Simon Chaput is the founder and President 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.
Masatoshi Miyakawa is the business development director of Miraisens, Inc., which was founded in 2014, developed a 3DHaptics™ technology based on illusionary haptics, the world’s first haptic technology established on a neuroscientific basis by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. Miraisens joined Murata Manufacturing in December 2019.
Masatoshi started his career as an audio engineer in the music and entertainment industry. Since joining Miraisens in 2018, he has enjoyed collaborating to create an immersive experience with game developers.
Jas Brooks (they/them) is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Chicago. Their research expands the computer interface to engage with the chemical interactions of our bodies and investigates what this paradigm enables. These chemical interfaces have given rise to new I/O methods (e.g., low-power thermal/tactile experiences and stereo-smell) and are uniquely situated to help with smell and taste disorders. Jas has published work at top Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) venues, including ACM CHI and UIST, of which 2 received Best Paper Awards. Their work has also been awarded an Honorable Mention in the Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards for Experimental Design and covered in media publications like WIRED, Fast Company, Digital Trends, and IEEE Spectrum. Jas is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a UChicago Media Arts, Data, and Design Graduate Fellow.
During their free time, Jas documents the history of scent technologies and media. They are currently revisiting the story of Behind the Great Wall in AromaRama, conserving the last known Smell-O-Vision system and Scent of Mystery fragrance from 1960, and interviewing stakeholders from companies like DigiScents, Inc. Their curatorial work has been recognized internationally.
Danny Grant is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Innovobot Labs, an R&D and Innovation Design House that tackles pressing problems through the development and application of cutting-edge technologies. A haptics visionary and prolific inventor, Danny has a proven record of innovation and a passion for building a better future. He is named on more than 270 US patents and key inventions with high commercial value, including the haptic technology licensed by Sony and featured in the PlayStation®5 DualSense™ Controller. Danny is one of the foremost authorities on haptic technologies and their application with additional expertise in core technologies: mechatronics, robotics and control systems, across multiple industries (medical devices, automotive, mobile, gaming, VR and augmented reality...). He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from McGill University, where he is an adjunct Professor of Computer Science and is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
David Parisi (PhD, NYU) is Professor of Emerging Media at the College of Charleston. His research investigates the past, present, and future of touching with digital technologies. His book Archaeologies of Touch: Interfacing with Haptics from Electricity to Computing (University of Minnesota Press, 2018) explores the technological transformations of touch necessary for the invention of touch-based computer interfaces. Opening with an examination of touch’s role in apprehending the mysteries of eighteenth century electrical machines and closing with an analysis of new computing technologies that digitally synthesize haptic sensations, Archaeologies of Touch traces the development of a technoscientific haptics across four centuries. His work on digital touch has been featured in forums such as Real Life, Internet of the Senses, Flash Forward, All in the Mind, The Correspondent, Tech Crunch, The Believer, and Vice. He is an editor at ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories and co-edited the Haptic Media Studies issue of New Media & Society.
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.
Maud Clavier has been working in the 360°& VR field since 2015. After four years of directing her company to create corporate 360 films, she decided to quit to focus on her creativity. In 2018 she directed her first docu-fiction in 360°: FILAMU that has been awarded at several festivals. She subsequently artistic performances for museums and performing arts using various technologies (XR, IA, Holograms).
She is now associate and COO of VRROOM , working on events such as Venice VR Expanded, SXSW and Jean Michel Jarre’s immersive concerts including “Welcome to the Other Side” in Notre Dame de Paris that has reached 75 million views across the globe. Now VRROOM is working on building it’s own platform for live entertainment.
Vicky Smalley has extensive experience working with AI and a passion for big data, working at companies including Sony, Climax, Kuato Studios and If You Can.
She started her career specializing in Artificial Intelligence for PC and Console titles and in 2011 took a change in direction, switching platform to mobile and focusing on the educational sector.
She is a strong technical lead with a history of managing teams who can deliver complex products to ambitious timescales while maintaining high production values. She is passionate about using cutting edge VR and haptic technology to deliver immersive training that will improve surgical outcomes.
Richard has 20+ years’ experience of building international businesses and has throughout his career sought opportunities for positive market disruption through technological application.
