MARCH 9

1PM - Nathan King holds Masters Degrees in Architecture and Industrial Design from Virginia Tech and his primary research interests lie at the intersection of the two disciplines. Nathan is currently a Doctor of Design candidate, Teaching Fellow, and lead researcher within the GSD Design Robotics Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Design where his investigation stems from the ongoing development of user-assembled deployable building systems, and seeks to understand the nature of computer‐controlled manufacturing and its relationship to building assembly. Through the development of novel fabrication techniques and the utilization of emerging heterogeneous material technologies in large scale direct-manufacturing systems his research will allow for multiple performative characteristics to be realized within a single, functionally complex building component. 

3PM - Steve Sanderson is a founding partner of CASE, a virtual design and construction (VDC) and integrated-practice consultancy based in New York City. At CASE, Steve is primarily responsible for leading building performance and technology strategy consulting for significant AECO clients.
 
Prior to CASE, Steve was the Director of Design Technology at SHoP Architects, where he was responsible for introducing and leading SHoP’s building information modeling, parametric design, and environmental modeling efforts; establishing the firm as an industry thought leader.
 
Steve received his Master of Engineering from the Product-Architecture Lab at Stevens Institute and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design from Virginia Tech. He has led numerous workshops and speaks internationally on technology and innovation at venues such as SIGGRAPH, SmartGeometry, Autodesk University, AIANY Tech, and LA Design Technology Forum. Since 2009 he has been a part-time lecturer in the School of Constructed Environments at Parsons The New School for Design, where he teaches programming and environmental technology. (http://www.case-inc.com/users/ssanderson)

 5PM - Philip Beesley, MRAIC OAA (Professor School of Architecture, University of Waterloo; examiner University College London) is an architect developing responsive kinetic architectural environments that approach near-living functions. His work is widely cited as a pioneer in the rapidly expanding technology of responsive architecture. He has authored and edited eight books, three international proceedings and a number of catalogues, and appears on the cover of Artificial Life (MIT), LEONARDO and AD journals.  He has been responsible for some 150 architectural projects. He was selected to represent Canada for the 2010 Venice Biennale for Architecture, and has received worldwide press including WIRED, TEDx, Discovery Channel features. Distinctions include Prix de Rome in Architecture (Canada), VIDA 11.0, FEIDAD, Dora Mavor Moore and a number of Distinguished Performance awards from Waterloo.  His graduates have received 2 Fulbright and 2 Tsinghua fellowships and the Berkeley prize. Beesley’s funding includes core CFI, SSHRC, NSERC and Canada Council for the Arts grants and he served as Dissemination Director for the NCE-funded Canadian Design Research Network. His service includes executive board member for ACADIA (Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture), and adjudicator for numerous grant programs. (http://www.architecture.uwaterloo.ca/people/faculty.html)