Staff
Rob Lindeman
Director | Professor | AIGI Researcher
Heide Lukosch
Associate Professor | AIGI Lead
Stephan Lukosch
Professor (On sabbatical until August 31, 2025)
Susanne Schmidt
Lecturer | A/g Graduate Research Coordinator
Donald Degraen
Lecturer
Samara Morrison
Postdoctoral Fellow
Kris Tong
Postdoctoral Fellow
Misha Mirza
Postdoctoral Fellow
Chris Buyarski
Centre Manager
Ryan McKee
Game Developer | IT Manager
Karen Anderson
Administrator
Rodrigo Dias Takase
Game Developer
Shunsuke Fukuden
Game and Digital Artist
Affiliated Staff
Adrian Clark
Associate Dean (Research) | Faculty of Engineering
Simon Hoermann
Associate Professor | AIGI Researcher
Thammathip Piumsomboon
Associate Professor | AIGI Researcher
Tom Furness
HIT Labs Founder
Mark Billinghurst
Adjunct Professor
Visitors
Sylvain Moisset
Visiting Scholar
Tim McKenzie
Visiting Scholar
Eike Langbehn
Visiting Scholar
PhD Students
Zoe Platt-Young
Mac Greenslade
Luke de Schot
Zoe Hector
Yasas Sri Wickramasinghe
Kieron Wall
Jack Topliss
Upulanka Premasiri
Hēmi Ateremu McNeill
James Nikitine
Marko Ritter
Qinyang Wu
Tanvir Hossain
Xiaoyu (Jade) Wang
Xiaoding Zhou
Bohan Wang
Jiaxuan (Jackson) Ling
Xinyi Ye
Master of Human Interface Technology (MHIT) Students
Nick Harding
Ziyang Zhang
Jonathan Ross
Yutong Jin (Richie Kim)
Finlay Cross
Gabrielle Rosemergy
Shiyu (Angela) Lyu
Saumya Chanana
Interns
Manaiki Laut
Ulrike (Rika) Kulzer
Tobias Paull
Emma Davis
Pierre Parfouru
Florent Monange
Xavier Pommies
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
Chris manages the day-to-day operations and finances of the HIT Lab NZ. He is responsible for the overall organisation and well-being of the lab.
Chris was born on a small dairy farm in Wisconsin, USA. Prior to joining the HIT Lab NZ, Chris worked for over 10 years as a scientist and lab manager at the University of Minnesota. He has two master’s degrees, MBA and MS in Biology, ideal for bridging the gap between research and business activities.
In his spare time he likes to bike, hike, hangout on the beach, and play with his dog Larry.
Ryan McKee
Games Developer | IT Manager
Ryan manages the lab’s software and hardware needs, and provides support for both specialist and general IT issues.
He has specialist skills in Unity and Unreal development, game design, UX, 3D art and modelling, 3D printing, and VR/AR.
Ryan is originally from Virginia, USA and has lived in NZ since 2007. He likes cars, cats and game development. He has 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.