Speakers
Krystal Cooper, Producer & Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology
Krystal Cooper is a technical production leader with 15+ years of experience architecting scalable systems across AAA games, XR, VFX, Animation and AI platforms.She entered game production in 2016 through the development of social impact games, applying systems engineering principles to interactive storytelling and community-driven design. Since then, she has led multidisciplinary teams across engine development, real-time rendering, audio systems, and immersive XR production. Her work spans Rhythm & Hues, Apple, Industrial Light & Magic, Disney, Unity Technologies and Adobe. As Founder of Diversity in Gaming and CEO of Optical Creatures Game Studio, she focuses on building sustainable, technically rigorous studios and inclusive production cultures. In parallel, she serves as an adjunct professor at Rochester Institute of Technology mentoring the next generation of technical creators at the intersection of systems architecture and interactive media.