Middle School Summer Maker Academy Faculty

Lavin Amarnani

Lavin Amarnani is an accessibility-focused UX Designer with over three years of experience with human-centered design across several form factors, including flat screens, virtual reality and augmented reality. He is enthusiastic about improving user interaction with products and accessibility, and ensuring that users get the most value out of the experience.

Due to daily annoyances with the technology around him, he started to look into how he could improve the experience for himself and others. He then started looking into the UX Design field and found it to be the perfect combination of his interests in design, technology, and accessibility. He learned the basics of UX Design, and his curiosity led him to pursue his Master's Degree in UI/UX Design at the New York Institute of Technology, where he had the opportunity to learn user research and apply the knowledge to diverse projects with traditional interfaces and emerging technology. Pic attached

David Fanning

At present David holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stony Brook University. Additionally, he is EPA 608 Universal Certified to work on Type I, II, and III stationary refrigeration equipment. Over the past eighteen years David's career has included architecture, manufacturing, professional educational training, management and teaching in higher education. For the past seven years he has been the Lab Engineer in the Mechanical Engineering department at New York Tech. In this role he manages the mechanical engineering student machine shop, student lab areas, and faculty research areas. David has taught courses at the college level as an adjunct professor in Career Discovery, Graphical Design (AutoCAD), Thermo-Fluids, Automotive Chassis Systems, Applied Mechanics & Engineering Materials, and Quality Management. David is also currently the advisor for the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) student organization at New York Tech.

During his time at New York Tech, David has enjoyed being an instructor for the Engineering Experience summer program and also developed the Future Makers & Fabricators machine shop summer program, a two week long intensive, hands-on program for high-school age students to learn to design, make and fabricate with various materials and equipment in the machine shop. Prior to joining New York Tech, David worked in industry as a Senior Application Engineer at Schenck Trebel Corporation where he managed the Schenck Academy, a professional training program within the balancing industry offered across the US and Canada, for more than eight (8) years.

Engineering is David's passion. He is very hands-on oriented and strives to continually learn new concepts and skills. Sharing that knowledge and skills with others is very rewarding and gives David a great sense of accomplishment. For as long as he can remember he has always been interested in and intrigued by how things work, why things work, how things are designed, and how things are ultimately made. From go karts and minibikes to tractors and radio control cars/planes, building custom cars, boats, and various construction projects, engineering and re-engineering fascinates him. How was this made? How does it work? Can I improve it to work better? What else can I make? David is an engineer twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Christopher Springston

I have a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (2013) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering (2015) from New York Institute of Technology. He completed the NCEES Fundamentals of Engineering exam in 2014 and received FE Electrical and Computer Engineering Certification from the state of New York. I also obtained AutoCAD Certification from the American Institute of Architects in 2018.

I have completed my Master's thesis under Dr. Aydin Farajidavar, department chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering. My research centered on creating a 32-channel wireless system that can be used to record gastric electrical activity. I was inspired to do my thesis on this subject as I have a family member who suffers from a gastric disorder. My work was presented and subsequently published in the 38th Annual Conference Proceedings of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC) in the year 2016.

Currently I serve as the Assistant Director of Graduate Advisement for New York Institute of Technology at the Old Westbury and New York City Campuses. I also work as an advisor to new and continuing graduate students in the Computer Science (CS), Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), Cybersecurity (CYBR), and Data Science (DS) programs, and oversees the online and in-person graduate programs in the College of Engineering and Computing Sciences.

In addition, I am also an instructor for Undergraduate Programs and currently teach ETCS 105 Career Discovery, a course geared towards providing incoming freshman students the skills and tools necessary for a career in engineering. Prior to that I have experience working as a tutor in math and science helping students ranging from middle school to college level, and has taken part in conferences and events from IEEE and NSBE alongside students at New York Tech.

I have always had a passion for engineering and a desire to understand how things work. This is what drove me to become an Electrical Engineer and, eventually, to become an instructor in engineering. I hope to be able to share this interest, and possibly spark the same enthusiasm that I have for engineering, with others.

Kevin Park

Kevin Park has a distinguished career as a leader in business and technology. He is currently a faculty member at New York Institute of Technology (2007) and NYU (2013), and a co-founder/director of UX design at ObjectivEye—a startup that provides a deep understanding and customized UX/UI design and analysis to the AR/VR industry.

Park is co-developer of the AR/VR certificate program, and assisted in developing the M.A. in UX/UI Design and Development in 2018 at New York Institute of Technology. He also teaches User Experience Design; User Interface and Interaction Design; AR/VR Design; Advertising and Branding; and Graphic Design.

He co-developed both the User Experience Design Professional diploma (2016) and UX Design curriculum for NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS). Since 2013 at NYU, he has taught in areas of UX Design, Brand Design, and Technology in Physical Space.

Park has more than 20 years of professional experience in the art, design, and emerging tech culture. He worked as a senior UX design manager at The Metropolitan Museum of Art for 17 years, and a design consultant for Pentagram, Antenna International, Smithsonian Museum, MoMA, Guggenheim, The Art Institute of Chicago, Harvard University, and McDonald's. He has been influential in the culture of design and remains unmatched through his passion of bridging the gap of AR/VR technology through our daily lives today.

Park holds a Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the School of Visual Arts, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from Maryland Institute College of Art. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and child.