The Art of HealthTech
Series: Arts & Health
Aired: November 17, 2022
Panelist(s): Marjorie A. Zielke, Ph.D. & Djakhangir Zakhidov
Interviewer: Sonia Azad (WFAA)
ABOUT THIS TALK: Join us to hear from Dr. Marjorie Zielke, the Director of the Center for Simulation and Synthetic Humans, at UT Dallas and Lead Technical Researcher, Associate Director Djakhangir Zakhidov to learn how the arts are influencing the development of cutting-edge health technology and the ways in which Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR) are enhancing our healthcare options.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS:
DR. MARJORIE A. ZIELKE: Marjorie A. Zielke, Ph.D., is Director of the Center for Simulation and Synthetic Humans and Professor of Research at the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas). Working primarily in emerging forms of simulation focused on virtual humans, the future of work, advanced networks and learning portals, she is the UT Dallas principle investigator on several innovative simulation research projects in the education, medical, and military/law enforcement sectors. Under Dr. Zielke’s direction, the Center has formed numerous research partnerships particularly in education and training with support from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, American Medical Association, Southwestern Medical Foundation, Sam Houston State University, and the Texas Department of Transportation. The Center’s projects with colleagues have won first place for faculty twice at the International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH); the U.S. Army’s Modeling and Simulation Training Team Award; the government category in the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) Serious Games Competition; the National Training and Simulation Association (NTSA) Cross-Functional Simulation Award; and the NTSA award for Education and Human Performance. Dr. Zielke served a fellowship in 2018 with the Special Operations Command as a Donovan Fellow through SOFWERX. Dr. Zielke is a member of the NTSA Advisory Committee. Dr. Zielke has a Ph.D. focused on Arts and Technology, Brain Science and Marketing through the UT Dallas Arts and Humanities school, a Masters in International Business from the University of Dallas and an MBA from UT Arlington focused on Management Information Systems and Marketing. Dr. Zielke has several years of industry as well as academic administration leadership experience.
DJAKHANGIR ZAKHIDOV: Djakhangir Zakhidov is the Associate Director of the Center for Simulation and Synthetic Humans at The University of Texas at Dallas. Mr. Zakhidov is the lead technical researcher in charge of several advanced VR/AR interactive simulation projects with virtual humans. Mr. Zakhidov is the project director on the National Science Foundation-funded Emotive Virtual Patient project. Mr. Zakhidov is experienced with designing, developing, and implementing virtual humans; developing educational simulations for workforce development; and designing natural user interfaces. Mr. Zakhidov is focused on designing and conducting research experiments to study the effects of educational simulations on users.
SONIA AZAD, MODERATOR: Sonia Azad is an Emmy®Award winning journalist and reporter at WFAA in Dallas, TX, specializing in health and wellness. In 2012, the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters named Sonia one of the best reporters in the state. And in 2017, the Texas Medical Association awarded Sonia for her series on Egg Freezing. Most recently, Sonia's coverage spans fitness, nutrition, medical advancements & research, as well as public health and infectious disease, including Ebola, Zika, and CoVid-19. Sonia graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and she also holds a Master of Science degree in Journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Sonia is also a marathon finisher and certified yoga and meditation instructor.