Jessica Brillhart is the Director of the Mixed Reality Lab at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies, and the founder of the independent XR studio, Vrai Pictures. Known for her pioneering work in the immersive space, Brillhart has made a wide range of award-winning experiences and platforms, collaborating with partners such as Bose, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Elvis Presley Enterprises, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, Frank Gehry, the Montreal Canadiens, Yo-Yo Ma, Google’s Artists and Machine Intelligence team, and (unofficially) the Weather Channel. Her work continues to explore the experiential potential of emergent technologies with the goal of creating emotional, inclusive, and impactful experiences. In 2017, Brillhart was recognized as one of the Top 35 young innovators by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2019, she delivered the Convergence Keynote at SXSW and received the festival’s Future of Experience award for her spatial audio platform, Traverse. Most recently, the Advanced Imaging Society awarded her with the Distinguished Leadership Award for innovation in the entertainment industry.
