Christoph Bartneck

Associate Professor  |  Director of PG Studies

christoph.bartneck@canterbury.ac.nz

Human robot interaction | Visual design | Information visualisation | Science and technology studies | Philosophy

PhD students: Merel Keijsers and Dwain Allen

Courses taught: HITD602 – Human Interface Technology – Design and Evaluation, HITD690 – Thesis in Human Interface Technology, HITD790 – Human Interface Technology PhD, DATA476 – Information is Beautiful

Come see Christoph with questions about: Quality, uncertainty, life, the universe and everything, LEGO and how to fail at nearly everything.

Heide Lukosch

AIGI Lead  |  Associate Professor

heide.lukosch@canterbury.ac.nz

Applied Gaming | Virtual Training | Educational Gaming | Games for Disaster Management and Communication

PhD students: Meike Belter

Courses taught: 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 board member 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

stephan.lukosch@canterbury.ac.nz

 AR | VR | Game design | Mobile & Ubiquitous Computing | Design patterns | UX | Computer-Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) | Human-Computer Interaction

Courses taught: DATA475: Mixed Reality, PROD121: The Game Development Process, PROD223: Immersive Game Design, 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 upon 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.

Andy Phelps

  Professor

Gaming | Digital Art

Courses taught: I ‘teach into’ courses in product design on topics like game history and game production. If you want an overview of the kinds of things I have taught in other places and the kinds of degrees I have built and my curricular work, see: https://andyworld.io/teaching.html

Come see Andy with questions about: Game design, game development, computer art, VR/AR in web-based environments, streaming and more. Check out his website to learn about many of his interests and see his recent writings and talks (hint: if these interest you, go talk to him). Most importantly, see him if you are engaged with or interested in the Applied Immersive Gaming Initiative (AIGI).

More about Andy: Andy maintains a professional website with his bio, CV, recent talks and publications, artwork, games and little bits of weird trivia and experiments at https://andyworld.io/

Chris Buyarski

Center 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.

Mel Eade

Administrator

Information: Reception, account paperwork, organising events, travel bookings, student and staff support, purchasing, and general queries.

Come see Mel with questions about: Anything! I enjoy helping people. I am often problem solving the curly questions, so please never hesitate to ask for help. I love to give advice on places to check out in NZ, as I love exploring and trying new things. I am happy to support newcomers to the lab, especially if they have questions about Christchurch and New Zealand. I can also help with English, communication, training or teaching others.

More about Mel: I grew up in Invercargill, so I have a distinct ‘rolling R’ that Southlanders are known for, despite having lived in Christchurch for a few years.  I love music, concerts & dancing!  My vinyl collection has been slowly growing over the last 5 years, since I ‘borrowed’ my Dad’s 30 year old record player and speakers. My husband and I are foodies, and love entertaining friends and family at our home, as well as trying out new restaurants.  I grew up playing PlayStation and PC games, so this helped me fit in quickly when I started at the HIT Lab NZ.  My favourite games being Crash Bandicoot, Tony Hawk & Need for Speed. 

Ryan Mckee

Games Programmer | Developer

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.

More about Ryan: I am from Virgina, 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.

Nawam Karki

Research Assistant

nawam.karki@canterbury.ac.nz

Sungchul Jung

PostDoc

sungchul.jung@canterbury.ac.nz

Sungchul is working with Rob and various students on VR projects.

Sungchul moved to Christchurch from Orlando, Florida, having graduated with his PhD from the University of Central Florida. He studied Virtual Reality, Computer Graphics and Vision, and Augmented Reality.

He’s originally from South Korea,and his parents still live there. However, like him, his two sisters have moved around the world.

Sungchul loves Korean, Japanese and other Asian cuisine. However, he’s said that first on his to-do list is to try kiwi fish & chips, as he didn’t get to try them when he last visited New Zealand 14 years ago. He is very excited to try it, and will be visiting the local chippie in the day or so!

Richard Li

Post Doc

Dr. Li, Chen Richard received his BSc in computer science and technology from Nanjing University in 2008, MSc and PhD in computer science from City University of Hong Kong in 2011 and 2018 respectively. He is currently working as postdoctoral fellow in HIT Lab NZ. He has developed many virtual reality applications for education, visual art, architecture design, and culture heritage preservation. He serves in the organization committees of the International Conference on Blended Learning and the International Symposium on Educational Technology. His research interests include interactive media, persuasive games, human-computer interface, computer graphics, and innovative technologies for education.

Neils de Ruiter

Post Doc |  Academic Staff

Niels is a Postdoctoral Fellow working on colour CT image reconstruction with the MARS project. His background is in Mechatronic and Bio-Engineering, specialising in medical imaging. His primary expertise ranges from visualisation, to image processing, to communications for medical data and images. Other professional interests include bionics, and prosthetics.

Other hobbies and interests include soccer, badminton, hiking, and cooking.

Adrian Clark

Senior Lecturer|  AIGI Researcher

 adrian.clark@canterbury.ac.nz

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 Artifical 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, jetskis, or gas powered skateboards.

Simon Hoermann

Research Scientist  |  Academic Staff

simon.hoermann@canterbury.ac.nz

Thammathip Piumsomboon

Lecturer | AIGI Researcher

tham.piumsomboon@canterbury.ac.nz