Jessica Cromp
Producer / Game Designer
Jessica is a producer and game designer with a background in environmental science and natural resources. She is interested in transformational games and how they can help create change.
Jiayu He
Technical Artist
Jiayu has worked as a technical artist for two years at Ubisoft on the Just Dance and Far Cry 6 games. He is interested in generative art and procedural animation. He came to ETC to practice his idea of becoming an independent game developer.
Shiwei Hong
Programmer / Level Designer
Shiwei graduated from the University of California, Davis in 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Economics. He’s currently enrolled at ETC, following his passion in game development.
Luka Liu
Programmer
Luka is one of the programmers for team Palooza.
Haoze(Jacky) Sun
Game Designer / Tech Artist / Programmer
After his graduation with a CS major from Vanderbilt University, Haoze (Jacky) Sun came to ETC in search of further learning in game development and the experience to work with brilliant peers who are also passionate about games. He actively practices his skills and interests in game design, game programming and computer graphics, preparing himself for a related job in the game industry.
Regina Xia
Game Designer / Artist
Regina Xia, a Game Design student at CMU’s ETC and a former Fashion Design alumna from Parsons, merges fashion expertise into gaming realms. Specializing in 2D and 3D character design, Regina infuses narratives with style and depth. Her focus on digital fashion and fashion gaming showcases innovation at the intersection of these industries.
Shixi Zhang
UX Designer
Shixi is a UX designer focusing on emerging technologies and immersive experiences.
Her undergraduate field of study is Food systems, nutrition, and health graduated from University of Washington. She is passionate about providing more health-related user experiences to users in the future.
Bearing in mind that a qualified UX designer should possess thorough design thinking and strong analysis skills, she has resolved to take her education to the next level. Now, on the verge of mapping the next chapter of my life, she is pursuing a Master of Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon University.
Project Advisors
Charles Johnson
For nearly three decades Charles has worked at the intersection of human performance, design, technology and manufacturing creating both analog and digital products for the sports, fashion, active lifestyle and gaming sectors.
Armed with a design degree from the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon and the IDSA Merit Award for his graduating class, Charles’ professional starting point as a product designer has transformed to executive level leadership shaping vision, teams and strategies for global brands.
He was the first industrial designer at Adidas’ global headquarters in Germany working in the Advanced Product Group where he focused on converting biomechanics research into performance technologies for athletes producing some of the products that helped reestablish Adidas as an industry leader. He went on to found New York City based, Sports Creative Group, Inc., a design consultancy and brand incubator focused on the sports industry. Notable accomplishments included the creation of the Black Fives™ apparel brand, and designs for Ralph Lauren RLX and Prince Tennis footwear collections. Pursuant to SCG he migrated back to the corporate sector holding Design and Strategy leadership positions at Adidas North America in Portland, Oregon and the Global Creative Director position at Crocs in Boulder, CO.
Before arriving at the ETC, Charles worked at Puma SE global headquarters in Germany for 10 years first as Head of Footwear Design and then Head of Innovation Design. He was appointed Global Director of Innovation in 2015, where he led a team of researchers, designers, material engineers and a host of industry specialists to create new performance enhancing technologies and experiences for athletes and consumers. Through his innovation work he has established partnerships with Hewlett-Packard, Siemens, BMW, BMW Design Works, Porsche Design, Ferrari, MIT Design Lab, Loughborough University, Technische Universitat Chemnitz, University of Stuttgart, Fraunhofer, Cake Electric Motorcycles, leAD International Sports Accelerator Ltd., Stadia Ventures, Arsenal Football Club, Manchester City Football Club, Playseat, ESL Gaming, SK Gaming, Cloud 9 and Ninjas In Pyjamas.
Charles is a sustaining jurist for IDEA (International Design Excellence Award), iF (International Forum) and Core77 international design awards.
His consulting business, DrivenByCharles, serves a range of industries in the sports, healthcare, sustainability, personal mobility and social impact sectors.
Professor Johnson is invested in deploying his professional experience to further the cause of Humanistic Design, using the power of design to do good, and to fuel the entertainment tech industries with elite talent.
Heather Kelley
Named in 2013 as one of the five most powerful women in gaming by Inc. magazine, and in 2011 by Fast Company as one of the most influential women in technology, Ms. Kelley co-curated the groundbreaking 2012 exhibition Joue le jeu / Play Along at La Gaîté lyrique in Paris, France. She is co-founder of Kokoromi, an experimental game collective, with whom she has produced and curated the renowned GAMMA event promoting experimental games as creative expression in a social context. In Autumn 2009, she was Artist in Residence for Subotron at Quartier21, MuseumsQuartier Vienna, where she created “SUGAR,” a cross media collaborative event featuring an original game, scent-generating networked electronics, and couture fashion. Ms. Kelley was Creative Director on the UNFPA Electronic Game to End Gender Violence, at the Emergent Media Center at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont.
Heather’s extensive career in the games industry has included design and production of AAA next-gen console games, interactive smart toys, handheld games, research games, and web communities for girls. In 2008, she was Kraus Visiting Assistant Professor of Art, and Adjunct Faculty at the Entertainment Technology Center, at Carnegie Mellon University, where she organized The Art of Play symposium and art game arcade. Her biographical sex game concept with Erin Robinson, entitled “Our First Times,” won the 2009 GDC Game Design Challenge, and her game concept “Lapis” based on female orgasm won the 2006 MIGS Game Design Challenge. Her newest sex-related piece is the OhMiBod iPhone application, which uses the iPhone touch screen to control a connected OhMiBod brand vibrator.
As moboid, Heather has created interactive projections using game engines such as Quake and Unreal. Her experimental art game work with Lynn Hughes, “Fabulous/Fabuleux,” was created at Montreal’s Hexagram Institute and integrates gameplay into a full-body interactive installation using custom “squishy” interface hardware. For seven years, Heather served as co-chair of the IGDA’s Women in Game Development Special Interest Group. She holds an MA from the University of Texas at Austin, where she is an alumna of the Advanced Communications Technologies Laboratory.