This is our third post in a series on our Featured Guests – check out our previous posts 1 and 2 for more great people coming to Penguicon this year! We will be maintaining a full list on our This Year at Penguicon page.
Cynthia Chestek – Biomedical Engineering
Cindy Chestek is an Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering. She received her BS in Electrical Engineering at Case Western, her PhD in Electrical Engineering at Stanford, and completed her postdoctoral work with the Braingate2 clinical trial. Now she is an assistant professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she runs the Cortical Neural Prosthetics Lab. Her primary research interests are “decoding” fine finger movement from many channel neural recordings in motor cortex for the purpose of reanimating paralyzed limbs using electrical stimulation. The lab also performs basic neuroscience experiments mapping sensorimotor cortex activity in multiple behavioral context. Finally, to improve our capabilities to obtain this data, the lab also works on miniaturizing the electrodes and wireless electronics that are currently limiting the number of channels that one can record from motor cortex at one time.
Misha – pirate
Rathbone the Pirate is the owner of Ice Cream Team, an entertainment agency headquartered in Chicago that specializes in whimsical variety performers. Formerly known as the man of a thousand names, Rathbone is a magician, musician, mystic, author, and scoundrel. He first appeared at Penguicon as a puppeteer, doing a marionette mashup of Fiddler on the Roof with the H.P. Lovecraft Mythos. He was also the founding member of pirate rock band Stone Crazy Pirates. Rathbone presents workshops on various pirate-related topics, reads pirate tarot, and performs sea shanties with his band, The Likedeelers. Rathbone also maintains a pirate blog at pirateblogge.blogspot.com.
Terry Pavlet – illustrator
Terry Pavlet is an illustrator and graphic designer with over 20 years of experience. His credits include: DC, Image, Malibu, Dark Horse, Wizards of the Coast, Disney, Milennium, and many others. His sketch card work is widely know on some amazing licenses such as: Adventure Time, War of the Worlds, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula… and most recently, Star Wars from Topps. He is well known in the gaming world for his work on West End Games role-playing games and books – and others such as Fantasy Flight Games, Wizards of the Coast, White Wolf, etc. Recently, you could see his work on “Mac and Trouble” comic series – his self-styled ‘da’kota’ series from WTFC – and his new graphic novel “Strange Detective Mysteries” was just published by Caliber Entertainment.
2D6 – runaway domestic pets
2d6 is here to rock the Penguicon stage!! In 2009, in Youngstown, Ohio, a runaway cat and dog were just trying to find their way home. When they found a pair of mystical 6-sided dice, they were transformed into men who couldn’t stop rapping. It was terrifying and a little upsetting to everyone involved. Now it’s 2015 so strap on your spats and lace ’em tight to prepare for high-energy nerd-themed hip-hop with a lot of hyphenates! Otherwise, you know, your spats might blow off, and then you’d lose your spats. No one wants to lose their spats!