Teaching Assistant, ComfyUI class
Integrating AI into creative workflows and pipelines, for Animation and VFX students, from the first install to a working pipeline. Two students from the class are now building pipelines for their capstone projects.
Ned Shoaei
Game designer, educator and creative technologist in Savannah, Georgia. I design games for change, and my thesis uses brain-computer interfaces to drive a game's input for therapeutic clinical interventions. I teach game development, XR, and integrating AI into creative workflows and pipelines for designers and artists.
Teaching
Fieldwork Instructor, GAME 326: Applied Principles: Programming
C# and Unity for about 25 game development students, with Prof. Kaushik Padmanabhan, as the teaching placement of the graduate seminar in pedagogy (BEST 779: Teaching Art and Design). My teaching demonstration was scored 90 of 100.
Teaching Assistant, GAME 110: Immersive Reality Design Perspectives
Immersive design on Meta Quest 3 and Unreal Engine for about 18 students, with Prof. Matt Akers.
Hack iX at SCAD
SCAD's hackathon, which I co-founded. I gave a keynote at the 2025 edition alongside speakers from Johnson & Johnson and Unity, and returned as a mentor for the 2026 edition, Game Your Brain.
Mentoring: XR Women and Allies at SCAD
A cross-major student chapter running XR workshops and accessibility panels. I brought 10 students to the AWE expo hall as exhibitors, 3 of whom went on to XR internships, and secured sponsored attendance for 3 students at Meta in New York.
Research
AlphaRise
A neurofeedback game in which the player's own brain activity is the controller: the game reads the signal from a consumer EEG headset while they play and changes in response. Designed with and for adults living with multiple sclerosis, and tested in a feasibility pilot. Best Graduate Research Artifact at Entelechy 2026, and a research poster at the Cedars-Sinai Virtual Medicine Conference and AWE USA 2026.
Research Assistant, SCADask
Led SCADask's research projects on video games and robotics, including interviews with game industry professionals.
Creative work
- 2026Dialectics of the Mind, installation and student curator, Pulse Art and Technology Festival, Telfair Museums; also in XR Women's Vibrancy as Praxis
- 2025Future Proof, projection mapping, first place, SCADstyle showcase
Recognition
- 2026Best Graduate Research Artifact, Entelechy 2026, SCAD
- 2026Research poster, Cedars-Sinai Virtual Medicine Conference (vMed26)
- 2026Research poster, AWE USA 2026 Research Poster Track
- 2026Faculty nomination, Lumen Prize Student Award
- 2025Second place, Hack iX "Future of Healthcare" Hackathon, SCAD
- 2024Certified Accessible Player Experience (APX) Practitioner, AbleGamers
Now
Completing my MFA in Interactive Design and Game Development at SCAD (November 2026), and founding an early-stage neurotechnology startup that builds on the thesis research.
Contact
- Emailnedshoaei@gmail.com
- Based inSavannah, Georgia