Official Bio:

Noriko Tomuro is an Associate Professor at CDM’s School of Computing. While she teaches and conducts research on Artificial Intelligence (an area of Computer Science), Noriko has also been involved in collaborative game development projects between DePaul and Japanese gaming schools.

Shiro Akiyoshi is an Associate Professor at CDM’s School of Cinema and Interactive Media. He obtained his M.F.A. in Visual Communication from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is a graphic designer and artist. He has been a freelance designer since 1995, and has worked on various design projects for international corporations, non-profit organizations, academic institutions, art galleries, and artists. His art and design work has been exhibited in Japan as well as the United States. His current research projects involve digital imaging, illustration, and montage, combining digital and traditional Japanese image making processes.

Brian Schrank received his BFA in Computer Animation summa cum laude from the Atlanta College of Art in 2003, and was a character animator on "The Urbz: Sims in the City" at Electronic Arts. He earned a Masters of Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon University and presented his thesis, "Kotodama: The Power of Words", at the Game Developers Conference in 2005. He completed his Ph.D. in Digital Media and Videogames at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2010 and is currently writing a book for MIT Press, "Avant-garde Videogames: Playing with Technoculture."