Paul Cotnoir, Ph.D.
Chair, Design Programs, Becker College

Dr. Cotnoir started at Becker College in 2002, and has served in various capacities including associate dean of the Centers for Learning and Career Advancement, dean of New Initiatives, and currently leads Becker College´s computer video game department as chair of design. He has over 27 years of experience in higher education, industry and the public sector, in the areas of automation, robotics, fiber optics, economic development, and manufacturing design.  Dr. Cotnoir´s Ph.D. dissertation quantified the vibrational parameters of ambulance travel and correlated those accelerations to patient comfort and safety as well as to crew performance parameters.  His current research interests include utilization of real world data to produce instructive computer simulations within a video game environment.

Terrasa Ulm

Terrasa Ulm has been a full time Game Development faculty member at Becker College for five years.  She was instrumental in the design and evolution of the program, one of the nation´s first.  Educated, in both the arts and sciences, Ulm holds a BS in computer science from Smith College with her masters in interactive programming & design from Parsons: the New School.  She has been engaged in digital art and computer gaming since 1994 and has worked on a variety of games including AI Tarot, Our Nutrition is Their Nutrition, and Adivinanzas: Spanish-Enlgish Riddles.  Her concentration is in ‘serious game’ development, focusing on how interactive media can improve both physical and mental development, benefiting society in ways untapped by the entertainment industry. She feels interactive media and gaming offer exceptional opportunities in the education arena, creating compelling and engaging learning experiences not only for the eager, advanced student but also for those with various challenges.  Her technical expertise extends to web development, database design, computer networking, C/C++, C#, and objective C programming, game and level development with Direct X, Flash, and third party game engines such as Torque and Unity. Professor Ulm´s personal artistic vision encompasses a wide variety of styles and media, with her particular concentration in digital illustration and 3D modeling and animation utilizing Maya and Zbrush. Works in progress include the development of a game environment to assess at-risk teens and various contracts for game and multi-media assets.

Prof. Scott Niemi

Scott Niemi completed his formal education at Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, FL) where he earned a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Art with a concentration in painting. After graduating, he worked at Florida Atlantic University as an adjunct art professor and then later for the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art (Lake Worth, FL) as an Art Installer. Scott taught as an adjunct professor at Franklin Pierce University before coming to Becker College as an Assistant Professor. Niemi’s work is in hundreds of private collections ranging from Beverly Hills to Australia (his most famous client is Jane Erickson the mother of John Sebastian, founder of the 60′s musical group The Lovin Spoonful), and in eight public collections including the Schacknow Museum of Fine Arts (Plantation, FL), The Oak Brook Bank (Oak Brook, IL) The Essex Inn (Chicago) and the U. Mass Medical Center Ambulatory Center (Worcester)

Dr. Dawn Ward
Professor of Graphic Design & Visual Art

Dawn Ward received her B.A. in Journalism from Northeastern State University in 1985 and her graduate degrees; M.A. in Studio Art, 1991 and Ph.D. in Art Education, 1998 are from New York University. She taught at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, Northeastern State University, OK, and Franklin Pierce College, NH before coming to Becker College in 2007 as an Associate Professor of Graphic Design and Visual Art. Ward teaches Graphic Design courses in digital technology, prepares students for the digital design field with electronic portfolios and presentation skills and teaches the computer illustration course for the Becker College Game Design program. Her first career was in advertising and promotion; first as a graphic designer and media/print coordinator then as an Art Director for an in-house agency. She has written and contributed to various bodies of work regarding education, art and literature including a collection of early writings and letters by Jack Kerouac which is scheduled to be published Penguin UK in 2011. She was invited to serve on a panel at the SOHO20 Gallery in New York City as part of the Artists Talk on Art series and has presented her research at many conferences including the Beat Literature Symposium at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell. Ward is also a practicing artist whose recent work was in the Sustainable Source Exhibition at Longwood University in 2008.