Robert Hone
Research Assistant Professor
School of Communication
Degrees
B.S./M.S. Chemical Engineering (MIT) MJ (U.C. Berkeley)
Bio
I’m currently an Asst. Professor-Research in the American University School of Communication, which involves teaching in the Game Lab, managing external projects between the AU Game Studio and external collaborators, and grant proposal development for innovative game projects. I co-designed with Maggie Farley (adjunct in SOC Journalism Department) and produced the popular Factitious news game that has been played more than 850 thousand times since July 3rd, 2018 (with over 8 million articles viewed and rated). I’ve given recent presentations about the Factitious game at the Games for Change Conference in NYC (6/28/18), the Serious Play Conference at George Mason University (7/12/18) and the ConnectedLearning Summit at the MIT Media Lab (8/2/18). We’re currently working on Factitious 2018!, which will serially release six new game levels of articles from October 1st to November 5th (every Monday morning). Previously at AU, I designed and produced a neurogame, Seeing the Good Side, that seeks to help children with severe anxiety. The game was developed in close collaboration with key researchers at the National Institute for Mental Health (NIH). The NIH is currently conducting a clinical trial of this “gaming therapy.” Prior to joining the Game Lab in 2015, I was the Creative Director for a boutique interactive design company, Red Hill Studios, that received numerous grants from the NIH and the NSF to develop innovative software. Prior to that, I was an award-winning PBS Science Television Producer/Director/ Writer (Peabody/Emmy). Prior to that, I was an MIT-educated Chemical Engineer with stints at duPont, General Electric, and Exxon. I enjoy learning new skills and switching careers every so often :)
