Arie Stavchansky was born and raised in Austin, Texas. After completing a Master’s degree in Design from Carnegie Mellon University, he returned to Austin where he earned a Ph.D. from the University of Texas and taught several digital media studies and production courses as a lecturer. Arie’s research, teaching and consulting have led him to the intersection of a rich interdisciplinary world spanning the fields of technology, art and design. On any given day he is just as likely to sketch the design for a corporate logo as he is to write computer code for a client project. What remains consistent is that he is always creating: sketching, designing, illustrating, animating, filmmaking, rendering, coding or working in combination. Arie's professional practice has led him to collaborate with designers, directors, artists, programmers and producers at post-production houses, design firms, and video game development studios such as Digital Kitchen, LLC in Chicago, IL, MacGuff in Los Angeles, @radical.media in New York, NY, and Sony Online Entertainment in Austin, Texas. You can visit his own production and design studio, foci, online at www.foci.tv.