For four years, Smart Haptics has provided this growing industry with a forum dedicated to exploring the future of haptic technology. This conference encourages important conversations about emerging applications, innovative ideas, and opportunities for collaboration across the supply chain. Presentations are designed to engage and inform the haptics industry through case studies and panel discussions that provide the opportunity for attendees to both experience and explore the latest technologies and emerging applications. Learn More About This Industry-Leading Event
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Nicholas Colonnese is a Research Science Manager at Facebook Reality Labs Research, working on novel interfaces for mixed reality. He leads a multi-disciplinary team which includes researchers with expertise in haptics, soft robotics, computer vision, machine learning, estimation, optimization, and functional garments and textiles. His research interests center on how the intersection of a broad range of academic disciplines: from haptics, to sensor fusion, to human computer interaction paradigm design, can define and then improve mixed reality interaction in the coming revolution of augmented and virtual reality. He holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.
Dave Birnbaum is a designer, inventor, and public speaker on the topics of emotional design, embodied communication, and immersive entertainment. He has been creating haptic experiences for over 15 years, in which time he’s been named as an inventor on over 100 patents in the fields of gaming, XR, automotive, mobile devices, and rich interactive media. Dave is a founding member of the Haptics Industry Forum, the leading industry group focused on standardizing and scaling haptic technology. Dave hosts the INIT Podcast, where he interviews leading thinkers and innovators at the intersection of technology and humanity.
Hong Z. Tan has conducted haptic research for about 30 years. Her MIT doctoral dissertation was the first study to demonstrate an information rate of 12 bits/s with a multi-finger haptic display that was developed as a tactile aid for the hearing impaired. Tan received her Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, P.R. China. She earned her Master and Doctorate degrees, both in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is currently a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering with courtesy appointments in Mechanical Engineering and Psychological Sciences at Purdue University. Tan was a recipient of the prestigious US National Science Foundation's Early Faculty Development (CAREER) Award, and she was a Chinese National Natural Science Funds’ Distinguished (Overseas) Young Scholar. She has served on numerous program committees, was a co-organizer of Haptics Symposium from 2003 to 2005, Founding Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Haptics in 2006, Editor-in-Chief of the World Haptics Conference Editorial Board from 2012 to 2015, and co-chair of the World Haptics Conference in 2015. Tan has served on many journal editorial boards and received a Meritorious Service Award from the IEEE Transactions on Haptics in 2012. From 2011-2015, Tan was a Visiting Researcher, then a Senior Researcher and Research Manager at Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing, China.
Eric is a haptics enthusiast breaking the barriers for haptics to scale.
Eric designed the haptics architecture of Interhaptics, lead a team of engineers and marketing colleagues to the launch of the Haptics Composer: the first multiplatform Haptics Design tool on the market.
He co-founded Go Touch VR exploring skin indentation technologies for haptics applications in VR. Go Touch VR raised 2 m $ to create new technologies for XR.
Eric was the CTO of Hap2u in charge of the software team designing the rendering stack to drive surface haptics technologies at full capabilities. Hap2U raised 6 m $ from Daimler and it is going to revolution mobile haptics as we know it.
He published 20 + scientific papers on haptics and human-machine interactions and deposed 5 patents on haptics technologies and applications.
Since 2007, Stella has been working as a development engineer at BMW, with a focus on haptics and future interior concepts.
Simon Chaput is the founder and CEO of Boréas Technologies Inc., a company developing novel miniature low-power piezoelectric actuator drivers for the haptic market based on its proprietary CapDriveTM technology. CapDriveTM was invented by Mr. Chaput during his Ph.D. at Harvard University. Over the years, Boréas Technologies built an internal team of mechanical engineers to develop novel system integration solutions for piezo actuators. In 2019, Boréas Technologies introduced SmartClik, a buttonless concept phone. In 2021, Boréas released the Boréas Piezo Haptic Engine and NexusTouchTM. Mr. Chaput holds a B.Eng (2011) and an M.A.Sc. (2013) from Université de Sherbrooke.
Gerald has been involved in Mechatronics for Automotive applications since 2003 when he joined Moving Magnet Technologies in Besancon, France and worked as a research & development engineer (Magnetic Position Sensors, BLDC motors, Direct Drive Actuators). Gerald became the head of the magnetic position Sensor team in 2006 and then moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2010 to be in charge of the business development and to technically support NA customers.
He received his mechanical engineer’s degree in 2000, He holds a Masters degrees (2000) and a doctorate (2003) in Engineering science in cooperation with the Los Alamos National laboratory (new Mexico) where he spent 9 months in 2002/2003.
As Executive Director of the ANA Avatar XPRIZE, David brings nearly two decades of Operations experience with a focus on producing large-scale, international competitions and events. Over the course of his ten plus years at XPRIZE, David has orchestrated an eclectic slate of incentivized prize competitions, with topics ranging from Moon exploration (Google Lunar XPRIZE) to seawater surface oil recovery (Oil Cleanup XPRIZE), which leverage emerging technologies and a crowd-source platform to drive technological breakthroughs and positive social impact.
James works for Equal Entry as a technical writer and accessibility consultant. His work focuses on creating media alternatives — audio descriptions, captions, and text alternatives. He also writes and produces training videos about accessibility for various companies. Currently, he’s conducting research on the best ways to provide audio descriptions for virtual reality experiences.
Francesca Rosella is a pioneer in the field of wearable technology. A fashion designer, architect, visionary, and sustainability champion. Francesca co-founded CuteCircuit with Ryan Genz in 2004. CuteCircuit is the world’s first wearable technology fashion brand, pioneering the merging of fashion with technology and creating groundbreaking award-winning interactive fashions that have been featured in exhibitions and publications all over the world including SXSW, CES, WEAR, WIRED NextGen, TEDx, Vogue Digital, and DLD. CuteCircuit's products are part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Museum at FIT, Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and Cooper Hewitt the Smithsonian Design Museum in New York. CuteCircuit’s designs have been honoured by Time Magazine as Best Inventions of the Year, by Fast Company in 3 Innovation by Design categories: Fashion and Beauty, Experimental, and Social Good, and exhibited at the annual meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Most recently Francesca received the UNESCO Netexplo Innovation Award for creating "technology that improves life”, and the AWE XR AUGGIE AWARD 2020 for Biggest Societal Impact for the SoundShirt. Francesca holds a number of patents in the field of wearable technology, such as sensor-enhanced fabric constructions and multimedia wearable telecommunication devices.
Prior to joining XPRIZE, Jacquelyn Morie spent 13 years as a Sr. Research Scientist at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), which she helped found. While there, she created novel VR telehealth and educational activities using her deep understanding of art, computer animation and human behavior to enhance engagement with these programs. As Founder and Chief Scientist of her company, All These Worlds, LLC, Morie continued this work for private and government clients, including NASA’s Behavioral Health & Performance Research group, for whom she developed the ANSIBLE Project, which studied how to mitigate psychological issues that might imperil future long duration space travelers. She served as a member of the DARPA Information, Science And Technology think tank from 2011 through 2015, and lectures extensively on how technology will affect our future selves and humanity. Dr. Morie is also an ACM Distinguished speaker, and holds masters’ degrees in both Fine Art and Computer Science. She also holds a doctorate in immersive technologies from the prestigious SmartLab Program through the University of East London.
