Wednesday, May 22nd, 2019

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Session II: Haas Conference Center, Room 172-173

AR-VR-MR Science & Technology – Disrupting Wellness - Healthcare - Sports

Albert “Skip” Rizzo, Director for Medical Virtual Reality, Institute for Creative Technologies

Newton Lee, Author/Editor, #1 New Release in Preventive Medicine: "The Transhumanism Handbook"

Vanessa Camones, Venture Principal, West Coast, TechWildcatters

Dorote Weyers-Lucci, Lab manager ITP Foundation, Assistant professor Sofia U

Mary Poffenroth, STEM Faculty Lecturer, San Jose State University

Jerri Lynn Hogg PhD., Director, Media Psychology Graduate Program, Fielding Graduate University, Moderator

Albert "Skip" Rizzo. Director for Medical Virtual Reality, Institute for Creative Technologies, USC: Psychologist Skip Rizzo conducts research on the design, development and evaluation of virtual reality (VR) systems targeting the areas of clinical assessment, treatment rehabilitation and resilience. This work spans the domains of psychological, cognitive and motor functioning in both healthy and clinical populations. Rizzo, whose work using virtual reality-based exposure therapy to treat PTSD received the American Psychological Association’s 2010 Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Treatment of Trauma, is the associate director for medical virtual reality at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies. He also holds research professor appointments with the USC

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and at the USC Davis School of Gerontology. Rizzo is working with a team that is creating artificially intelligent virtual patients that clinicians can use to practice skills required for challenging clinical interviews and diagnostic assessments. His cognitive work has addressed the use of VR applications to test and train attention, memory, visuospatial abilities and executive function. In the motor domain, he has developed VR game systems to address physical rehabilitation post stroke and traumatic brain injury and for prosthetic use training. He is currently designing VR scenarios to address social and vocational interaction in persons with autistic spectrum disorder. Rizzo is currently examining the use of VR applications for training emotional coping skills with the aim of preparing service members for the stresses of combat. He is senior editor of the MIT Press journal, Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments. He also sits on a number of editorial boards for journals in the areas of cognition and computer technology (Cognitive Technology; Journal of Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds; Media Psychology) and is the creator of the Virtual Reality Mental Health Email Listserve (VRPSYCH).

Jerri Lynn Hogg is a media psychologist, director of the Media Psychology program at Fielding Graduate University, 2015 President of the American Psychological Association’s Society for Media Psychology and Technology, co-creator of Fielding’s Certificate in Brand Psychology and Audience Engagement , and co-author of Mad Men Unzipped. She integrates her passion for branding, augmented/virtual reality, technology, and digital environments with research to advance the understanding of the positive use of media and technologies and their physical, cognitive, and emotional impact. Dr. Hogg is a coveted industry speaker and with over 50 scholarly presentations on media psychology, is a pioneer in the field of Media Psychology.  She recently spent six months working with the U.S. Department of Defense Global Operations on an anti-terrorism simulation using narrative psychology to degrade and counter terrorist messaging in Iraq, Syria, and North Africa. Her current focus is on brand psychology strategies; augmented environment design solutions; and narrative messaging for positive change. She was recently a judge for the annual SoMe Awards (Social Media). You can find her on Twitter @HoggJL. She also authors a blog forPsychologyToday.com called “The Digital Life.”

Mary Poffenroth, STEM Faculty Lecturer, San Jose State University: Mary Poffenroth is biology faculty at San Jose State University where she has been creating innovations in digital higher education since 2007. As a PhD student in media psychology at Fielding Graduate University, she is currently researching the ability for AR to increase student engagement and content retention for the non-major science undergraduate. She began her research career in astrophysiology at NASA Ames Research Center Moffet Field before teaching over 20,000 university students both in person and online. In addition to contributing to Science magazine, Forbes, TEDx and SXSW, she advises growth driven organizations on how to use science to transform their relationship with fear and creativity to improve strategic decision making, produce innovative solutions, and cultivate more authentic communications.

Dorote Weyers-Lucci, ITP Foundation, Assistant professor Sofia U: Dorote Weyers-Lucci is a research lab manager, assistant professor and Mindfulness coach focused on behavioral transformation to increase quality of life using immersive experiences. Dorote started designing digital tools and mobile VR experiences for habit change in 2013. She has two VR apps on the stores that are used for coaching and research at Corereboot LLC. Currently, she is finishing her Phd in Psychology and cognitive neuroscience at ITP@Sofia U in the area of existential anxiety mitigation through immersive approaches.

Vanessa Camones, Venture Principal, West Coast, TechWildcatters: Vanessa is a veteran marketing and communication executive based in Silicon Valley turned Venture Capitalist. She’s worked with some of the largest tech companies, including Pixar, Cisco and Samsung. Her first communications firm, theMIX agency (founded in 2007), helped launch countless successful startups based in the Bay Area, across the US, and internationally from Beijing and Tokyo to Oslo and Berlin. Under her counsel and guidance, many have went on to build successful marketing programs and attract new funding/acquisition offers, including Geoloqi (acquired by Esri), SendGrid (now a public company) Podio (acquired by Citrix), and Appcelerator (acquired by Axway and now among the largest developer ecosystems for mobile). Most recently, Vanessa and her marketing consultancy, AnyContext (founded in 2016), spearheaded the launch of Creator, the automated gourmet burger restaurant that’s been widely covered in major media outlets including Wired, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg, the US launch of Japan-based shopping app Mercari (now with 37 million+ American downloads and valued at over $1 billion), and Blind, the anonymous messaging app for tech company employees that’s become incredibly influential in the tech world, according to TechCrunch. She is leading the west coast expansion of Dallas based accelerator, Tech Wildcatters, where she will be managing deal flow, partnerships and working with early stage startups in AI/Robotics, Consumer and Entertainment.

Newton Lee is the author and editor of the 858-page "The Transhumanism Handbook" (Springer, 2019) which has reached the #1 New Release in Preventive Medicine. Transhumanism promotes science and technology that disrupt wellness and healthcare in a fundamental way. Lee is the chairman of the California Transhumanist Party, education and media advisor to the United States Transhumanist Party, and president of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Institute for Education, Research, and Scholarships that promotes using AR/VR/MR in mental healthcare. Lee graduated Summa Cum Laude from Virginia Tech with a B.S. and M.S. degree in Computer Science (specializing in Artificial Intelligence), and he earned a perfect GPA from Vincennes University with an A.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and an honorary doctorate in Computer Science.