Keynote Presentations

Jerry Heneghan,
Applied Research Associates

Jerry Heneghan is the Managing Director of the Virtual Heroes Division of Applied Research Associates. Virtual Heroes creates simulations for learning, serious games and virtual worlds for the healthcare, federal systems and commercial markets. Heneghan served as an Executive Producer for the America’s Army Game Project focusing on the creation of training applications based on the game. Prior to founding Virtual Heroes in 2004, Heneghan was a program manager in the Technology Assisted Learning Division of the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) where he focused on the application of game technologies for healthcare training and education. Before his work at RTI, Heneghan was a game producer at Tom Clancy’s Red Storm Entertainment. Heneghan started his career in the military and served as a U.S. Army Aviator (AH-64 pilot) in assignments all over the world. Heneghan holds an M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a B.S. in engineering from the U.S. Military Academy. Heneghan is the president and co-founder of the North Carolina Advanced Learning Technology Association and Advanced Learning Technology Summit. He is a published author, most recently appearing in The Design and Use of Simulation Computer Games in Education.

Uniting Three Disciplines - A Development Approach for Successful Serious Games

Friday, June 18th

In order to create effective serious games, it is frequently necessary to blend the disciplines of instructional design, game design and cognitive task analysis into a process that works for both internal teams and clients. This is not an easy task! Some consider it an extreme sport with high levels of physical and mental exertion, spectacular feats and inherent dangers along the way. In this discussion, Jerry Heneghan provide a frank discussion regarding the highs and lows involved in creating some of the most successful serious games to date. He will illustrate the proven process used at Virtual Heroes to create serious games such as ‘America’s Army’, ‘Pamoja Mtanni’, ‘Hilton Ultimate Team Play’, ‘Zero Hour: America’s Medic’, and the ‘Virtual Peace Project’. Special emphasis will be given to the topics of stakeholder management, goal alignment, subject-matter-expert interaction and the dialog that should take place between the three disciplines.

Intended Audience: Students, Faculty, Game Developers, Innovators, People considering the use of serious games for their purposes…