Team
Melanie Danver
Artist | Producer
Melanie is an Art Generalist at the ETC focusing on visual storytelling, interactive experiences, and animation. She’s previously held various roles in the creative tech industry like Lab Associate at Disney Research and Senior Animation Designer at Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute. During her time here, she hopes to refine her skills, explore new technologies, and grow her professional network, shifting from a research-driven art practice toward a more creatively focused experience design.
Zihan(Michelle) Fan
Producer | Researcher
Michelle comes from a background in 2D art and animation and is now pursuing interdisciplinary research at the intersection of art, design, and technology. Michelle’s interests center on experience design and research-driven practices that explore how people perceive and engage with designed environments.
Website: https://michellezihanf.github.io/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellefzh/
Alex Hall
Hardware | Manufacturing
Alex Hall is a self-declared maker of many things, usually revolving around immersive entertainment and virtual reality. Before the Entertainment Technology Center, she earned a B.S. in Interactive Media with a concentration in Advanced Media Production from Harrisburg University, where she built virtual reality projects ranging from a STEM summer camp for high schoolers to a scaled space station inspired by real engineering patents. At the ETC, she fell in love with researching, designing, and developing for immersive platforms, pushing new experiences into the industry. In her off time, she keeps creating whether it be playing the bass, making props and costumes, forging stories, and even making interactive experiences.
Website: http://alexhall.info/portfolio
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhall3d/
Jiaxin He
Narrative | Sound Design
Jiaxin holds a degree in Industrial Design with a focus on combining design and technology. She has worked on interactive storytelling projects across XR theater, installations, games, and cross-media experiences, including an installation shown at Milan Design Week 2024. With a background in theater and performance, she is especially passionate about location-based entertainment and themed experiences. At the ETC, she hopes to grow her skills in immersive storytelling and teamwork, aiming to create themed entertainment experiences for parks, exhibitions, and innovative tech companies.
Website: http://jiaxinhe.framer.website
Malaya Heflin
Programmer
Malaya is a creative technologist whose interests and goals are combining her love for both technology and art to create innovative and interactive spaces- including themed or location based entertainment, video games, and mixed reality. She specializes in programming and software for entertainment technology products. Previously, she was a show control engineering intern at Walt Disney World, and graduated in May 2024 with a BS in Immersive Media Design- a collaboration between the University of Maryland’s departments of computer science and fine arts.
Website: https://malayaheflin.github.io/
Riya Kanani
Programmer
Riya Kanani is a creative programmer interested in location-based entertainment, mixed reality, and video games. She has published research in machine learning. She has worked as a Unity Software Engineer for a museum’s production company, Cortina Productions. Before coming to the ETC, she graduated from the University of Maryland with degrees in Computer Science and Immersive Media Design, along with a minor in Sustainability Studies.
Website: https://riyakanani.github.io/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/riya-kanani/
Instructors
Shirley Saldamarco
https://etc.cmu.edu/about/our-people/faculty-staff/shirley-saldamarco
Ricardo Washington
https://etc.cmu.edu/about/our-people/faculty-staff/ricardo-washington
