Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lynette Jones

Enhancing realism and communication bandwidth using multisensory cutaneous cues

Dr. Lynette Jones is a Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is a recognized leading scientist in the area of haptics and tactile displays and wearable technologies. Her research group at MIT has built a number of tactile and thermal displays that have been used in research conducted by both academic and industrial organizations. Dr. Jones has served on several national committees including the Committee on Space Biology and Medicine of the National Research Council. She is the author of over 100 referred scientific publications and of two books. Dr. Jones was the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Haptics from 2014-2019. She is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Stanford University

Allison Okamura

Wearable Tactile Devices for XR

Allison Okamura received the BS degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and the MS and PhD degrees from Stanford University. She is Professor in the mechanical engineering department at Stanford University, with a courtesy appointment in computer science. She is an IEEE Fellow and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the journal IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. Her awards include the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Technical Achievement Award, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Distinguished Service Award, and Duca Family University Fellow in Undergraduate Education. Her academic interests include haptics, teleoperation, virtual reality, medical robotics, soft robotics, rehabilitation, and education.

University of Southern California

Heather Culberston

Minimizing Haptic Hardware in Wearable Devices

Heather Culbertson is a Gabilan Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on the design and control of haptic devices and rendering systems, human-robot interaction, and virtual reality. Particularly she is interested in creating haptic interactions that are natural and realistically mimic the touch sensations experienced during interactions with the physical world. Previously, she was a research scientist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University where she worked in the Collaborative Haptics and Robotics in Medicine (CHARM) Lab. She received her PhD in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) at the University of Pennsylvania in 2015 working in the Haptics Group, part of the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Laboratory. She completed a Masters in MEAM at the University of Pennsylvania in 2013, and earned a BS degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno in 2010. She is currently serving as the Vice-Chair for Information Dissemination for the IEEE Technical Committee on Haptics. Her awards include a citation for meritorious service as a reviewer for the IEEE Transactions on Haptics, Best Paper at UIST 2017, and the Best Hands-On Demonstration Award at IEEE World Haptics 2013.

Facebook Reality Labs

Ali Israr

Challenges in Haptic Hardware Design for enabling XR interactions

Ali Israr is a Mechanical Engineer by training and has been working and leading projects in haptics research and technologies for over 15 years. Ali has in depth knowledge of haptic sciences and worked on various actuation technologies to realize, test and demonstrate novel user interactions and experiences in handheld, wearable and surround haptic displays. After obtaining his PhD from Purdue University, Ali joined MAHI lab at Rice University as postdoc before moving to industrial research organizations. Ali has led projects in Disney Research and Facebook, leading efforts to expand utility of haptic enabled technologies for entertainment, educational, social, therapeutic and ARVR settings.

University of Pisa

Matteo Bianchi

From human haptic perception modelling to system design for advanced human-machine interaction

Matteo Bianchi is currently an Assistant Professor at the Research Centre “E. Piaggio” and the Department of Information Engineering (DII) of the Università di Pisa. He is also clinical research affiliate at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, USA) and serves as co-Chair of the RAS Technical Committee on Robot Hands, Grasping and Manipulation and Vice-Chair  for Information and Dissemination of the RAS Technical Committee on Haptics. From January to June 2011, he worked as visiting student at the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA. He acts as the Principal Investigator of national and EU grants, and research contracts with companies in the field of human-machine interaction. He is author or co-author of more than 100 peer-reviewed contributions and serves as member of the editorial/organizing board of international conferences and journals. His research interests include haptic interface and sensor design, control and validation with applications in virtual reality, robotics/medical robotics (robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery and prosthetics), tele-robotics, and assistive/affective human-robot interaction; human and robotic hands: optimal sensing and control; psycho-physics and mathematical modeling of the sense of touch and human manipulation; human inspired control of soft robots; machine learning for human and robot manipulation. He is editor of the book  “Human and Robot Hands”, Springer International Publishing. He is recipient of  several national and international awards, including the JCTF novel technology paper award at the IEEE/RSJ IROS Conference in Villamoura, Portugal (2012) and the Best Paper Award at the IEEE-RAS Haptics Symposium in Philadelphia, USA (2016). He is a member of the IEEE. 

