Development Partners
Baanto is a leading technology company that has developed a disruptive 3D tracking and touch technology platform. Baanto is launching innovative, cost effective and green offerings for high growth, multi-billion dollar verticals such as: Interactive White Boards (IWBs) & LCD Touch Screens, Gaming and Healthcare.
ZEUM is a non-profit multimedia and technology museum with a mission to provide multimedia tools for families of all communities to think and act creatively. By providing hands-on experiences in four core creative processes (animation, sound and video production, live performance and visual arts), we encourage youth to share their stories, build their voices, and use multimedia tools for creative self-expression.
Special Thanks to
Luidia for the use of their eBeam interactive whiteboard system in prototyping our hardware.
Development Team
Josh Carter was born, raised, schooled and worked right here in California and he has the easy-going and laid-back lifestyle to prove it. He received a bachelors degree from UC Santa Barbara and is now pursuing a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University where he studies Design Methodology and Product Design. Mixed into the past half dozen or so years, Josh has had an eclectic mix of industry experience---designing such products as an oxygen-therapy medical device, a nanotechnology diagnostic tool for the US Army, and various communication satellites. Josh has a passion for innovation and adding value, whether it be a product, user experience, or business practice. Toontastic has been an exciting project for him because it has allowed him to exercise his creativity in a playful way while providing an immensely enjoyable first experience designing for kids.
Jason Casamina is a Computer Information Science student who is passionate about programming. He has worked with C, Perl, Java, Flash actionscript, Flash Media Server, PHP, SQL, and all that AJAX jazz. He enjoys MMORPGs (computer games) and learning languages (human as well as computer). On the side, he tutors students learning C, Perl and Unix.
Rodolphe Courtier hails from the heart of Silicon Valley, where he decided at a young age that he loved video games. This desire led him down the path from Computer Science to Cognitive Science and to his current home in Human-Computer Interaction. These days he wants to harness the power of tangible interfaces and embodied interactions and see how far he can push them!
Matt Kroner is a design guy living in Brooklyn, New York. A recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati's industrial design program, Matt dabbles in toy design, graphic design, and illustration. He currently works in product development for licensed kids furniture and room decor. When not designing things, Matt enjoys playing video games, collecting robot t-shirts, and growing his beard.
Joanna Law came on board ToonTastic as part of the Collaboration and Curriculum Design Class at Stanford. She was a regular supplier of TimBits, fruit, candy and moral support, in addition to regular Canadian propaganda. When in Canada, she works in healthcare and medical education with an interest in health education as a means of sustainable health care in developing nations. One of her greatest accomplishments while at Stanford was posing with the elusive Yoda statue.
Michael Lucy an undergraduate Computer Science student at the University of Chicago. He has a reasonable amount of experience with C, a soft spot for Lisp in all its dialects, and a lingering distaste for Java. He's a zealous emacs user who generally prefers a *nix environment. Michael hasn't settled into a specialty yet, and in the meantime he's trying as many different parts of his field as possible.
Tom Nguyen was never all that good at staying within the lines. He delights in bridging perspectives to help people learn, communicate, and play. Before graduate school, Tom oversaw innovation and new media ventures at Reuters, advancing how one billion people get their news and information each day. Working to empower people to express their ideas, he has managed projects in New York, London, Beijing, and San Francisco, from rich media platforms at Adobe to an online learning service in China. Tom is currently an MBA candidate at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Master's student at Stanford's School of Education. From an earlier life studying human-computer interaction design in California, he also holds a Computer Science degree from Stanford University. And from an earlier life living with bears in Alaska, he learned to make a mean wild blueberry cobbler.
Andy Russell is a graduate student by day, an aspiring ice-cream maker by night, a toy designer by trade, and a kid at heart. He designs toys and tools that empower children to express themselves more creatively through play. Andy is currently a Masters student in the Learning, Design, and Technology program at Stanford’s School of Education and has worked for companies like Hasbro and Sony to create playful learning experiences for kids.
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