Meet the SPEAKERS for our event in Virtual Reality on April 3^rd!

Mark Melnykowycz / Idezo / Artist Engineer

“Design of VR Experiences”

Mark Melnykowycz, Dr. sc. ETH Zurich, works primarily in immersive experience design/development, wearable computing, connected devices, and virtual/augmented reality technologies. As an artist-engineer at Idezo GmbH Mark focuses on combining technology and storytelling with interaction design and engineering. His primary focus is VR app and experience development, including 360 video production, VR animation integration, and VR-focused Unity development. He has mentored at various events, including the “Storytelling Science”: Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Hackathon and THE Port 2015/16 humanitarian hackathon. Outside of work Mark explores the Swiss Alps via trail running and mountain adventures.

Prof. Marianne Schmid Mast / UNIL / Full Professor

“Immersive Virtual Reality for the Study and Training of Interpersonal Behavior”

Marianne Schmid Mast is full professor of Organizational Behavior at HEC at the University of Lausanne. After having received her PhD in Psychology from the University of Zurich, she pursued her research at Northeastern University in Boston (USA). She held positions as assistant professor in Social Psychology at the University of Fribourg and she was a full professor at the Department of Work and Organizational Psychology at the University of Neuchatel. Her research addresses how individuals in power hierarchies interact, perceive, and communicate (verbally and nonverbally), how first impressions affect interpersonal interactions and evaluations, how people form accurate impressions of others, and how physician communication affects patient outcomes. She uses immersive virtual environment technology to investigate interpersonal behaviour and communication as well as computer-based automatic sensing to analyse nonverbal behaviour in social interactions. She is currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior and in the Editorial Board of the journal Leadership Quarterly. Marianne Schmid Mast is a former member of the Swiss National Research Council and acted as president of the Swiss Psychological Society.

Yacine Benmansour / HEPIA / R&D Manager

“VR for collaboration in construction”

Yacine Benmansour is working since 2008 at hepia-University of applied sciences of Geneva in R&D project management in engineering and construction domain. Spatialized in virtual reality and multimedia, he is experienced Research Project manager with a demonstrated history of working with industry in the higher education level. He is mainly dedicated to applied research in Geo-information, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Building Information Modeling (BIM), BIM-GIS convergence, Geo data treatment process optimization, Project Management (life cycle). Strong project management professional with a Master of Advanced Studies focused in Urban Management from University of Geneva.

Phil Norris / VirtaMed

“VR simulation in surgical training”

Phil is passionate about improving patient outcomes, and he wants to use the latest virtual reality technology to achieve that. As a former theater manager, Phil knows the influence that immersive experiences can have on audiences; synthesizing this technology with his experience in healthcare consultancy, he expects that immersive training tools will aid trainee surgeons.

Mikhail Chatillon / Microsoft Switzerland / Technical Evangelist at Microsoft 

“Microsoft Holographic Computing”

After his master graduation in Computer Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich, Mikhail has worked for a year in the IT architecture division of a big bank, taking care of communication protocols and rationalizing architecture landscape. Since May 2014, he is working as Technical Evangelist at Microsoft Switzerland focusing on cloud, open source, blockchain and gaming technologies, mainly targeting startups and universities. Passionate about innovation, he is always keen to share his experience about emerging technologies.

Tobias Fueter / Stories / Co-Founder

“VR movies”

Practically brought up on the stage by his movie-producing & ballet-dancing parents and born into a filmmaker’s dynasty, director Tobias Fueter loves to tell stories that stick. He strives to find the right emotional edge for every brand, specializing in branded entertainment and modern storytelling forms for any screen. His stylistically wide range of internationally award-winning films include interactive movie trailers, tear-jerking corporate films, fun-filled commercial comedy series’ and lavishly animated musical ads.

Round Table: “The Future of VR/AR technologies”

Salar Shahna (moderator) / World VR Forum / Creative Director and CEO

Salar is the Creative Director and CEO of the World VR Forum. His vision shaped the artistic orientation of WVRF’s annual summit. In 2016, he extended the prime mission of the forum by initiating World VR Lab which finds, develops, and supports creative talents who are devoted to crafting the immersive language of Virtual Reality. Salar is also pursuing development of cultural trade between the West and China. As an expert, he also participates in major events throughout the globe. He moved from cinema to VR in 2015, joining Apelab as Production Advisor on the series Sequenced (GDC 2015, Sundance 2016). In 2014, Salar was rewarded for the transmedia strategy on Claude Barras’ film My Life as a Zucchini (Cannes 2016, Césars 2017, Oscars 2017 nominee) with Rita Productions, where he worked for TV and cinema from 2011 to 2014. Salar holds a dual Master’s degree in Hypermedia/Communication from Annecy, France and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Ronan Boulic, EPFL / Immersive Interaction Group (IIG) / Senior Scientist

Ronan Boulic is a Senior Scientist at the EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne), currently leading the Immersive Interaction Research Group (IIG). He obtained his PhD in Computer Science in 1986 from the University of Rennes, France, and his Habilitation Degree in Computer Science from the University of Grenoble, France, in 1995. He is a senior member of IEEE (the world’s largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology), ACM (Association for Computing Machinery, an international learned society for computing), as well as Eurographics. Ronan Boulic has co-authored more than 140 refereed publications, including 39 in ISI-indexed journals, and contributed to 10 books. He has served on over 50 program committees of key conferences in computer graphics, computer animation, and Virtual Reality.

Bara Caldova / Nomoko / Strategy and Business Development

Originally from Prague, she completed her Business Administration and Marketing studies at the Maastricht University and King’s College London. She gained experience in strategic marketing in the pharmaceutical industry and through freelance consulting.

Passionate about future tech, she has joined Nomoko in 2015. She is responsible for strategy and business development.

Arijana Walcott / Swisscom / Director of Consumer BD

Arijana is an avid AR/VR Evangelist working as the Director of Consumer Business Development at the Swisscom Innovation Outpost in the Silicon Valley. Responsible for consumer related trends, she identifies and captures new trends, technologies and ideas relevant to the Swiss consumer market.

In addition, Arijana co-leads the DART 17 Program, which is a testing lab for interactive experiences, objects, and tools in San Francisco.

Meet the EXHIBITORS for our event in Virtual Reality on April 3^rd!