Let us introduce you to our Team!

Professor B. Reeja Jayan

Reeja Jayan is an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Dean’s Early Career Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). She also holds courtesy appointments in Materials Science and Engineering, and Electrical & Computer Engineering departments. She leads the Adaptive Experimentation Thrust at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Center of Excellence at CMU. Her multidisciplinary research lies at the intersection of electromagnetics and materials science. Dr. Jayan is a strong believer in game-based learning methodologies that she uses extensively in her undergraduate and graduate courses.

Michael Oden

  • CMU CEE alum - BS + MS Civil and Environmental Engineering 2016

  • Currently a Senior Software Engineer at Motional responsible for Onboard Data and Applications for Autonomous Vehicles

  • Developed the first iteration of the virtual classroom for this project

Miguel Brandao

Miguel is a CMU engineering graduate and avid Minecraft fan. He grew up playing the game, building large themed dungeons for servers. While at CMU, he worked to establish the first chemical vapor deposition machine in Minecraft, programming its functionality completely from scratch with command blocks. He now works as a product design engineer for Amazon in Seattle, but continues to play games in his free time, and is an active advocate for game-based education.

Takumi Natsume

Takumi is a multidisciplinary artist in charge of the game design for the CMMU server. He has a major in Fine Arts and minors in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) at Carnegie Mellon University. From drones that can be controlled with hand gestures to making a virtual archive of human history, Takumi works with folks from a diverse range of fields to bring dream-like ideas to reality. Here is a link to his website if you’re interested in his work!