Michael Capps

Dr. Michael Capps has been a game designer, executive producer, head writer, lead programmer, research professor, and studio executive. He's best known for his decade as the president of Epic Games, makers of the mega-hit Gears of War and Infinity Blade franchises and the award-winning Unreal Engine. Mike currently serves on the boards of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS), the Game Developers Conference (GDC), Remedy Entertainment in Finland, the Sphero entertainment robotics company in Colorado, as well as a few unannounced companies. Prior to entering the games industry, Michael served on the faculty of the Naval Postgraduate School, with a research focus of networked virtual reality and large scale simulations.

Mike was recently featured as a digital warfare expert in the Military Channel's Combat Countdown series. He is currently featured as a technology futurist on both the Science Channel's "NASA Unexplained Files" and "What on Earth" series.

Sylvio Drouin

Sylvio Drouin is the Vice President of Unity Labs, which is responsible for advanced research and innovation at Unity Technologies, with a focus on the future of VR, AR, storytelling, and game authoring. He has been an advisor to Unity for more than 6 years, bringing to the company some of its most fundamental core technologies and key talent. Prior to working with Unity, Sylvio served as CTO for multiple companies around the world. He continues to advise some of Silicon Valley's most prolific startups, helping bootstrap innovation across mobile, graphic and web technologies.

Joe Ludwig

Joe started at Valve in 2009 working on virtual hats. About four years ago he switched to working on virtual reality hats. Since then he’s been involved in a wide variety of things as part of Valve’s SteamVR effort.

David Luebke

David Luebke heads graphics research at NVIDIA Research, which he helped found in 2006 after eight years on the faculty of the University of Virginia.

Luebke received his Ph.D. under Fred Brooks at the University of North Carolina in 1998. His personal research focuses on ray tracing and novel display technology for VR and AR.

Richard Marks

Richard Marks directs the PlayStation Magic Lab in Sony Computer Entertainment, which focuses on using technology to explore new interactive experiences. He studied avionics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before getting his PhD at Stanford University in the Aerospace Robotics Lab. Marks has worked at PlayStation since 1999 when, inspired by the unveiling of PlayStation 2, he joined Sony Computer Entertainment R&D to investigate the use of live video input for gaming. He is credited as the creator of the EyeToy and PlayStation Eye cameras. For several years, he managed the R&D Special Projects group, exploring man-machine interfaces and physical simulation research. He led the development of PlayStation Move and contributed to the design of the PlayStation 4 camera and DualShock4. Most recently, he has been involved with PlayStation VR, PlayStation’s soon-to-be-released virtual reality product.

Relja Markovic

Relja works on VR projects at Google. Previously, he led app and games engineering on Microsoft HoloLens, as well as technology for a number of Xbox and Windows games studios at Microsoft. Prior to that he worked on the Facebook Android client and Facebook Core Systems. Deep down he is a graphics engineer at heart.

Jacki Morie

Jacquelyn Morie has 25 years experience in developing innovative techniques for virtual reality environments. She spent 13 years as a Sr. Research Scientist at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), which she helped found in 1999. At ICT she created highly immersive virtual reality experiences and also novel virtual reality telehealth care activities. Prior to ICT, Dr. Morie worked at Disney Feature Animation and at special effects companies VIFX, Blue Sky and Rhythm & Hues. Her virtual reality work started in 1990 at UCF’s Institute for Simulation and Training in Orlando, FL.

Jed Ashforth

Jed officially has the best job in the whole world: Spending every day exploring new virtual realities, charting the best practices for this incredible new medium, and advising PlayStation® developers on how to build the greatest, most innovative gameplay experiences for PlayStation VR.

Brandon Bray

Brandon Bray leads the developer ecosystem and experience team for Microsoft HoloLens. We’re responsible for enabling developers to add “holographic developer” to their resume. Prior to working on HoloLens, Brandon led program management for .NET, C# and C++ in Visual Studio.

Nathan Martz

Nathan Martz is the Product Manager for Google Cardboard developer tools, including the Unity and Java SDKs. His team's mission is to "make awesome easy" ensuring that developing for Cardboard is just as easy as using it. Before joining Google, Nathan worked as a game developer at Double Fine Productions and LucasArts, where he worked on titles like Star Wars: Republic Commando, Psychonauts, Brutal Legend, and Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster.

