Ola Gardner

Ola Gardner is an advocate for student academic success, educator and a college administrator. She is the owner of a startup VR/AR company investigating technology as a therapy and teaching tool for all children, especially children with learning disabilities. In CMII, Prof. Gardner anchors instruction in the game design majors.

Prof. Gardner received her Masters of Fine Arts in Dramatic and Media from the University of Georgia, and has worked in higher education for sixteen years. Always looking for opportunity, she has created partnerships for student internships with companies such as NASA and FMC in Houston, TX and companies such as Hi-Rez Studios, Areu Bros. Studios, Elvin Ross Studios and Charles West Studios in Atlanta, GA. She has great pride in being able to speak across all industries and having her students benefit from those opportunities.

As a child, Ola was an avid gamer. Those games had a major influence on her which enhanced her professional expertise as an artist in animation, gaming, motion capture, virtual reality and web design. She continues to investigate new technologies for creation and development. At the University of Georgia, she put together a team of fourteen students to create a video game modification for the XBOX development kit. This was one of only two submissions accepted to the XBOX development program in the state of Georgia before the system’s release in 2001. Ola continued at the University of Georgia to lead and served as project manager and line producer for a team of seven students for the Institute of Higher Education. The film and audio project centered around studying habits and mental health and won the Aegis Award for video and film production. After graduating, Ola continued connecting her love for technology and motion capture. She was able to work with Blue Heat Games, specializing in motion capture application for mobile phones. She was then published in 3D World Magazine for a motion capture tutorial.