Will S.

Will S.

Des Moines Metropolitan Area
322 followers 325 connections

About

Accomplished professional with 13+ years of experience across design, product, and…

Experience

Education

  •  Graphic

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    Emphasis on Digital Media. Graduated with honors.

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    Introductory clay sculpting class with concept designer Simon “SpiderZero” Lee.

Volunteer Experience

  • Peer Reviewer

    Peer Reviewer

    The National Institutes of Health

    - 1 year 5 months

    Science and Technology

    Reviewed SBIR grant proposals with budgets ranging from $250k - $2M for the NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences with emphasis on the Interactive Digital Media portfolio.

  • Co-Organizer

    web3dsm

    - 1 year 3 months

    Science and Technology

    Partnered with the organizing team to launch a meetup for highlighting creators and builders from Des Moines and surrounding metros. Attendance grew from 3 to 15+ monthly visitors, and guest companies included Brale, CrossMint, and Pinata. Also collaborated with guest companies to create customized POAPs for each meetup.

Publications

Honors & Awards

  • Silver Medal, Higher Education

    International Serious Play Conference

    Silver Medal for Mol Chemistry, a gamified app that seeks to answer the unmet need for effective resources in organic chemistry and to optimize user experience by keeping student actively engaged.

  • Finalist, EMBO Cover Contest

    EMBO Scientific Journal

    Three covers I created based on Meta!Blast content were in the top 10% of all entries of the 2014 EMBO Cover Contest. The contest had around 800 total pieces submitted for around the world.

  • People's Choice Award, SciVis Challenge Games & Apps

    National Science Foundation

    Meta!Blast: The Leaf received the People's Choice Award in the Games & Apps category for the 2013 SciVis challenge. Articles highlighting the 2013 winners were run on notable sites such as Science, Wired, etc.

  • Author & Invited Speaker, Session 2: Communicating Perspective in VR

    IS&T / SPIE - The Engineering Reality in Virtual Reality Conference

    The article "Meta!Blast Computer Game: A Pipeline from Science to 3D Art to Education" was published in the conference proceedings, and I gave a short presentation on building immersive cellular environments.

  • Finalist, SciVis Challenge Games & Apps

    National Science Foundation

    Made it into the top 10 finalists in the Games & Apps category for the 2012 SciVis challenge.

  • Honorable Mention, SciVis Challenge Games & Apps

    National Science Foundation

    Under my art direction the Meta!Blast team received recognition for "The Cell" level, and had a short article published in the February 2012 issue of Science magazine. In addition, articles highlighting the 2011 winners were run on notable sites such as Wired, The Guardian, etc.

  • Finalist, Digital Media and Learning Competition

    MacArthur Foundation

    My team was a finalist with "Meta!Blast" (top 50 out of 1,000 entries) in the 2010 MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competition.

  • Exhibitor, National Science Museums

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    2010 and 2012 installations of permanent Met!Blast exhibits at Science City, Kolkata and other national science museums in India. The exhibits featured a special build of the game, plus our two educational poster sets, Spatial and Time Scale.

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