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LiftLab at UConn Stamford

The DMCT LIFT Lab is an open research-practitioner lab where the next generation of creative professionals can experiment with emerging technologies and help shape the future of content creation.

Located at the University of Connecticut Stamford, the lab brings together students, faculty, industry professionals, and DMCT LIFT Fellows to explore how rapidly evolving artificial intelligence platforms may influence creative practice across film, television, digital media, interactive storytelling, and other forms of content production.

Rather than approaching artificial intelligence as a fixed set of tools to be taught, the DMCT LIFT Lab provides a space for active experimentation. Students can test new platforms, produce original content, examine their capabilities and limitations, and investigate how they might be responsibly integrated into professional creative workflows.

LiftLab Team

Matthew Worwood

Matthew Worwood

Director of Digital Media CT and Associate Professor in-Residence
at the University of Connecticut
.
Read Bio

Matthew Worwood is an Associate Professor in Residence in Digital Media & Design at the University of Connecticut Stamford, where he teaches and researches the intersection of emerging technologies, creativity, and media production. His work explores how generative artificial intelligence is transforming creative practice, with a particular focus on developing responsible approaches to integrating AI into educational and professional creative workflows.

Matthew is the author of The Future Creative: 10 Actions to Fuel Creativity in Education (Profrock Press) and co-editor of Generative AI and Creativity (Academic Press), bringing together leading international scholars examining AI's impact on creative thinking and practice. He is also the author of the industry white paper Intentional AI, which advocates for thoughtful, human-centered adoption of artificial intelligence within creative organizations.

As the co-founder of the DMCT LIFT Lab, Matthew leads research into how emerging AI platforms can enhance creative work while safeguarding the human elements of ideation, storytelling, collaboration, and artistic decision-making. His research combines design-based experimentation with industry collaboration to investigate the capabilities, limitations, ethical implications, and future role of AI in content creation.

Beyond his research, Matthew serves as co-host of the internationally recognized Fueling Creativity in Education podcast, where he explores creativity, innovation, and emerging technologies with educators, researchers, and creative professionals from around the world.

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Brea Thomas-Young

Assistant Director of Digital Media CT
at University of Connecticut
.
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Brea Thomas-Young is a Creative professional with several years of experience working with start-ups, non-profit organizations and local businesses. She is currently the Associate Director of Digital Media CT, a collaborative with the mission of being a key player for Digital Media Education in Connecticut. Brea attended the University of Connecticut where she earned her BA in Digital Media & Design. She is passionate about all things design, tech & art with an all-encompassing goal of exposing these worlds to the youth of underrepresented communities.

Brea is also a multidisciplinary artist that has had her work showcased in exhibitions at the Carriage Barn Art center in New Cannan, CT & the Norwalk Art Space. She also uses her creativity to lead workshops throughout the community & at a Resident Makerspace in Stamford CT.

Are you working in higher education? and would like to join or learn more about the collaborative? Contact us here!

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