Professor Marientina Gotsis
Marientina Gotsis is Research Assistant Professor at the Interactive Media Division of the USC School of Cinematic Arts. She has a broad background in arts, design and engineering with special interest in medicine, public health and health behavior. She and her team have developed several innovative applications using games for health behavior change in topics such as child development, wellness, obesity, nutrition, exercise, autism, PTSD, rehabilitation, and eye disease. She founded and leads USC’s Games for Health Initiative since 2007, connecting health professionals with innovation in various forms of interactive media. She is co-founder and director of the Creative Media & Behavioral Health Center, an organized research unit between the School of Cinematic Arts and the Keck School of Medicine. Gotsis has developed partnerships and projects with funding by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Norlien Foundation, National Institutes of Health (NIH), US Department of Defense-TATRC, US Department of Education-NIDRR and the Shafallah Center for Children with Special Needs. Formerly the Media Lab Manager for the Interactive Media Division, Gotsis managed technology infrastructure and contributed to several research projects funded by Electronic Arts, Intel, Microsoft and Nokia. She has also taught at Northeastern Illinois University, Columbia College Chicago and Harold Washington College, and she has consulted for small businesses and not-for-profits. Gotsis has 18 years of experience as a designer and technologist. She received a BFA in photography/film/electronic media and an MFA in electronic visualization from the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Dr. Albert "Skip" Rizzo
Albert “Skip” Rizzo is a clinical psychologist and Associate Director at the University of Southern California
Institute for Creative Technologies. He is also a research professor with the USC Dept. of Psychiatry and at the
USC Davis School of Gerontology. Skip conducts research on the design, development and evaluation of Virtual
Reality systems targeting the areas of clinical assessment, treatment and rehabilitation across the domains of
psychological, cognitive and motor functioning in both healthy and clinical populations. This work has focused
on PTSD, TBI, Autism, ADHD, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and other clinical conditions. In spite of the diversity
of these clinical R&D areas, the common thread that drives all of his work with digital technologies involves the
study of how interactive and immersive Virtual Reality simulations can be usefully applied to address human
healthcare needs beyond what is possible with traditional tools and methods. In his spare time, he plays rugby,
listens to music, rides his motorcycle and thinks about new ways that VR can have a positive impact on clinical
care by dragging the field of psychology, kickin’ and screamin’, into the 21st Century. To view some videos on
his work, please visit this YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=UUQrbzaW3x9wWoZPl4-l4GSA&feature=plcp
Dr. Chad Lane
H. Chad Lane is a Research Scientist at University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies. He specializes in the application of artificial intelligence techniques to educational problems, with a focus on entertainment technologies and intelligent tutoring systems. This work involves interdisciplinary collaborations and addresses a variety of target domains, including social and intercultural skill development, informal science education, complex problem solving skills, and pediatric obesity. Chad was a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh in the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) where he received his PhD in Computer Science in 2004.
Brain and Creativity Panel
Tuesday, March 12th @ 7:00 pm in THH102
Richelle Gribble
Richelle Gribble is mixed media artist based in Los Angeles. She is a senior at the University of Southern California (USC) pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Art degree with dual minors in Social Entrepreneurship and Marketing. She is interested in social entrepreneurship as the foundation for her pursuits in both fine art and public art. She aims to utilize art as a tool to develop cause-based campaigns about prominent social and environmental issues.
She ranked as a Top 10 finalist out of 30,000 participants in an international art competition, ART TAKES TIMES SQUARE, and had her artwork featured on an LED screen in Times Square, NYC. Her artwork currently appears at a science and art exhibition, Quantified Self, at the Gallery Project, MI. Additionally, she has showcased her artworks at Superhighway, Palos Verdes Art Center, ARTery Gallery in Lab Holding, Idyllwild Arts Parks Exhibition Center, Ronald Tutor Campus Center, Fisher Museum of Fine Art, and other venues throughout Southern California. Her artwork has been published in Art Takes Times Square as well as Exploring Drawing: A Text/Sketchbook. She has been featured in the American Contemporary Art Magazine (2012 Feb/March Issue), Chiasma: Science and Art Magazine, and Vibrancy: An Inspiring Collection of Artists.
Brenda Yang
Brenda Yang is a recent magna cum laude graduate of the University of Southern California with degrees in Neuroscience (B.S.) and Interdisciplinary Studies (B.A.).
As an undergraduate, Yang pursued research in the lab of Michael A. Arbib, working with a team of PhD students to understand aspects of language using eye-tracking experiments and computational modeling, presenting work at the Neurobiology of Language (NLC) and Conceptual Structure, Discourse and Language (CSDL/ESLP) Conferences. This work drove her thesis, Language and Literature in the Brain, which offers a schematic framework of memory and attention for understanding the experience and memory of fiction in the brain, with a focus on illuminating properties of fictional literature as distinct from other narratives.
Yang was selected as Outstanding Neuroscience Student of the Year in 2012 and the recipient of the Brian Philip Rakusin Neuroscience Scholarship Award in 2011. She received 2nd Prize (Creative) at the Undergraduate Writer’s Conference, was published in Scribe, and was awarded 1st Prize (Communications) in the USC Web Design Competition.
She is currently teaching high school science at a charter school in the San Fernando Valley.