The event was moderated by Associate Professor of Media and Information Amanda Cote. Cote spoke about the event’s formation and purpose behind the event.

"The event draws together many of MSU’s unique resources, from the FRIB’s Artist-in-Residence Program to our top-ranked game design program, to offer an interdisciplinary look at the intersections of art and technology. It’s truly a cross-campus collaboration that we’re excited to bring to our community."

Some of the other panel members were physicist Pablo Giuliani from the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB); Chris Vrenna, former member of Nine Inch Nails and professor at University of Michigan; and MSU Associate professor and game developer Ryan Thompson.

Thompson spoke on his expansive work in game development, with a past far preceding the March 18 panel. 

"For my own work and research intersecting with the panel, I just returned from the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, where I continue to forge connections for MSU by entering into conversation with industry practitioners, such as woodwind player Kristin Naigus, who, I’ve featured on my WKAR radio show. I’ll be doing much of the same work when I speak with the other panelists this Wednesday, and I am looking forward to the conversation as well," Thompson said.

Vrenna’s journey to working at the University of Michigan can be seen as unconventional, but his perspective helps to give young people perspective on breaking into a creative industry. Vrenna started his career in education volunteering in after-school programs in Los Angeles and showing kids computer software they could make music on. He then transferred to formal education in 2013. Vrenna said that the experience helped lead him to what he was "meant to do."

"My road from musician, producer, remixer and artist into education was natural, but yet a little surprising as it was happening. I always loved learning myself and spent my career with some of the most talented people on the planet, in both studio and live environments. Along the way I would ask questions and pick their brains, as all of us do," Vrenna said. "I spent five years [teaching] in Wisconsin, six years in Alabama and now, I am in my second year at the University of Michigan. It has been so amazing working with young people, and if I can help them achieve their goals and dreams as I was fortunate enough to achieve mine, then it has all been worth it."

Vrenna hopes he can contribute to the audience at this MSU Museum event, taking something away from the panel discussion — specifically, with music and video games being interconnected, and its technologies. 

"This is an exciting event mixing several topics. My particular contribution is my experience composing music for video games on and off since the late 1990s and witnessing firsthand how the game industry and how music composition for video games has changed dramatically in the last decades. I'm sure the audience will find it fascinating, how we used to approach composition versus how music is now intertwined in video games in this modern age, especially with streaming and some of the specific ways in which music is composed and used for video games, unlike film and television."

For those looking to get more involved in music, science or video games — or all three, as they are all interconnected — Vrenna has words of advice from his own experiences.

"Practice, practice, practice," as my old drum teacher used to say, and keeping an open ear and an open mind to all types of music and technology art be it games, films, surround sound, in all genres of music. Fortunately, for young people today, technology and software are readily available to almost everyone, allowing interested people to not just read about or study this art, but to actually dive in, learn it and use it almost immediately," Vrenna said. "The flipside is, if all this wonderful software and hardware technology is so available, it becomes more about what you personally do with the technology. Using your own creativity and developing your own unique approach, personality and style with the technology will become paramount in your success within the industry."