Will Mason

Will Mason is the Co-Founder and Editor in Chief at UploadVR, a leading VR news and media company. Enthralled by the power of a single technology to change the world, Will founded UploadVR in 2014 with Taylor Freeman with a simple mission, to bring VR to the masses. Since then Will and Taylor have been advocates for the industry, never afraid to wear a Gear VR in ‘passthrough mode’ in public in hopes of showing even one person VR for the first time. Will and Taylor have grown UploadVR into a respected industry publication and with recent funding intend to build it into something much bigger.

Chris Pruett

Chris is a Developer Relations Engineer at Oculus. An industry veteran, Chris founded a game studio, helped launch an operating system, and has shipped nearly 20 games for a variety of platforms. Under the cover of night he blogs about horror games and works on Dead Secret, a VR murder mystery. Chris lurks online at @c_pruett.

Timoni West

Timoni West leads design for Unity Labs, focusing on new game development and creation tools. Previously, she was SVP of Design at Alphaworks, a new startup helping to democratize small business funding, and co-founder & Creative Director of Recollect, a social backup tool. She lives in San Francisco, where she spends most of her time thinking about VR.

Nonny de la Peña

Nonny de la Peña was selected by Wired Magazine as a #MakeTechHuman Agent of Change and has been called “The Godmother of Virtual Reality” by Engadget and The Guardian. Additionally, Fast Company named her “One of the People Who Made the World More Creative.” for her pioneering work in virtual reality. As CEO of Emblematic Group, she uses game engine technologies to tell important stories—both fictional and news-based—that create intense, empathic engagement on the part of viewers.

A Yale Poynter Media Fellow and a former correspondent for Newsweek, de la Peña has more than 20 years of award-winning experience in print, film and TV. Her virtual reality work has been featured by the BBC, Mashable, Vice, Wired and many others. Showcases around the globe include the Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals, The World Economic Forum in Davos, The Victoria and Albert Museum, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, and Games For Change.”

Alex McDowell

Creative Director, 5D Global Studio at Wondros
Professor of Practice, USC School of Cinematic Arts, Media Arts + Practice
William Cameron Menzies Endowed Chair in Production Design
Director, USC World Building Media Lab, USC World Building Institute

5D is a multiplatform, cross-discipline design studio that uses World Building in service of real-world problems and realworld impact. The World Building process was born in cinematic storytelling; McDowell collaborated with directors including Steven Spielberg (Minority Report, The Terminal), Tim Burton (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and David Fincher (Fight Club), among others. A design and storytelling practice, World Building combines rigorous research with a deeply human lens to create the entire holistic context—the world—that surrounds a problem or question, and unearths solutions that can be tested and realized. 5D applies world building in collaboration with a range of clients including Intel, Boeing, Forest City, Autodesk, Burberry and more.

McDowell is a Professor of Media Arts + Practice at University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts and director of the World Building Media Lab, where his students engage in practice-based curriculums and funded research to build worlds for storytelling. He also directs the World Building Institute, which dedicated to the dissemination, education, and appreciation of the future of narrative media through World Building.

As Visiting Artist to the MIT Media Lab (2005-2010), McDowell designed the renowned robot opera Death and the Powers that premiered in 2010 at the Salle-Garnier in Monte Carlo. He is a Getty Research Institute Scholar and an Executive Board Member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Design Branch. In 2006, he was awarded Royal Designer for Industry by the UK’s Royal Society of Arts and, in 2013, was given the UK Designers & Art Director's Presidents Award. McDowell currently sits on Technicolor’s Scientific Advisory Board, Autodesk’s IDEAS Board, and the FMX Advisory Board.

Clay Bavor

Clay joined Google in 2005 and has been involved with a number of projects across the company, including Search, AdWords, and AdMob. Most recently, he the led product management and design teams for some of Google's most popular applications, including Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive.

Clay was one of the creators of Google Cardboard and since 2014 has led the growth of Google's VR projects. Clay grew up in Los Altos, California, and created his first VR project at the age of 12, when he used HyperCard and hundreds of scanned photographs to create a virtual version of his parents' house. Clay holds a B.S.E. in Computer Science from Princeton University.

