TEDxUniPittsburgh

Speakers

May 8, 2010 – CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center

---

SURPRISE SPEAKER!

Mr. McFeely (David Newell)

When David Newell appears on MISTER ROGERS’ NEIGHBORHOOD, he plays Mr. McFeely, the elderly Neighbor who runs a speedy delivery service.

Even though Mr. McFeely’s busy schedule may include a delivery by kayak or returning a llama to the zoo, he always has time for his familiar “Speedy Delivery” greeting! Visiting Mr. McFeely often leads to viewing a movie from his extensive film collection—you might see anything from a hot-air balloon ride to a flashback to when he was young.

Away from the character make-up, David Newell assumes many behind the scenes responsibilities for MISTER ROGERS’ NEIGHBORHOOD. Having been with the series since its inception in 1967, he has been Properties Manager, Associate Producer and now is Director of Public Relations for Family Communications, producers of MISTER ROGERS’ NEIGHBORHOOD.

David’s background includes a wide-ranging involvement in theater arts as an actor, technician, stage manager and administrator. A native of Pittsburgh, he has worked with the Pittsburgh Playhouse, The Civic Light Opera Company and The Little Lake Arena Theater. He has also been involved in theater productions in Los Angeles and Honolulu.

David received his certification in Theater Arts from the Pittsburgh Playhouse and a B.A. degree in English Literature from the University of Pittsburgh. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Nan, and has three children, Carrie, Taylor and Alexander.

---

Attack Theatre

Attack Theatre combines contemporary dance, live music and multimedia to create “wickedly entertaining stage productions ” (Pittsburgh City Paper). Attack Theatre has performed for the Avignon Festival, the 7th Next Wave Dance Festival/Japan, Indonesia Arts Festival, Monaco Danses Forum, the Spoleto Festival and the Broadway production of Squonk, and over two dozen operas and symphonies worldwide. Known for their “audacious athleticism,” (Dance Magazine), Attack Theatre was named one of “25 to Watch” in 2007 by Dance Magazine, “Best Dance of 2006” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), “Best Dance Company” (Pittsburgh City Paper, ’07, ’08, ‘09) and was the recipient of the prestigious National Dance Project Touring Award for 06-07. In addition to their extensive performing and touring, Attack Theatre also conducts residencies in contemporary dance, creative movement and aesthetic education in universities, primary and secondary schools, arts festivals and community centers. The company’s outreach programs focus on demystifying the artistic process and building community. www.attacktheatre.com

Joining us at TEDxUniPittsburgh were:
Liz Chang
Michele de la Reza
Dane Toney

---

DINKS one-act play

Gregory Lehane actor

Gregory Lehane has acted, directed, and taught in the US, Canada, England, Cairo, Moscow, and Paris. He was a founding member of Primary Stages Company in New York City, and has received two Emmy nominations for Directing excellence. Most recently he directed THE MIKADO at the Carnegie Mellon School of Music. He appeared in Tammy Ryan’s new play DINKS for the Swan Festival. He teaches in the CMU Schools of Drama and Music, and holds the rank of Professor.

Mary Rawson actor

Mary Rawson is happy to be part of Tammy Ryan’s DINKS. Recently for Playhouse Rep she played Eloise in Amy Hartman’s Chicken Snake and Gramma Molly in Tammy Ryan’s FBI Girl. She has performed for Quantum Theatre, PICT, and City Theatre and done readings at The Public. But her all time favorite role is Cousin Mary on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.

Marci Woodruff director

Marci Woodruff has directed over 200 professional and academic productions in the United States, Europe and Japan. She is the Founder and former Producing Director of THE PUBLIC THEATRE OF KENTUCKY, a professional theatre company now in it’s 23rd season. Woodruff has been on the theatre faculties of the University of Pittsburgh, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, American University of Paris, the Institute of European Studies in Vienna, Austria and the University of Salzburg in Austria. She resides, very proudly, in Pittsburgh and works as a professional theatre director, consultant and acting coach.

Tammy Ryan playwright

Tammy Ryan’s plays have been produced across the country and developed at The New Harmony Project, Premiere Stages, Philadelphia Theater Company, City Theater, The Bonderman and the Lark. Honors include the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s Creative Achievement Award, The Heinz Endowment’s Creative Heights Grant, and AATE’s Distinguished Play Award for THE MUSIC LESSON. Her play, LOST BOY FOUND IN WHOLE FOODS was presented at the National New Play Network’s 2009 National Showcase of Plays. Ryan is currently working on a commission for International Culture Lab in collaboration with Turkish playwright Zeynep Kacar, entitled SHE to be performed in New York and Istanbul in 2011. For more information go to www.tammyryan.net.

---

Andrew Hosmer

Andrew is currently a Faculty member of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh’s Entertainment Design Program. There he teaches everything from Creature/ Character design, Special effects make-up, some Solidworks and ZBrush here and there, all the way through to animatronic puppets and robotics.

