From Game Design to Hardware Innovation
Talk Track 2
This talk explores how game design principles transform hardware innovation. Drawing from journeys in game development and technological creativity, Jayson Margalus dives into the fusion between digital game realms and tangible device creation.
Margalus will highlight the unexpected synergies between user engagement, storytelling, and iterative design from gaming that can help us invent new hardware. Join us to unveil how a designer’s mindset leads to innovative solutions in hardware development.
Jayson R. Margalus is a maker, designer, computer scientist, and outdoorsman. Margalus is the Johnson Professor of Entrepreneurship and Leadership, and Director of the Connolly Center for Entrepreneurship at Washington & Lee University. Prior to that he was the founding Faculty Director of Maker Innovation at DePaul University’s Idea Realization Lab(s), and a Professional Lecturer of Industrial and Game Design in the School of Design in the Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media.
Margalus concurrently runs Spacelab NFP, a non-profit makerspace, and Margalus, LLC, a design studio that develops toys and game platforms. He holds an MS with distinction in Human-Computer Interaction from DePaul University, a BS in Political Science from North Central College, and various design certifications from Cornell, MIT, Harvard, and Pratt (pursuing).
His work has been featured on outlets from the Chicago Tribune to NPR, and he has given keynote talks for organizations ranging from Chicago Public Schools’ Googlepalooza to the American Medical Association‘s ChangeMedEd. He was invited to the Obama White House in 2015 for his work on makerspaces.