Schedule of events

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Career and Professional Networking Event – for students
Meet, network & get information/advice from featured speakers and presenters. 
 Jamal Coleman – Senior FX Artist at Big Huge Games | BFA Art
 Laura Fish – UX Designer and Visioneer | BFA Art
 Kamal Hatami – Lead Artist at Standing Stone Games | BFA Art
 Judah Phillips – President/Founder SQUARK | English & Communication
 Bruce Rosenbaum – Owner, ModVic Steampunk | Business
 Chris Bent – Founder/CEO at  PICCLES | Marketing
 Rachel Halpern – Content Strategist/UX Writer, Facebook | English

9:00 AM

Coffee Service – Check in
Registration for those not pre-registered

9:20 AM

Welcome and Introduction to the day
See presenter biographies

9:30 AM

Salvatore Macchia & Greg Spiridopuolos
“The Monk Listens”
Music Performance & demonstration of technology in music.

10:00 AM

Bruce Rosenbaum
Steampunk Reimagineer, ModVic: period, repurposed, personal and meaningful objects, creatively infused with modern technology to transform the ordinary into incredible Steampunk forms.

10:30 AM

Laura Fish
Author of the “Designer’s Guide to Visioneering” 
Along with helping clients strategically bridge visionary thinking with real-time deliverables—now dedicated to help fellow ux’er designers level-up to digital product designers.

11:00 AM

Jamal Coleman & Kamal Hatami
“Life in the Games Industry and How to Break In”
The view from Senior FX Artist at Big Huge Games and Lead Artist at Standing Stone Games.

12:00 PM

Christopher Bent
Founder and Creator, Piccles – an interactive and collaborative creation experience for all.

12:30 PM

Lunch (provided for presenters and pre-registered attendees)

1:00 PM

Judah Phillips
President/Founder of Squark and award-winning entrepreneur, consultant, and author.
“How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Artificial Intelligence and Love the Machine Learning”

1:30 PM

BJ Roche interviews:
Judah Phillips, Laura Fish & Bruce Rosenbaum 
Conversational Interview on Life + TECH with audience submitted questions.

2:00 PM

Rebecca Tarr Thomas
Aquisitions Editor at Adams Media
“Working in the Publishing Industry”

2:30 PM

Gabrielle Capolupo
Senior Director at Juniper Networks
“Team/Project Management – 30+ Years in Silicon Valley”

3:00 PM

Explore the exhibits & talk with presenters.

9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Conversations/Panels + Tech Fair & Exposition

Technology Education Concepts, Inc.

(TEC) has been an “Experienced Provider of Design-to-Manufacturing Solutions and Teaching Labs” to Educators and Students for over 30 Years. Based in Concord, NH, TEC is a family-owned business started by an educator who is passionate about providing secondary and post-secondary schools with 3D Solutions used to teach today’s young people about the fields of engineering, design, manufacturing and architecture. TEC has established itself as a trusted resource for innovative, quality products for hands-on and real-world STEM, design, manufacturing and pre-engineering programs and school labs/MakerSpaces.

Digital Media Lab

3D Print Services – At the Digital Media Lab some 2,400 print jobs have been completed. They range from neck-brace prototypes to Pompeii artifact models.Spencer and his colleagues are happy to work with anyone who wants an item printed. 

Assistive Technology Center

Josh Pearson is an alumnus of the UMass Department of Communication, graduating with a B.A. in 2015. His main area of focus being championing and educating on behalf of the rights of students/faculty with disabilities and improving access to assistive technology in all areas of campus. The ATC provides a workspace and access to specialized software, equipment, and tools for individuals with an ADA-defined disability.

Computer Competency Certification 

Computer Competency Certification – Showcase of a multi-module educational program covering all the basics of computer uses including office skills, spread sheets, graphics, imaging and security practices. Each module has a test. The content of CCC can be incorporated into a class or provided as a stand alone certification.

NICKQUEST

This project consists of a series of animated interviews done in 360 video. The conversations are between myself and various famous Chatbots including my Replika, which is a chatbot I’ve been training since last year.The conversations fall somewhere between humorous, terrifying, philosophically interesting. Think of it as “Between Two Ferns” meets a 360 animated Turing Test nightmare.

Piccles

Piccles is a collaborative drawing experience that reawakens the dormant child artist in us all. From any device, groups can create together in a simple, easy interface that invites everyone to express themselves. https://vimeo.com/271103887

The Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics

The Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics is in the Computer Science Department at UMass Amherst. The lab studies computational systems that solve sensory and motor problems. Experimental platforms include sensor networks, mobile manipulators, and integrated bimanual humanoids.

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

HFA Alumni in Tech 
(event in collaboration with College of Humanities & Fine Arts)

Judah Phillips ’97, English & Communication
President/Founder | Squark

Gabrielle Capolupo ’86, Theater
Senior Director | Juniper Networks

Kristen Forscher ’18, English & IT
Technical Editor | Rocket Software

Drew Hammond ’86, English
Tech Solution Architect | IBM

Thomas Novembre ’93, Art History & French
Global VP of Sales | Velocity Made Good

Jill Roberts ’83, Art History
IT Project Manager | Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture

Rebecca Tarr Thomas ’10, English
Aquisitions Editor | Adams Media

Rachel Halpern ’14, English
Content Strategist | Facebook

Jamal Coleman ’10, BFA Art
Senior FX Artist| Big Huge Games

Kamal Hatami  ’02, BFA Art
Lead Artist | Standing Stone Games