Alana Balagot is a Senior Creative Technologist and Senior Software Engineer with over 20 years of experience. Based in Los Angeles, she has created high-profile activations for clients such as Microsoft, Netflix, Verizon, and Twitch. Her expertise spans interactive installations, AR/VR experiences, software engineering, hardware design, and CAD. Her passion lies in the magic where hardware meets software to surprise and delight. She combines technical skill with creative vision to deliver innovative solutions that engage audiences and elevate brand experiences.
Portfolio of Work
Liquid IV Hydracompound
Cognition partnered with Liquid I.V., NVE Experience Agency, and Treehouse Fabrication & Scenic to create a 40x30 footprint at F1 in Las Vegas featuring a timed pit stop challenge, an interactive pit wall, and hot and cold product samples. Alana developed the interactive pit wall and the pit stop challenge timer system, which together ran on 12 TVs, 8 computers, 4 media players, and 8 tablets.
Microsoft Copilot Experience Center Storefront
Microsoft tasked Cognition with creating a Copilot prompt generator and timer to demonstrate Copilot's features in their experience centers in New York, London, and Sydney. Alana wrote the storefront software and provided remote support for the computers and BrightSigns.
Bridgerton Portrait Generator
To celebrate Bridgerton Season 3, Netflix and Verizon commissioned a web-based AI portrait generator that created Regency-era portraits of guests. QR-code standees in 300 Verizon stores across the U.S. led visitors to the experience. Alana built the backend, managed the portrait-generation EC2 server cluster, and developed the front-end. This project won a W3 Award for Creative Innovation.
Welch's Photobooth
Cognition and Treehouse Fabrication & Scenic, in partnership with Superdigital, built two traveling physical photo booths and a microsite experience. The booths toured Phoenix, Portland, Denver, Salt Lake City, Boston, and New York. Alana developed the software and handled technical integration.
Ebay NSCC Booth & Scavenger Hunt App
For the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago, Cognition—alongside Treehouse Fabrication & Scenic and Edelman—produced a booth featuring an eBay Live stage, a Pop-A-Shot-style game, touchscreen learning tools, and a scavenger-hunt app. Guests raced to scan QR codes throughout the convention to win high-value collectibles or climb the leaderboard. Alana developed the app, including scan validation, progressive instructions, and scheduled clue drops.
Waymo Tech on the Go Tablet App
In partnership with NVE, Cognition built an interactive iPad app showcasing the Waymo Driver's sensor system and driving scenarios through video, 3D models, and augmented reality. Alana implemented the app in Swift, launching at Open Streets DC.
Intuit Entry Tunnel
Collaborating with AgencyEA, Cognition designed and built an entry-tunnel experience featuring 88 DMX LED tubes, reactive sound, and AI crowd-counting software that changed visuals and audio based on occupancy inside. Alana combined two crowd-counting models and wrote software to fade different audio layers in and out and trigger different lighting scenes based on the crowd size.
LA Kings & Mercury Insurance Hockeywood Heroes Mural
To honor community heroes at the LA Kings' training facility, Cognition & Treehouse Fabrication & Scenic created an interactive mural featuring 3D particle simulations, four 4K displays, and dynamic hero profiles. A wall-mounted tablet controls the installation, and content is remotely updatable via CMS. Alana built the Electron application, Contentful CMS integration, and installed the system on-site.
Liquid IV Remix Booth
Alana traveled with Liquid I.V. and NVE to Bonnaroo, Rolling Loud, and Outside Lands to operate the Remix Booth — a music quiz and interactive video experience with synchronized lighting. She engineered both the software and the physical booth design.
Frontier Communications Buccaneers Spike Game
At a Buccaneers tailgate activation, Cognition built a footprint featuring a trivia game, swag giveaways, and a custom spike game linked to a large LED display. Guests spiked a foam football against a sensor-embedded plate to compete on strength. Alana created the interactive software for the experience.
Liquid IV F1 Race to Hydration game
For F1 Miami, Liquid I.V. and NVE commissioned a themed racing-sim experience with curved widescreen monitors, racing pedals, force-feedback wheels, and integrated registration and leaderboard systems. Alana oversaw the Unity game development and system integration.
Twitch Elder Scrolls Online Release Trailer
At Ayzenberg, for the launch of Elder Scrolls Online, Alana built a custom Twitch extension that captured how many times people were clicking on the interactive stream. In an 8-hour campaign, fans would have to click to generate "magic" that would fill in a mysterious design. Once the design was filled, the trailer for the game played. Alana ran the interactive stream in Resolume, and designed the Twitch extension in javascript. Alana had an admin interface that showed how many millions of clicks we were getting, and could adjust the fill rate of the video accordingly.
Microsoft Store Pi Day Rube Goldberg Device
At Ayzenberg, for Pi day for Microsoft Store, Alana and team made a Rube Goldberg device powered by a Raspberry Pi that would put whipped cream on a Raspberry Pie. Alana learned C# and programmed the Pi to drive a fan, a proximity sensor, a solenoid, a linear actuator, and an LED display. It took over 40 tries before getting the final take.
Fandom AR Metallic Monster
At San Diego Comic-Con, Cognition created two AR experiences featuring an attacking metallic creature and animated shards erupting from a large fabricated monster—part of an anti-vaping campaign. Alana contributed to the AR development.
Contact
Alana can be reached at her firstname.lastname at gmail.com.