Past Speakers

Spring 2020

TBA


Winter 2020

Jordan Schidlowsky

Noodlecake.

May 2017

Livio De La Cruz

Livio is a software engineer who is currently freelancing as a Unity gameplay programmer in Seattle. He previous-ly worked at Microsoft as a program manager. He has managed multiple online and offline communities and loves to volunteer for educational programs that introduce kids to programming. He was born in the Dominican Republic and studied computer science at the University of Arizona.

Rodrigo Vicencio-Moreira

Rodrigo was formerly a U of S student who graduated in 2016 with his MSc in Computer Science. He is currently working as a software engineer at Capcom Vancouver. Rod is also the co-founder of the Game with US Game Jam.

February 2016

Ian Livingston

Ian is the Senior User Experience Researcher with EA Vancouver, where he and his team conduct user experience research & analysis for franchises such as FIFA, Plants vs. Zombies, and Mass Effect. Prior to EA, Ian worked at Ubisoft Montreal as the User Research Lead for the Far Cry franchise, working on titles including Far Cry 3 & 4. Ian has been working in the video game industry for almost 7 years, has published numerous academic articles in the field of HCI, and has presented at a variety of conferences including GDC and SIGGRAPH. Ian is a graduate from the University of Saskatchewan with an BSc Hons. and MSc in Computer Science.

Luke Dicken

Luke Dicken is Chair of the IGDA Foundation, the leading charity for game developers, by game developers as well as working as a Senior Data Scientist at Zynga. He holds degrees in computer science, artificial intelligence and bioinformatics and is currently completing a PhD program in Game AI. Luke has written a range of articles and given sessions at conferences around the world, as well collaborating on a number of game projects. Luke has been passionate about AI since playing “Creatures” as a teenager, and is a member of the AI Game Programmers Guild. He was named as one of Develop magazine’s “30 Under 30” for 2013, but hasn’t yet found a subtle way to work that into a bio.

September 2015 (STEMFest)

Lee Vermeulen

Lee Vermeulen is the co-founder of Alientrap Games, which started in 2002 with the development of the freeware game Nexuiz. Since then Alientrap have released Capsized on Steam/XBLA in 2011, Apotheon on PS4/Steam in 2015, Autocraft on Steam/iOS, and is now working on the PS4 game Cryptark.

Scott McGillivray

Scott is a Technical Director at Capcom Game Studio in Vancouver and has years of game development experience in the industry. Fun fact: he also has a TV segment on Global BC1 - #SpaceTalkWithScott

January 2015

Jacob Tran

Jacob Tran is a 15 year industry veteran who has deployed numerous successful game titles worldwide for small and large companies like BlackBox Entertainment and Electronic Arts. He has also created online dynamic user-experiences for clients such as Nike, DirectTV, and Nintendo. He can be seen on G4 TechTV, in recurring segments, discussing Game Development. Jacob was a Senior Game Design Instructor at the Vancouver Film School. He recently started a youth initiative called "Kids Make Games" to inspire the next generation of gamers to create their own entertainment.

Brennan Rusnell

Brennan Rusnell was born and raised in Saskatoon, SK. After graduating from the University of Saskatchewan in 2009, Brennan moved to Vancouver, BC, to pursue a career as a video game programmer. Since then, he has worked on Captain America: Super Soldier, Prototype 2, and Destiny. In his spare time, Brennan loves to stay active by hiking and playing basketball. Brennan holds both a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Saskatchewan.