Dr. Richard Marks

Richard Marks directs the PlayStation Magic Lab in Sony Computer Entertainment, which focuses on using technology to explore new interactive experiences. He studied avionics at the MIT before getting his PhD at Stanford in the Aerospace Robotics Lab.

Marks joined PlayStation R&D in 1999 to investigate the use of live video input for gaming. He is credited as the creator of the EyeToy and PlayStation Eye cameras. He led the development of PlayStation Move and contributed to the design of the PlayStation 4 camera and DualShock4. Most recently, he has been involved with PlayStation VR, PlayStation’s soon-to-be-released virtual reality system.

Dr. Jeff Norris

Dr. Jeff Norris leads mission operations innovation at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, creating tools that are revolutionizing the control of robots and spacecraft. He founded and leads the JPL Ops Lab as well as multiple industry partnerships applying virtual and augmented reality to space exploration. His team is currently developing VR/AR tools for controlling the Curiosity Mars Rover, accelerating the activities of astronauts on the space station, and improving human-robot interaction.

Previously, Jeff managed mission planning and execution for JPL and was responsible for the software, people, and processes that command fifteen robotic spacecraft throughout the solar system. Earlier, Jeff led the development of mission control tools for the Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity Mars Rover missions and served as tactical activity planner in mission control. Jeff is the recipient of the NASA Software of the Year Award, NASA’s highest honor for a software project, and the Lew Allen Award for Excellence, JPL’s top award for a young researcher.

John Riccitiello

Since joining Unity as CEO in 2014, John Riccitiello has been a driving force in the successful launch of Unity 5 – the company’s next-generation multiplatform engine and development tools. Previously serving as CEO of Electronic Arts, John played a critical role in the company’s transformation into a mobile, online, and digital gaming leader, with subsequent revenue growth exceeding $1.6 billion during that time. John is also an active private investor, serving on Unity’s board since 2013 as well as Syntertainment, Telltale Games, and a few other higher-ed and non-profit boards. In addition, he was an investor and advisor to Oculus.

Joachim Ante

Joachim Ante currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer of Unity Technologies, and helped co-found the company in 2002. Ante initially began writing the core of Unity as a teenager, and today the engine is in the hands of more than 4.5 million registered developers. As Unity's chief technology officer and co-founder, Ante has brought pro-level game tools to the masses, and is playing a major role in the renaissance of independent games.

Palmer Luckey

Palmer Luckey is the founder of Oculus and designer of Rift. Palmer is also known for having the world's largest collection of VR headsets and founding the ModRetro Forums. Oculus builds virtual reality technology that allows you to enter a completely immersive environment, like a game, movie scene, or exotic destination. Oculus Rift, and the Oculus-powered Samsung Gear VR, provide the most powerful and immersive VR experiences available. Founded in 2012, Oculus began a Kickstarter campaign that raised $2.4 million in the first month and was later acquired by Facebook in 2014. oculus.com

According to Palmer in a recent Reddit AMA, "I started out my life as a console gamer, but ascended in 2005 when I was 13 years old by upgrading an ancient HP desktop my grandma gave me. I built my first rig in 2007 using going-out-of-business-sale parts from CompUSA, going on to spend most of my free time gaming, running a fairly popular forum, and hacking hardware. I started experimenting with VR in 2009 as part of an attempt to leapfrog existing monitor technology and build the ultimate gaming rig. As time went on, I realized that VR was actually technologically feasible as a consumer product, not just a one-off garage prototype, and that it was almost certainly the future of gaming. In 2012, I founded Oculus” Last month, the company launched pre-orders for the Oculus Rift, which will ship starting March 28.

Gabe Newell

Gabe held a number of positions in the Systems, Applications, and Advanced Technology divisions during his 13 years at Microsoft. His responsibilities included running program management for the first two releases of Windows, starting the company's multimedia division, and leading efforts on the Information Highway PC. Then he started Valve. His most significant contribution to Half-Life, the company’s debut title, was his statement: "C'mon, people, you can't show the player a really big bomb and not let them blow it up.