Dr. Jonathan Bohlmann is a professor of marketing and innovation in the Department of Business Management at North Carolina State University. He researches innovation adoption, and has co-taught the pioneering, multidisciplinary Product Innovation Lab for years. We spoke about how he turned from aerospace engineering to management, and the growing importance of UX in product design. Jon is on twitter at @jbohlmann.

Dr. Anne McLaughlin is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at North Carolina State University. She is a cognitive psychologist focused on learning, the elderly, and applications of games. We spoke about her pivot from journalism to psychology, and a trial early in her career that put her in the national limelight.

We preview our meetup with Josef Spjut, research scientist at NVIDIA. At his September 7th meetup, Josef will present a few early prototype applications designed to reduce distraction, including AR for wayfinding, augmented online shopping, and annotation. In this teaser, Josef talks about his early training in architecture and computer graphics, and his work on realizing real-time ray tracing. Josef is on Twitter at @josefspjut.

Dr. Derek Ham is an assistant professor in the College of Design at North Carolina State University. His VR project "I Am A Man" won an Oculus Launch Pad award. In this podcast, he discusses how virtual reality and augmented reality technology can expand the possibilities of interaction design.

Dr. Kenya Oduor is the founder of the consulting firm Lean Geeks and an Adjunct Professor at North Carolina State. She is a user-centered solution architect and people leader with past experience at LexisNexis and IBM. In this podcast, she discusses trust in technology, as well as the importance of user experience.  She also explains the value and challenges of multi-disciplinary teams.  Kenya is on Twitter at @koduor.

In this bootlegged recording of our December 8thmeetup, Jay Dawkins, the CEO of PublicInput.comand CityZen, spoke about how technology is shaping participatory democracy. Jay Dawkins is a transportation engineer turned civic tech entrepreneur. PublicInput.com helps residents participate in shaping their cities, where things are still getting done. CityZen helps public agencies use social media and news websites to engage more residents online. Jay is on Twitter at @dawkinsjay.

In this bootleg recording of our our November 17th meetup with Steven King, we learned about emerging technologies for storytelling. Steven is an assistant professor of Interactive and Multimedia at UNC’s School of Media and Journalism, and a former editor of innovations at The Washington Post. He combines technology, human-centered design, and storytelling to create new ways to present information through virtual reality, augmented reality, and interactive data-driven graphics. Steven is on Twitter at @steven_king.

We meet nexUX co-founder and Professor Ben Watson. Ben is also the leader of the Visual Experience Lab and studies how visual technology affects emotion, thinking, and behavior. He talks about how he got into user experience by way of virtual reality and the goals and founding of nexUX. (11 mins)

We preview our meetup with Jay Dawkins, CEO of CityZen. At his December 8 meetup, Jay will speak about how technology is shaping participatory democracy. In this preview, he speaks about his civic heritage, bringing NC State students together to combat racism, a formative moment as a transportation engineer, and the quiet heroism of public servants. Jay is on Twitter at @dawkinsjay.

In his coming meetup, Steven will speak about using emerging technologies for storytelling. In this preview, he speaks about his work with MSNBC, his degree in photojournalism, his time at the Washington Post, his Galapagos VR recording, and his grandfather's photojournalism career early in the 40s and 50s. Steven is on Twitter at @steven_king.

In his coming meetup, Jason will speak about his mission to revitalize UX at his company. In this preview, he speaks about his education, his work in the Valley, the broad range of skills a UX practitioner needs, and one reason that Amazon named its speakers "Alexa." Jason is on Twitter at @jbroughton.

In a bonus episode, we continue our visit with artist and Professor Emil Polyak. He tells us about his virtual puppetry, and his music blocks. (9 mins)

We meet artist and Professor Emil Polyak. Emil trained in telecommunication engineering in Hungary, then switched to design. His career has taken him from eastern Europe to Australasia and now, to North Carolina. His work reintroduces creativity and play into our lives. Confront your limitations he says, and never stop learning. (9 mins)

In our inaugural podcast, we meet artist and Professor Pat Fitzgerald. We learn about Pat's art/technology background, his interdisciplinary work, great respect for creativity and gentle humor. (7 mins)