Gaming and virtual reality allow consumers to connect and interact in unprecedented ways. In this panel, hear from creators who are leveraging games and VR as treatment for mental health and neurodevelopmental disorders, including anxiety, Alzheimer’s and ADHD. From teens to octogenarians, see how gaming and VR can help people manage and cope with conditions.
Adam GazzaleyProfessor and Director, University of California, San Francisco
Adam (M.D., Ph.D.) is the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry at the UCSF, and the founder and executive director of Neuroscape at UCSF. He is cofounder and chief science advisor of Akili Interactive, Sensync and JAZZ Venture Partners. He has filed multiple patents, authored over 150 scientific articles, and delivered over 675 invited presentations around the world.
Adam BlumenthalVice President, Nucco Brain Studio @ Unit9
Adam has been producing innovative digital experiences with the world’s best-known organizations for over 25 years. He’s led digital strategy and production at preeminent Madison Avenue agencies and helped several media and entertainment companies, philanthropies and universities transform how they engage with their audiences. At Brown University, he teaches strategy and design for virtual and augmented reality.
Amir BozorgzadehCEO, Virtuleap
Amir is cofounder and CEO at Virtuleap, a VR startup that unlocks neuroscience to detect the early onset of cognitive illnesses like Alzheimer’s. He previously founded Gameguise, a mobile games studio based in Dubai, and Time Dirham, the first social impact startup to introduce time banking to the Middle East. Amir is a regular contributor to tech blogs like VentureBeat and Tech Crunch on the topics of emerging tech, spatial computing, and startup ecosystems.
Dumeetha LuthraFounder, Take-Pause
Dumeetha is a former BBC war reporter who used mindfulness in her struggle with PTSD. This inspired her to found a company which uses mindfulness and virtual reality to reduce anxiety in teenagers. In a randomized control trial, in the pediatric ER at Maimonides Hospital in New York, Take-Pause was shown to reduce anxiety levels by 45% in five minutes.
Previous Session
Opening Remarks and Keynote with Malcolm Gladwell
Join us for opening remarks from the first ever Unity for Humanity Summit, and our keynote with Malcolm Gla...
VR has been called the ultimate empathy engine. Meet creators who put VR users in others’ shoes to help them connect to mental health and physical conditions, from bipolar disorder to paralysis.
Calvin Williams of Movement Strategy Center in conversation with Black impact creators on how they meet a moment in time to tell stories, capture hopefulness and archive movements in virtual space.
The Power and Responsibility of Storytelling in the Age of Social Media
Join John Riccitiello and Malcolm Gladwell in a panel discussion, moderated by CNBC's Cat Clifford, on the power and responsibility of storytelling in the age of social media.
Hear from four innovative storytellers as they share how immersive multimedia sustains a living form of storytelling. They address how this work creates continuity with Indigenous ways of knowing.
Unity MARS brings environment and sensor data into the creative workflow. In this interactive session, learn how you can use Unity MARS to create intelligent AR apps.
A fireside chat with Alex McDowell and Sylvio Drouin
Join Alex McDowell and Sylvio Drouin as they discuss how new technologies are being used to forge the future of storytelling. Alex shares how emergent tech is drawing storytelling in new directions.
Learn about tried-and-tested, actionable insights and strategies to maximize revenue in social impact mobile games while still retaining players for the long term.
Hear from faculty and innovation leaders at Arizona State University, University of Central Florida, and Imperial College London in the United Kingdom about their innovations with Unity.