RAINBOW AGENTS - Key Persons
Adam is an NSF Fellow and UW-Madison Graduate School Fellow whose dissertation research is focused on the design of science-based games to support the study of situated epistemic cognition. He has also contributed to a number of projects in GLS and CPL, including CPL's Oztoc game at the New York Hall of Science. Adam has worked as a professional game developer for over a decade, and is currently a software developer for Unity Technologies in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Alexi Brooks is a PhD alum from the Computer Sciences department at UW-Madison. His interests include the application of game theory and game design to the structure and ethics of computer science education. He received a BA in Russian and Computer Science from Grinnell College in 2010, and an MS in Computer Science from UW-Madison in 2015.
Mrs. Jordan-Douglass is currently a PhD student in Curriculum & Instruction, Digital Media at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before moving to Wisconsin, she was the VP of Interactive at The Jim Henson Company in Los Angeles where she produced games, apps and websites for shows like Dinosaur Train, Sid the Science Kid and Doozers. She is passionate about kids media, and her current research is focused on what kids can learn about technology and media through their own production of it, as a way to express creativity and improve technical literacy and know-how.
With a focus on educational data mining for her PhD, Aybuke is interested in finding new ways of Personalized Learning. Before joining to UW Madison, Aybuke worked as an User Experience and Instructional designer in NYC. She is graduated from the Master's degree program in Digital Media Design for Learning at NYU. With a concentration in Games for Learning, she has created digital media for learning, including physical and digital games, mobile apps, websites and tangible interfaces. Her goal is to make learning addictive, adaptive and personalized. Her favorite quote is "In God we trust; all others must bring data."
Caroline Hardin is a PhD alum from UW-Madison that studies how to increase diversity in Computer Science Education. She is interested in open civic data, e-textiles, hackerspaces and the educational culture of hackers. She was the 2016 Co-Chair of the Games+Learning+Society Conference, and is the Director of the MadHacks student hackathon group. Before coming to the Complex Play Lab, she spent 3 years in the Peace Corps (Ghana) teaching computer literacy and developing educational technology tools. She has her bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Master's Degree in Digital Media from UW Madison, where her Master's thesis studied how people on the Reddit/r/learnprogramming and the StackOverflow communities link to and discuss online educational resources, such as moocs and self-guided tutorials. In her free time she is an award-winning costumer.
Cole Nelson is a PhD student studying cybersecurity education at UW-Madison. He has a bachelor's degree from UW-Platteville.
Craig is a doctoral student in digital media studying how games create and maintain engagement. A life-long gamer and learner, he aims to make his career researching, teaching on, and playing these delightful media.
Job Titles:
- Technical Director at USC
Dennis Ramirez is the technical director at USC, an award winning educational game designer, and doctoral candidate in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dennis is interested in how videogames are used in, and out, of the classroom to support learning. His main area of research focuses on how failure impacts learning, especially in games. Prior to attending UW-Madison, Dennis received his MA in Learning Design and technology from Stanford University and an Honors BS in Computer Science from the University of New Mexico with an emphasis on Machine Learning.
Isaac Sung is a PhD alum from the Computer Sciences department at UW-Madison. His main interests include computer science education, video games and learning, and education technology. He obtained his Bachelor's in Computer Science at the University of Oklahoma in 2014 before moving to Madison.
John Binzak is an alum from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He pursued his PhD in Educational Psychology with a focus in curriculum and instruction. From brains to games, his research focuses on the role of digital and physical active experiences in the development of formalized and abstract knowledge in STEM education. Furthermore, his work explores how informal educational experiences, such as video games, promote engagement and interest in STEM content. Through an educational neuroscience approach, he integrates qualitative and quantitative methods to better understand the relationship between learning and the underlying neural mechanisms. Ultimately, his goal is to incorporate empirical understanding of STEM education into the instructional design of formal and digital educational experiences.
Job Titles:
- Learning Research Scientist With the App Inventor Team at MIT 's Center for Mobile Learning
Mike Tissenbaum is a learning research scientist with the App Inventor team at MIT's Center for Mobile Learning. Mike's research, which focuses on collaborative learning and knowledge communities, aims to understand how children develop STEM and computational literacies when engaged in technology-enhanced learning. More broadly, Mike's work focuses on how to design transformational learning environments that combine interactive physical spaces, digital information, and collaboration between learners to envision the future of learning both in and out of schools. In this work, Mike has developed immersive technology-rich learning environments in which students have taken on the role of animals that need to physically explore their habitat for food; acted as engineers to help biologists discover new forms of aquatic life; and collectively explored the physics of hollywood movies. Mike's work has gained recognition internationally, receiving awards both for his academic research and museum exhibit design.
Vishesh Kumar is aan alum of the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He joined the program after completing a Bachelor's in Design from the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati. Vishesh studies game based learning, and other constructionist learning environments including museum exhibits, and makerspaces. His current work involves using design-based research methods and learning analytics to shed light on how people collaborate, and how collaborations and interpersonal connections can be meaningfully improved in constructionist environments.