Staff
Rob Lindeman
Director | Professor | AIGI Researcher
Heide Lukosch
Associate Professor | AIGI Lead
Stephan Lukosch
Professor | Graduate Research Coordinator | AIGI Researcher
Rory Clifford
Postdoctoral Fellow
Kris Tong
Postdoctoral Fellow
Chris Buyarski
Centre Manager
Karen Anderson
Administrator
Ryan McKee
Game Developer | IT Manager
Shunsuke Fukuden
Game and Digital Artist
Eri
Visiting Scholar
Affiliated Staff
Adrian Clark
Associate Professor| Head of School of Product Design
Simon Hoermann
Associate Professor | AIGI Researcher
Thammathip Piumsomboon
Senior Lecturer | AIGI Researcher
Tom Furness
HIT Labs Founder
Mark Billinghurst
Adjunct Professor
Students
Meike Belter
PhD
Zoe Platt-Young
PhD
Tim McKenzie
PhD
Bryann Avendano
PhD
Mac Greenslade
PhD
Zoe Hector
PhD
Dilshani Kumarapeli
PhD
Misha Mirza
PhD
Jack Topliss
Phd
Luke de Schot
PhD
Kelly Yao Lu
PhD
Steve Wheeler
PhD
Yasas Sri Wickramasinghe
PhD
Kieron Wall
PhD
Azar Nadi
PhD
Sylvain Moisset
Masters
Vijay Rajan
Masters
David Turton
Masters
Alex Hobson
Masters
David Aguilar
Masters
Ellie Adams
Masters
Yuming Feng
Masters
James McNeill
Masters
Felipe Figueroa Flores
Masters
Kyle Yin
Masters
Amali Seneviratne
Masters
Ren Ren
Masters
Marko Ritter
Masters
Alex Zhao
Masters
James Lopes
Masters
Josh Egan
Interns
Matteo Brennan
Interns
Rob Lindeman
Director | Professor | Academic Staff
VR | 3D User Interaction | Game Design and Development | 360-degree Video | Cultural VR | Antarctic Engineering
Courses taught: HITD602 Design and Evaluation, HITD603 Prototyping and Projects, PROD121 The Game Design Process, DATA475 Mixed Reality. Lots of CS and Game Development courses before joining UC.
Come see Rob with questions about: Any of my research topics, or anything else you would like to discuss!
More about Rob: Originally from the US, Rob lived in Germany for six years, and has spent a significant amount of time in Japan. He likes outdoor activities such as skiing and mountain biking. He can often be found playing board and video games, possibly while enjoying some of Aotearoa New Zealand’s excellent craft beers.
Heide Lukosch
Associate Professor | AIGI Lead
heide.lukosch@canterbury.ac.nz
Applied Immersive Gaming | Virtual Training | Educational Games | Games for Disaster Management and Communication | Fidelity
Courses taught: HITD602 Design and Evaluation, HITD603 Prototyping and Projects, PROD221 Game Design in Context, PROD322 Gaming Project Studio 2
Come see Heide with questions about: Applied immersive gaming initiative, Immersive game design and research, Mixed methods research design, Inclusive research, Confidential (study) advice
More about Heide: Heide has designed over 20 analogue and digital applied games for research and learning, and is driven by her interest in understanding design principles of games to have an impact on people, organizations, and society. She is chair of the International Simulation and Gaming Association, and associated editor of the Simulation & Gaming Journal. Heide is a dedicated player of board and digital games. She is also a gardener, reader, yogi, and mother of two children. She enjoys living with her family in the South of Christchurch from where she commutes by eBike to the HIT Lab NZ.
Stephan Lukosch
Professor | Graduate Research Coordinator
stephan.lukosch@canterbury.ac.nz
AR | VR | Mixed Reality | Game Design | Mobile & Ubiquitous Computing | Design Patterns | UX | Computer-Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) | Human-Computer Interaction
Courses taught: HITD602 Design and Evaluation, HITD603 Prototyping and Projects, HITD690 Thesis in Human Interface Technology, COSC477 Mixed Reality, SSCI403 Innovation in Sport Science
Come see Stephan with questions about: Research projects, degree planning and thesis supervision
More about Stephan: My current research focuses on human augmentation to enhance our capabilities. In order to create a design framework for developers, designers and future users, I explore human augmentation in different domains such as sports, health, safety, security, and engineering. My work includes the evaluation of human factors on acceptance, engagement and experience of human augmentation. In my research, I build on my earlier work on intelligent and context-adaptive collaboration support, collaborative storytelling for knowledge elicitation and decision-making, and design patterns for computer-mediated interaction.
Chris Buyarski
Centre Manager
chris.buyarski@canterbury.ac.nz
Information: Chris manages the day-to-day operations of the HIT Lab NZ. He also oversees the finances and is responsible for the overall organisation and well-being of the lab.
Come see Chris with questions about: All topics, day-to-day stuff, health and safety, purchasing approvals, travel and general life questions.
More about Chris: Chris was born in Wisconsin in the US on a small dairy farm. He has two masters’ degrees (MBA and MS in biology). Prior to joining the HIT Lab NZ, Chris worked for over 10 years as a scientist and lab manager at the University of Minnesota. In his spare time he likes to bike, hike, hangout on the beach, and play with his dog Larry.
Ryan McKee
Games Programmer | IT Manager
Information: Software, lab hardware, general IT support.
Come see Ryan with questions about: Unity/Unreal development, hardware and software, game design, UX, 3D art and modelling, 3D printing, VR/AR, and IT troubleshooting.
More about Ryan: I am from Virginia, USA and have lived in NZ since 2007. I like cars, cats and game development. I solo developed two games on Steam – Vector36 and Animosity.
Adrian Clark
Senior Lecturer | AIGI Researcher
Adrian completed his PhD in Computer Science at the HIT Lab NZ in 2009, where he developed a robust natural feature registration framework called OPIRA Optical-flow Perspective Invariant Registration Augmentation.
Adrian’s research interests include Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. He also enjoys teaching, and has tutored a range of Computer Science courses ranging from Introduction to Programming, to Networking, to Advanced Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence.
Adrian was born in Christchurch, but spent his childhood in Papua New Guinea. He is a keen sportsman, and is particularly fond of indoor netball, karate and sea kayaking. He also enjoys trying all things motorsport, be it cars, motorbikes, jet skis, or gas powered skateboards.