Jay Margalus is a game developer, hacker, and designer. He is a faculty member and the Director of the DePaul University creative lab IRL, where his research explores the intersections between emerging technology, game design, and tinkering. He is a co-owner of the Chicago game company Lunar Giant, where he has worked on titles like Delve Deeper(on Steam) and Mega Ran: The Game. His work also includes the development of custom game hardware for the Thotcon 0x8 Badge, Big Data Outbreak for the Big Data Everywhere Conference, Project Libity, and more.

Jay also cofounded and served as an officer for the suburban hackerspace Workshop 88, and is the president of the non-profit makerspace SpaceLab located in Mokena, Illinois. He is a founder and board member of the Chicago Southland Maker Faire. Jay also founded and chaired the non-profit IGDA Chicago, and currently chairs the Mokena Technology Committee, which promotes the development of technology businesses and education in the south suburbs.

Jay's work has allowed him to speak at varying conferences and events such as the AMA Design MedEd Conference, Chicago Public Schools Techtalk + Googlepalooza, Caterpillar Innovation Conference, O’Reilly Strata Hadoop World, ChickTech Chicago, the Illinois Institute of Rural Affairs, C2E2, Indy Pop Con, and more. Topics he's currently covering include making, makerspaces, physical game design, and emerging technology.

Gaming, Innovation, Creativity, Emerging Tech, Emerging markets, Design Cybersecurity, Programmers, Technology, Communication, Information Technology,