He has been a freelance designer for the past 12 years, worked for Walt Disney Imagineering, and displayed at Emerging Technologies, SIGGRAPH 2005. After attending the Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center, he cofounded Interbots with members of his project team. Interbots is currently developing a new toy that could very possibly take over the WORLD….with fun and laughter.

---

Marek Michalowski

Marek Michalowski is a roboticist who develops interactive robotic characters for entertainment, therapy, art, and research. His work with the robot Keepon focuses on rhythmic and nonverbal social interaction. Michalowski holds a Ph.D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University and B.A. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science and Psychology from Yale University. He is the co-founder of BeatBots LLC (http://beatbots.net) and has held visiting researcher positions at institutions in Japan (ATR, NICT), Korea (KAIST), and France (CNRS).

---

Jesse Schell

Prior to launching Schell Games in 2002 Jesse was the Creative Director at Disney Imagineering Studio where he worked for seven years as a designer, programmer and manager. He has helped develop interactive theme park attractions (Disney’s Toy Story Mania and The Sum of All Thrills), as well as mass market MMOs (Pixie Hollow and Toontown Online).

Jesse currently holds a faculty position as Professor at the Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center where he teaches classes in Game Design. Jesse also recently authored the critically acclaimed book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses.

---

Daniel Szecket

Daniel is a CG industry veteran, starting at Alias Research in Toronto over 15 years ago. In 1994, Daniel worked in Mexico creating interactive children’s museum exhibits. In 1996, he worked with The Royal Ontario Museum to create The Maiasaur Project, an interactive exhibit exploring the life of a fossilized dinosaur. In 1997, Daniel was hired by Disney Feature Animation to work on their first ever fully animated feature, “Dinosaur.”
After becoming a father, Daniel returned to the comforts of a steady paycheck as a character modeler at Dreamworks, where he did some lighting and character rigging as well. While at Magritte’s Cow and Dreamworks, Daniel taught at Gnomon School of Visual Design and at Art Center in Pasadena.After Disney, and a short bout at Gentle Giant Studios, where Daniel developed a 3D pipeline for posing/printing/approving and cataloging branded characters for toy production, Daniel started Magritte’s Cow, an interaction design company with clients such as Siggraph Emerging technologies, Side Effects Software (creators of Houdini) and Macromedia Shockwave, to name a few.

The final leg of his journey before MAYA was at ATI Research Inc. where he was a Senior Artist in ATI’s 3D Application Research Group. There Daniel collaborated with graphics engineers to create visually complex and compelling real-time demos for next-generation graphics hardware platforms.

Daniel is well travelled and has lived in many countries, cultures and languages. His passion is unleashing creativity and seamless storytelling.

---

J.D. Whitewolf

David came to the ETC in August, 2009, from the Human Engineering Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh, where he consulted with PhD. and Masters students and designed and built devices for research in assistive technologies. Prior to this, he worked for the Science Museums of Virginia designing and developing autonomous scaled vehicles. For the past 24 years he has been a production designer for theatre and has a B.S. in ‘Production Design and Technology’ from Webster University. He has worked for Anheuser Busch Creative Services, Duke University, The University of Oklahoma, and dozens and dozens of other theatre, dance, and industrial production companies. David has designed lighting and scenery for nearly 200 productions and has worked in all aspects of the theatre. As a founding member of the African American Repertory Theatre, he worked with D. S. Smith to develop working methods which helped break down the barriers between design, direction, and resources. Away from live production, David has also worked in audio and video production, creating in-house projects ranging from commercials and training videos to live event broadcast and capture. He’s spent a lot of time studying the spaces that we all work in, and has put that study into practice as a theatre consultant, space planner and builder.

David’s interests include creating and performing music, combining art and technology, and making the world a better place by sharing. His wife, Elizabeth, is his best friend, as are his two girls, Emilie and Madeleine.

---

The Yume Project

Yume is the Japanese word for “dream.” The goal of The Yume Project is to bring an engaging personality to the Actroid DER-1 humanoid robot through the development of software and character. Working with Kokoro Robotics, creators of the Actroid, The Yume Project will develop an intuitive user interface that allows animators to quickly develop performances for the Actroid. In addition to software development, the team will look at what it takes to bring a robot to life through personality. By using traditional character development techniques, the team will transform a mechanical DER-1 robot into a memorable living character named Yume. Through user testing and Maya integration, The Yume Project will develop interactions that excite, surprise and delight audiences of all ages, making Yume a reality.

---

Michael Capristo our event host

Michael graduated from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study where he took classes at both Tische School of the Arts and The College of Arts and Science. The interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of the ETC drew Michael to Carnegie Mellon. He looks forward to applying the methods he learns here toward the development of narrative experiences and casual games.

---

---

---

December 5, 2009 – University of Pittsburgh

---

Lionel Levine – Crowd-Sourcing Entrepreneur

Amy Scarborough – Computational Ecologist

Rob Gradoville – Developing World Engineer

Kayleigh Cornell – Spiritual Environmentalist

Molly Sauter – Media Rights Aficionado

Alexander Dale – Sustainability Synthesist