Professor Game Podcast

David Mullich has been designing entertainment and educational products for such companies as Activision, Age of Learning, Disney, Edu-Ware Services, Encyclopedia Britannica, Mattel, and the Spin Master toy company for over three decades. In recent years, he has focused on applying game design techniques to academia and business. David has served as an industry mentor at the USC GamePipe Lab, co-created the Boy Scouts of America Game Design Merit Badge, and earlier this year was ranked the 4th leading "gamification guru" in social media. He has lectured and led workshops on game design, gamification, and Game Thinking at the annual Game Developers Conference, Game Thinking Live, Loyola Marymount University, New York Film Academy, and the USC Institute for Multimedia Literacy. David currently lead the Los Angeles Film School's Game Production degree program, serves as the Education & Research Director for the International Game Developers Association's Los Angeles Chapter, and consults with educational and business clients on how to make their projects more engaging.

Karl is the assistant director and a faculty member at Bloomsburg University's Institute for Interactive Technologies (IIT), where he teaches courses like Managing Multimedia Projects, Applying Theories of Learning for Interactive Technologies, E-Learning Concepts and Techniques and Learning in 3D.

He believes teaching/education/learning is an interactive exchange between students and the instructor that can take place both within and outside of the classroom or online environment.

His graduate level teaching reflects the belief that learning and understanding stem from interaction. All of his classes and courses include a problem-based learning approach. Students must interact with the material and apply theory to gain answers. The theory is important but practical application is critical to success. His instructional and learning methodologies ensure that knowledge is retained, learning is applied and results are visible.

Dr. Zac Fitz-Walter is a gamification designer who uses game design techniques and principles to help make tasks more engaging and motivating. He·s applied gamification to many different areas including training, education, health, wellbeing, business and HR. Zac leveled up his education in 2015 with a Ph.D. in designing effective gamification for mobile applications. He has taught a range of university subjects over the last decade, including gamification, game design and app development. Zac speaks at conferences and with companies around the world and consults and develops game-like systems for industry, government and research projects. He also runs an annual scavenger hunt and loves playing board games.

Dr. Michael Wu has served as the Chief Scientist at Lithium over the past decade, where he focuses on developing predictive and prescriptive algorithms to extract insights from social big data. His research spans many areas, including customer experience, CRM, online influence, gamification, digital transformation, AI, etc. His R&D won him the recognition as an Influential Leader by CRM Magazine along with Mark Zuckerberg and other industry giants. Michael has served as a Department of Energy (DOE) fellow at the Los Alamos National Lab, conducting research in face recognition and was awarded 4 years of full fellowship under the Computational Science Graduate Fellowship. Prior to going into the industry, Michael received his triple major undergraduate degree in Applied Math, Physics, and Molecular & Cell Biology; and his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley·s Biophysics program, where he used machine learning to model visual processing within the human brain. Michael believes in knowledge dissemination and speaks internationally at universities, conferences, and companies. His experience and insights have inspired many global enterprises and are made accessible through ·The Science of Social,· and ·The Science of Social 2··two of his books.

After changing his student life for a working career, Horst Streck worked as an information expert within the Amsterdam local authorities for over 15 years. In 2001 Horst Streck founded I Sioux Media Productions with two partners. In 2002 the company made its first step as a game developer. In 2007 the company entered the casual games arena, with the brand Youdagames. Youdagames won the Dutch Game award in 2008, with two games and became best ·up-and-coming developer· in 2009 in Seattle. As CEO, Horst Streck was executive producer and responsible for building strong relations with partners and distributors. In 2012 Horst Streck stepped down as a CEO and became a member of the advisory board. He decided to follow his heart and started a new venture which is all about gamification. In 2014 he was selected as chairman of the Dutch Games Association. For two years he's been in the mission of renewing the educational system by the use of gamification. The last two years have been the most regulars he's had since he has been teaching gamification at the university. He might be also giving workshops, presentations, advising people, almost anything on a given day!

Jeff Gomez, CEO of Starlight Runner, is a leading expert in the fields of brand narrative, story world development, creative franchise design, and transmedia storytelling. He specializes in the expansion of entertainment properties, premium brands, and socio-political themes into highly successful multi-platform communications and international campaigns. As a producer accredited by the Producers Guild of America, Jeff also develops the story worlds of films, TV shows, video games, toys, books, comics, apps, virtual reality projects, and theme park attractions. This deepens engagement and accelerates the development of participative communities, resulting in mass audience approval, brand loyalty, and increased revenues. Jeff's pop culture work has impacted such blockbuster properties as Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, James Cameron's Avatar, Hasbro's Transformers, Sony Pictures' Spider-Man and Men in Black, Microsoft's Halo, and Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Jeff has also developed highly successful transmedia campaigns and participative brand narratives for Coca-Cola (Happiness Factory), Pepperidge Farm (Goldfish) and Spartan Race. Other current clients include Electronic Arts, Sesame Workshop, Disney Parks & Resorts, and World Vision Canada. Jeff's proprietary transmedia methods have also been applied to educational and geopolitical causes, accelerating positive self-organized social movements and increasing resistance to crime, violence, and corruption. Through applications of his Collective Journey and transmedia population activation models, Jeff has helped optimize communications for large NGOs, and address crises in Mexico, Colombia, Australia, and the Middle East North Africa region.

Juliette is the Ideologist in Chief (AKA Managing Director) at Growth Engineering, and her unwavering mission is to wage war on dull online learning! She is a pioneer and expert in applying gamification and social functionality to online learning. She has an unrivaled passion for learner engagement, which leaves audiences inspired and electrified. She is the complete package: influencer, expert and also has direct access to primary research through her own products and solutions, meaning that her talks are packed full of stats and case studies proving the truth in what she·s saying. Juliette has also been named #30 on the eLearning Movers and Shakers list, which just so happens to be the highest any learning technologies vendor placed! She's also a mom of two amazing kids and the cutest dog, Lilly!

After graduating from Mathematical Engineering Altug worked for Netron and BilgeAdam as a trainer. He was responsible for Turkcell Educational platforms more than 5 years at Turkcell Academy. He is the author of first Turkish gamification book: and Gamification Confederation GamFED's Turkey representer. He blogs about gamification and is the only Turkish person who got invited and gave a speech at Gamification World Congress GWC16 in Madrid, Spain. He is doing lecturing at a University and doing gamification consultancy for companies.

Manuel is a Lead Gamification Designer at Fractal Mind, and his background is mostly in software development and analysis. For the past 6 years, he's been one of the main voices of gamification in Portugal and has had the luck of spreading the fun in domains like eLearning, employee engagement, sales teams and ideation since then, with some of the top banking and retail companies in Portugal. Manuel is also a Design Thinking and Gamification Design coach and has co-organized 2 editions of Novabase Gameshifters, Portugal's biggest gamified ideathon.

Drawing on experience in education, e-learning, theatre, retail, training, startups, events & game industries, he has found that this one thing thrilled him the most: designing purposeful fun.· When we play, we are pushing to be the best version of ourselves. Working should be more like playing. His power lies in doing just that: using all the powerful elements found in games and use them in organizations to make work more fun, challenging & meaningful. (Which - by the way - often leads to great results). He makes games. (company games, business games, team games, training games, kick-offs & ARG·s). He talks, inspires & advises about gamification. (at conferences, workshops & strategic sessions with companies). He also designs Escape Rooms. He helps companies enhance innovation and business performance using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method.