Andres Burbano (Colombia, 1972) is a media artist and academic, currently Associate Professor at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. Burbano holds a PhD in Media Arts and Technology from the University of California Santa Barbara and is a visiting professor at the Danube University in Krems, Austria. Burbano explores the interactions between science, art and technology in various capacities: as a researcher, as an individual artist and in collaboration with other artists and designers. Burbano’s work ranges from documentary video (both science and art), sound art and telecommunications to the exploration of algorithmic cinematic narratives. Burbano was appointed chair of the SIGGRAPH 2024 conference and is the author of the book Different Engines: Media Technologies from Latin America, Routledge 2023.

Victor Champaney is an engineer with a doctorate in mechanics and artificial intelligence. His thesis, which he defended at Arts et Métiers in 2023, focused on model reduction and data-driven approaches for building digital twins. He worked on the CNRS-supported DesCartes project in Singapore and is now a research engineer at Arts et Métiers, where he focuses on simulation and AI issues for digital twins.

Julien CASTET has been leading research activities at Immersion since 2012. Its main areas of expertise are interaction, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, computer music, human-computer interaction and art. He is an active expert with the French National Research Agency and the European Commission. Prior to his current position, he conducted research on 3D interaction and haptics at the Grenoble Institute of Technology.

Ex director of cinema at ARTE FRANCE, founder and co-curator of Venice Immersive, head of studies for the Venice Biennale College, author and director of immersive experiences.

Dr. Carolina Cruz-Neira, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, is a pioneer in virtual reality and interactive visualization, having created and deployed a variety of technologies that have become standard tools in industry, government, and academia. She is known world-wide for creating the CAVE virtual reality system, by spearheading Open-Source initiatives, like VRJuggler, to disseminate and grow VR technologies, and by leading entrepreneurial initiatives to commercialize research results. She has over 100 publications and has been awarded over $75 million in grants, contracts, and donations. She is also recognized for founding and leading successful virtual reality research centers: the Virtual Reality Applications Center, the Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise, and the Emerging Analytics Center. She serves in international technology boards, government technology advisory committees.

She enjoys intersecting her research with the arts and the humanities through public performances and installations. She has been named one of the top innovators in virtual reality and one of the top three greatest women visionaries in virtual reality. She has been inducted to the IEEE Virtual Reality Academy, an IEEE Fellow, and an ACM Computer Pioneer;She has received the IEEE Virtual Reality Technical Achievement Award and the Distinguished Career Award from the International Digital Media & Arts Society among many recognitions. She has given numerous keynotes and advises several governments on how virtual reality can help to give industries a competitive edge towards regional economic growth. Currently, Dr. Cruz is the Agere Chair in Computer Science at the University of Central Florida.

At Avanade Workplace Advisory, we help organizations to unleash the full potential of their workforce and enable them to deliver best-in-class work experiences for their employees.

We help organizations design a workplace roadmap and operating model that aligns with their objectives, evaluate and adopt new technologies, like GenerativeAI and Spatial Computing, that empower their employees and drives business outcomes.

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Susie Heude is an Engagement Manager at Allianz Consulting, part of Allianz Services, where she has built an outstanding career since 2013 within Allianz Group. Throughout her journey, she has taken on various leadership roles and consistently driven innovative projects in the realms of change management and digitalization. Over the past 1.5 years, she has been leading a specialized team focused on the metaverse, while also overseeing various extended reality projects and initiatives. Susie is aiming to support the shaping of the future of Allianz through cutting-edge technologies and strategic leadership.

“Nicola “Nick” Rosa is a technologist, business strategist and digital transformation specialist who previously worked for Google, Spotify, IBM IX, Yahoo!, and Atari; and is now part of Accenture Strategy & Consulting in their Innovation team, where he is the Industry Technology Innovation Lead for Europe.
Nick is also a Director at the Academy of International Extended Reality (AIXR), a non-profit entity producing the annual VR Awards. He co-hosts and co-authors a podcast series called “Field of View”, where he interviews entrepreneurs, researchers, and pioneers in Extended Reality, AI, and the Metaverse. The podcast is available on all major platforms, including YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music. Nick has also spoken at international events such as AWE, Oculus Connect, Fyuz, and CogX. His first book “Understanding the Metaverse: A Business and Ethical Guide”, was published by Wiley worldwide on October 27, 2022 and available on printed press, kindle, and audiobook versions. Nick is also a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts.”

After studying mechanical engineering, Hugo spent 17 years working as innovation manager at Airbus developping digital technologies roadmap. He developped expertises on XR project deployment for ndustrial use cases. Convinced that immersive technologies will help creating the of tomorrow’s world, he founded Skyreal in 2018 to build a team and a new VR turnkey solution for industries.