Purdue Faculty:

Nicoletta Adamo-Villani, assistant professor of computer graphics. Prof. Adamo-Villani is an award-winning animator and graphic designer and creator of several 2D and 3D animations that aired on national television. Her area of expertise is in character animation and character design and her reserach interests focus on the application of 3D animation technology to education, HCC (Human Computer Communication), and visualization. An article about one project she was involved in as of mid-2006.

Gary Bertoline, Distinguished Professor of Computer Graphics Technology, professor of computer and information technology, and assistant dean for graduate studies in the College of Technology. He is the Director of the Envision Center at Purdue. He currently is the co-pi on the NSF-funded TeraGrid project at Purdue University, serves on the Executive Steering Committee for the TeraGrid consortium of universities and national labs, and serves on the Open Science Grid (OSG) council.  He has authored numerous papers in journals and trade publications on engineering and computer graphics, computer-aided design, and visualization research.  He has authored and co-authored eight text books in the areas of computer-aided design and engineering design graphics.

Samantha Blackmon, associate professor in English. She focuses on rhetoric, digital media, and their intersections and serves on an interdisciplinary university gaming committee working on curriculum and research initiatives. She has published on race and gaming, race and technology, and technology and pedagogy.

David Blakesley, Director of Professional Writing, Professor of English; publisher, Parlor Press. His research interests are in digital media and publishing, multimedia composition, professional writing, visual rhetoric, and film. At Purdue, he has helped launch the Second Life project and is a Co-PI with William Watson and Michael Witt on a Discovery Learning Center Seed Grant to establish the "Purdue Center for Serious Games and Learning in Virtual Environments."

Sean Brophy, assistant professor of engineering education. He has developed interactive simulations and visualizations to support learners' conceptual understanding of complex systems.  His research strives to integrate these tools into formal learning environments that support the co-development of innovative thinking, conceptual understanding and personal development in the context of solving interesting challenges. He believes that serious gaming provides a new frontier for the next generation of effective learning environments that promote learning with understanding.

Dan DeLaurentis, assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics. His research extends to the study of new modes of learning for students who will be faced with these complex challenges in the future, exemplified by the development of a Serious Game version of a collaborative design course.

Jeff Gilger, associate dean at College of Ed

Christoph M. Hoffmann, Professor, Department of Computer Science. In Spring of 2006 he taught a course on serious games for computer science using Microsoft's XNA development environment (see courses page).  The course was open to undergraduates and graduates.

Scott Robert Homan, Professor, Department of Organizational Leadership and Supervision.

Soren Matei, associate professor communication - designing a virtual roman forum. My research interests include the role of communication technology in shaping the socio-spatial dimension of human communities and the social and technical aspects of media production. With my students and collaborators I study the cognitive and social impact of location aware applications and of collaborative wiki spaces.

Carlos Morales, associate professor of computer graphics technology. His research interests include integration of digital video, animation and interactive technology for visual training solutions.

Tim Newby, professor of curriculum and instruction.

Voicu Popescu, associate professor of computer science.

Mete Sozen, kettelhut distinguished prof civil engineering

Johannes Strobel, assistant professor of engineering education and curriculum & instruction (educational technology).

• Designed & Developed interactive games for the United Nations Environment Program - Convention on Biodiversity Biokids
• Designed simulations for commercial clients in the telecommunications and advanced manufacturing area
• Working on an Engineering 2020 grant (2008 -2009) with the title: "Students' Attitudes and Threshold Concepts Towards Engineering as an Environmental Career: Research by Participatory Design of an Educational Game". In this grant, participatory game design is utilized as a knowledge/attitude elicitation method. The prototype of the game will be utilized in ENGR 100 (~1600 students) and in classes in the Division of Environmental and Ecological Engineering (DEEE) at Purdue.
• Additional research on design identities of users in Second Life (SURF research project). Key personnel is Conrad Hawkins, physics major at Purdue University.
• Additional research on security/risk assessment of virtual environments (worlds and games) by faculty and administrators of educational institutions (in collaboration with Fariborz Farahmand, CERIAS)
  Research interests are threshold concepts, conceptual change and the cyber-enabled support of deep learning of complex/dynamic/ill-structured domains and the creation of open-ended problem-based learning environments.

John Sundquist, associate professor of foreign languages and literatures. Sundquist plans to create a virtual German-language learning environment with his TLT development grant.

Beverly Davenport Sypher, professor of communication and provost. The Discovery Learning Center interim director, she is a proponent of using serious games and various forms of digital media to enhance learning in an increasingly interactive world.

Phillip VanFossen, James F. Ackerman Professor of Social Studies Education, Curriculum and Instruction; he is currently exploring the potential of synthetic worlds (esp. MMORPGs) for K-12 civic and economic education, currently engaged in a study of leadership skills and civic engagement of guild leaders in WoW, he is co-author of chapter on MMORPGs and K-12 social studies education in the recent Handbook of Research on Effective Electronic Gaming in Education.

Carrie Wachter, assistant professor of educational studies. Wachter is conducting a study on the recognition of suicide behavior in students. Her work with the IDC will attempt to meet students' training needs through serious games.

William Watson, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction. Along with education majors in his educational technology class, Watson will design a virtual learning environment with his TLT development grant. His research interests include advanced technologies for information age instruction, with a focus on the design of educational video games, and systemic change in education.

Gabriela Weaver, associate professor chemistry/curriculum and instruction

Faculty Affiliated with the Envision Center
Steering Committee of the Envision Center
Research Interests and Projects Associated with the Envision Center

Purdue Staff & Graduate Students:

Laura Arns,  Associate Director of the Envision Center. Working on a variety of projects involving virtual environments.

Jeff Crites, a masters student in Technology with a BS in Leadership from Purdue, Jeff's Virtual Leadership Skills thesis focuses on the unique skills leaders need in virtual environments. Jeff holds virtual office hours in Lively and regularly conducts student exercises in other virtual environments including Second Life (Avatar name: Kreitz Kamachi) and World of Warcraft.

Other staff at the Envision Center

Robert Evans, Director, Office of Information Technology, College of Education

Rob French, Educational Technologist.

Lorraine Kisselburgh, a doctoral student in the Department of Communication. Some of her current research examines cross-cultural and gender differences in how young girls construct science and engineering careers, and gender preferences for competitive and collaborative environments in games-based learning.

Timothy Rogers, a doctoral student in Technology who also works in the Envision Center. With a BA in Theater and an MS in Technology from Purdue, TJ's focus is on the design and creation of innovative learning spaces of the future.

Other Students at the Envision Center