University of Waterloo

Oliver Schnieider

How to design haptic experiences

Oliver Schneider is an Assistant Professor, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researcher, and haptician at the University of Waterloo (Faculty of Engineering, Department of Management Sciences). His work combines HCI and haptics, focusing on understanding the challenges facing hapticians (makers of haptics) and developing tools to support them in creating haptic experiences. Oliver completed his PhD in Computer Science under the supervision of Karon MacLean (2016, University of British Columbia, NSERC CGS D) and holds an MSc (2012, University of British Columbia, NSERC CGS M) and BSc Honours (2010, University of Saskatchewan). From 2017-2018, Oliver was a Postdoctoral Scholar with Patrick Baudisch at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany, partially supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship (NSERC PDF). Oliver has also collaborated with Disney Research on novel haptic interactions as an intern and then consultant. Oliver’s work has been published in venues including ACM CHI and UIST; IEEE Haptics Symposium, EuroHaptics, and World Haptics; and the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (IJHCS).

McGill University

Jeremy Cooperstock

Jeremy Cooperstock (Ph.D., University of Toronto, 1996) is a professor in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, a member of the Centre for Intelligent Machines, and a founding member of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology at McGill University. He directs the Shared Reality Lab, which focuses on computer mediation to facilitate high-fidelity human communication and the synthesis of perceptually engaging, multimodal, immersive environments. He led the development of the Intelligent Classroom, the world’s first Internet streaming demonstrations of Dolby Digital 5.1, multiple simultaneous streams of uncompressed high-definition video, a high-fidelity orchestra rehearsal simulator, a simulation environment that renders graphic, audio, and vibrotactile effects in response to footsteps, and a mobile game treatment for amblyopia. Cooperstock’s work on the Ultra-Videoconferencing system was recognized by an award for Most Innovative Use of New Technology from ACM/IEEE Supercomputing and a Distinction Award from the Audio Engineering Society. The research he supervised on the Autour project earned the Hochhausen Research Award from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and an Impact Award from the Canadian Internet Registry Association, and his Real-Time Emergency Response project won the Gold Prize (brainstorm round) of the Mozilla Ignite Challenge. Cooperstock has worked with IBM at the Haifa Research Center, Israel, and the T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Tokyo, Japan, and was a visiting professor at Bang & Olufsen, Denmark, where he conducted research on telepresence technologies as part of the World Opera Project. Cooperstock led the theme of Enabling Technologies for a Networks of Centres of Excellence on Graphics, Animation, and New Media (GRAND) and is an associate editor of the Journal of the AES.

Rice University

Evan Pezent

Hands-on session using Syntacts

Evan Pezent received the B.S. degree from The University of Alabama in 2014 and the M.S. degree from Rice University in 2017. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Mechatronics and Haptic Interfaces Lab at Rice University. His Ph.D. research investigates how haptic devices can accelerate training outcomes and enhance immersion in augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR). Since 2018, he has worked with Facebook Reality Labs developing wearable haptic devices and interactions for AR/VR.

University of Michigan

Sile O’Modhrain

Designing a Full-Page Tactile Display: What we Know and What We Don’t Know Yet

Sile O’Modhrain is an associate professor at the University of Michigan where she holds a joint appointment in the Performing Arts Technology (PAT) program in the School of Music, Theatre and Dance, and in the school of information.  Her research focuses on human-computer interaction, especially interfaces incorporating haptic and auditory feedback. She earned her master’s degree in music technology from the University of York and her PhD from Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). She has also worked as a sound engineer and producer for BBC Network Radio. In 1994, she received a Fulbright scholarship, and went to Stanford to develop a prototype haptic interface augmenting graphical user interfaces for blind computer users.  For the past seven years, she has been working with Brent Gillespie and Alex Russamanno to design and build a full-page tactile array to support the display of braille and tactile graphics.

Johns Hopkins University

Jeremy Brown

Haptic Interaction Design For Telerobotic Devices

Jeremy D. Brown is the John C. Malone Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University where he directs the Haptics and Medical Robotics (HAMR) Laboratory. He is also a member of the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics (LCSR) and the Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare. Prior to joining Hopkins, Jeremy was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in the Haptics Research Group, which is part of Penn’s General Robotics, Automation, Sensing, and Perception (GRASP) Laboratory. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. He also holds B.S. degrees in Applied Physics and Mechanical Engineering from Morehouse College and the University of Michigan, respectively as a graduate of the Atlanta University Center’s Dual Degree Engineering Program. Brown’s team uses methods from human perception, motor control, neurophysiology, and biomechanics to study the human perception of touch, especially as it relates to applications of human-robot interaction and collaboration. He has been honored to receive several awards including the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship, the Best Student Paper award at the 2012 IEEE Haptics Symposium, the Penn Postdoctoral Fellowship for Academic Diversity, and the NSF CRII Award. He was also recently named a scholar to the NIH funded Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation Engineering Career Development Program (IREK-12). He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) Robotics and Automation Society, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). Brown’s work has appeared in a number of peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation, IEEE Transactions on Haptics, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, and IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, and the IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics.