In the last week of September Corey was invited to speak on a panel about High Tech Humans as part of the University of Manitoba‘s, Café Scientifique at McNally Robison.

The panels also included Andrea Bunt Ph.D, who is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Co-director of the Human Computer Interaction Lab (HCI Lab) and Kelley Main Ph.D, an Associate Professor of Marketing, Department Head, Marketing Department, Asper School of Business. It was moderated by Dr. Zana Lutfiyya, Professor, Faculty of Education, making Corey the only person without a Ph.D, on this highly interdisciplinary panel — though he is a University of Manitoba Alumni in English, Theatre and Film.  

In recent years ZenFri has engaged in a number or research projects with University of Manitoba, including some recent projects with both Andrea and Kelley looking into different aspects of Virtual Reality.

The panel briefly discussed those and other projects, but it was much more of an audience Q&A session about all things technology. The audience questions ranged from those curious about technology to those skeptical of where our tech obsessed culture is leading towards, making for a high-engaging and wide-ranging evening.

Check out the full unedited video of the event on the University of Manitoba’s YouTube page below.

Café Scientifique Panel Topic Description: Technology has permeated almost all aspects of our lives – from the way we socialize, to how we entertain, learn, and express ourselves. It is also being used by an increasingly wide range of individuals, with diverse abilities, interests and tasks. This panel shares their insight into this interplay between technology and the individual. They discuss several aspects, including the impact of technology on flow, how technology can meet the needs of its users and how augmented and virtual reality technologies facilitate creative expression while also considering the dangers of such experiences.