Hi, I’m Demitra and I am a developer in the Media and Design Studio.

Hi, I’m Sergei [sʲɪrˈɡʲej] and I am a developer here in the MAD Studio. I write code, design interfaces and create artwork for both online and offline projects.

I came from a beautiful city of Saint Petersburg, Russia where I got my Masters degree in Economics and Management and later discovered a hidden passion for web development, design, and ergonomics. I spent couple years working for numerous online shops and start-ups in Russia and the U.S. Not long after moving to Windy City I started working in Northwestern as a contractor and after 6 months I was invited to join the team as a full-time employee.

I’m proud to be the part of Northwestern. I truly love its academic environment and value the interdisciplinary spirit of our group. I wish we could host a glass bead game session one day.

My favorite things are bad weather, the Alps, Finland, lox and the art of Wassily Kandinsky.

I enjoy working with faculty and always do my best to understand the subject of their expertise in order to be able to create real value through digital products that I built. Feel free to shoot me an email or stop by to say “hi” and discuss a project. See you around!

Instructional Technology Lead

Cecile (she/her/hers), is the short Canadian in the office behind the Equipment Checkout Counter. She is in charge of all of the stuff that you may want to borrow from MADS; consulting with Faculty in regards to what equipment their students may need to complete their multimedia assignments. Most of her time (pre-pandemic) was spent leading lab sections for classes, giving workshops, or creating media for our supported courses. She also hires, manages and trains our student staff. In COVID times she helps faculty adapt their courses for remote and hybrid learning.

After spending her formative years in Hong Kong and The Philippines, Cecile attended  film school at Northwestern – focusing on sound, camera assist and producing. As an award-winning Producer, she was given a mentor by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Emmys) and moved to the City of Angels to work in film. To this day, she does not know how to drive a vehicle so L.A. was not to be, and Chicago (with her snow and amazing food) beckoned her back. Since returning to Chicago, Cecile has directed and edited several projects and her commercial work has screened in theaters across America. Her true passion lies in education though – her first taste of the Digital Humanities came by photographing and cataloging Buddhist Cave Art for the Mellon International Dunhuang Archive and she has been in involved with academia ever since.

As an avid Pokemon Go fan, Cecile is interested in involving more games, game building, and app usage into pedagogy. She has presented about Digital Humanities, gaming in higher education, managing student staff, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at UB Tech, CCUMC (Consortium of College and University Media Centers), TeachX and Educause’ Women Advance IT. As a Weinberg Staff Advisory Board Co-Chair, she oversees the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility initiatives. She also serves on the similarly themed IDEA committee of Educational Technology Collaborative (ETC), an international group of AV Professionals with both institutional and corporate members. She is also the Instructional Technology Interest Group Leader and has newly been elected to the Board of Directors of ETC as Institutional Director. She is a member of MWALLT, HETMA and a founding member of WAVIT. Cecile is also a full-stack developer and Mental Health First Aider.

Please contact Cecile with any questions about equipment and pedagogy (either current or for future projects), or if you need help incorporating new technologies into your curriculum.

Hello, I’m Matt Taylor.  I am the IT Director and general Director of the Media and Design Studio, which is just a fancy way to say that I supervise all things digital, and that I help orchestrate the activities unit as an a whole. In this capacity, I’m happy to rely on the support and assistance of our immediate peers in Weinberg IT Solutions and the counsel of our Advisory Board.

My background is in Computer Engineering, but my life passions have always included study of languages and cultures, which started with a year abroad in France during high school. Added to this is an opportunity to explore Digital Humanities, where my interest in the interplay between qualitative and quantitative methods takes shape. I am particularly interested in how authority and veracity are established and the econometrics of human qualities that are somewhat hard to measure, such as happiness. Given my love for technology, love for language, and curiosity in seeking the truth, I certainly ended up in the right place!

Faculty should feel welcome to contact me with project proposals or special requests of the department and its staff. I’m here to help everyone find the answers and solutions they need.