies at the NHTI for over 20 years in the Computer Engineering Technology program.

Will Cox is credited on two PC game titles and one Wii title. He specializes in Game Art creation and optimization for popular game platforms. Will enjoys creating content for first-person shooters and racing games.

Sato began his career working in oil painting and fine art at Tama Art University in Tokyo and later decided to get into the gaming industry. Sato joined Japanese company Konami where he began 2D art with Sexy Parodius exposing him to animation, drawing the user interface and characters and later mastered 3D animation and managed production for all computer graphics for Silent Hill, which sold two million copies worldwide and spawned four sequels.
Sato later joined Konami’s US office as CGI director where he oversaw computer graphics and story development and led the team on Silent Hill 2. After joining EA, Sato led various gaming projects including GoldenEye: Rogue Agent.
Sato is the recipient of the Electronic Arts, EA ACTION Award; the Extraordinary Talent in Art, US Visa Award; and was awarded excellence in Digital Art, Japan Media Arts Festival. He received a Bachelor of Fine Art, Oil Painting and Contemporary Art from Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan. To see examples of Sato’s art, visit www.virtualheroes.com or http://www.satoworks.com.

Michael is an associate professor of Computer Science at North Carolina State University where is co-director of the Digital Games Research Center. Michael is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Game Development and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Virtual Reality and Broadcasting. Young was a founder and Conference Chair for the First Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment in 2005 and served as the Tutorials Chair for AIIDE-2006. He was Program Chair for the The Third Annual Conference on Game Development in Computer Science Education in 2008.
Michael's research focuses on AI in games, with specific efforts on interactive narrative, automatic control of 3D cameras and adaptive gameplay for learning and training. He was awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2000 and was elected to the North Carolina State University Academy of Outstanding Teachers and received an Outstanding Teacher Award from the NCSU Office of the Provost in 2005.

As a second term assistant professor of Science Education at North Carolina State University, Len Annetta's research has focused on distance learning and the effect of instructional technology on science learning of teachers and students in rural and underserved populations. His research has cascaded from his dissertation on comparing three different distance delivery strategies on science teacher professional development to the current focus on evaluating video games as a teaching and learning tool and as a vehicle for synchronous online instruction. The results of his dissertation suggested that synchronous interaction proved most effective on learning science in a distance-learning environment. Len Annetta has designed and created a synchronous, online 3D virtual environment for distance learning courses offered at North Carolina State. His most recent endeavors include:
•HI FIVES (Highly Interactive Fun Virtual Environments in Science-ESI-0525115), has been funded by the National Science Foundation to investigate the viability of video games as a supplement to science instruction in grade 5-9. This project seeks to teach both teachers and students to design and build multiplayer games that align with state and national science and mathematics standards. HI FIVES seeks to answer such questions as can students learn STEM content through playing and/or designing video games. We are also exploring the interaction dynamics of multiple students in a 3D online environment as a function of increased engagement and achievement. Further, we seek to explore how teachers use the games as a teaching tool and if the common student experiences can be used for inquiry instruction.
•Exploring Sophisticated Data Mining Analytics as A Strategy for Diagnostic Assessment. Supported again by the National Science Foundation, the investigators believe that a multi-institutional initiative studying the application of SAS analytics to several types of educational applications generating rich datastreams would generate important insights. Two of the investigators already have NSF funding that is producing such datasets through games and immersive simulations, and we plan to also analyze intelligent tutoring system data from the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center. Such a project would develop research findings of value across several NSF directorates, including mathematics, computer science, and education.
•VOLT (Virtual Online Learning and Teaching) is as internally funded distance learning endeavor where researchers from Science education, Training and Development, and the College of Management have teamed to create case-based missions in a 3D virtual learning environment.