It was this desire that led him to co-found FundamentalVR to help address an age-old problem for the medical market; how to create safe, realistic, measurable spaces to learn and develop skills.
In his role as CEO Richard is responsible for building a world class team of medical, learning and technologist who together can realise the company’s ambition of creating the world’s first global, haptically enabled, low cost ‘flight simulator for surgeons’.
Peter Cooney is the founder of SAR Insight & Consulting. Peter has been tracking, analysing and commenting on technology markets for over 15 years. In that time he has headed practices at a number of leading analyst firms, managing teams of analysts across the world.
Peter has covered a diverse range of markets including audio & voice technologies, MEMS sensors, microprocessors, haptics, and wireless connectivity ICs.
Peter has been widely quoted in the press and has serviced a wide range of clients including most of the top 20 largest semiconductor companies and many others, including numerous citations in client press releases as an industry expert.
He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Sheffield, his intial career was as a process engineer, responsible for the CVD process for production of DRAM for a major electronics company.
Nicholas Colonnese is a Research Science Director at Meta Reality Labs Research, working on novel interfaces for augmented and virtual reality. He leads a multidisciplinary haptic displays program, which includes researchers with expertise in materials, actuation, rendering algorithms, perception, interaction design, and haptic value evaluation. His mission is to bring the sense of touch to the metaverse. He is an active member of several academic and industrial communities, including Haptics Symposium, World Haptics, UIST, CHI, ISWC, SIGGRAPH, Smart Haptics, and others. He holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.
Davide Vigano – Co-founder and CEO of Sensoria Health, Inc. BIO: Sensoria designs, develops and produces bio-sensing wearable garments. The vision of the company is that the Garment itself will become the next ultra-personal, mobile computer. Davide is a former Microsoft partner level executive with over 25 years of sales, marketing and extensive product management experience. As an intern he started the international localization group for MacWorks and MacOffice in 1987. More recently, he served as General Manager of the Health Solutions Group where he was in charge of marketing and product strategy for both HealthVault and the Amalga product line. He acted as Vice President of the Worldwide SMSP Medium Business division which he grew 18% YOY to over $14B. Davide also managed the Italian Marketing, Business and Enterprise operations for five years and brought it to number one in the world for contribution margin, 6th largest Microsoft subsidiary in the world by revenues.
I am a very dedicated person who achieves everything I aim towards. Languages are my passion and an essential part of my job. I believe that one must be passionate about their work, as it is an essential part of life and should be enjoyed. This has given me all the tools I need to lead the communications of the company. I started working as the Head of Communication where I have shown that I can raise to the challenges of the post. My degree in Journalism, teaching and travelling around the world have taught me to communicate even in the toughest of situations. And being bilingual in English and Spanish is a big advantage in my job too.
Margot Racat holds a PhD in Social Sciences from University of Lyon, France and she is professor of marketing at IDRAC Business School, Lyon. Her research focuses mainly on issues related to sensory influence on information processing in marketing contexts (e.g. mediated environments, customer experience) and management (e.g. entrepreneurial decision making in extreme contexts). She particularly gives interest to computer-mediated interactions and virtual environments for consumption and knowledge transfer. She publishes her work in academics journals and books (Technology, Forecasting and Social Changes, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Palgrave MacMillan, …).
Peter Botticelli joined SynTouch with a strong background in custom robotics and control systems. Peter studied electrical engineering both at Worchester Polytechnic Institute and the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He worked in development as a robotics engineer at Barrett Technology Inc. and more specifically controls at UniFirst Corporation. At SynTouch, Peter develops state-of-the-art machine sensing technology, working with leaders in various industries including consumer electronics, automotive, textiles, and consumer goods to provide novel applications for machine touch.
My professional experience is very diverse, from user experience to software engineering, database systems, graphic design and industrial design. I am a truly cross-disciplinary leader that bridges the worlds of design, business and engineering to deliver incredible user experiences.
I have a wide range of industry experience, from medical devices, automotive, boxed software, cloud services, mobile, furniture, construction, media, government IT, and multiple consulting roles.
My bio: Hong Z. Tan is an educator, scientist, technologist, and entrepreneur. She is best known for her research on haptics psychophysics, taking a perception-based approach to developing haptic interfaces. Throughout her academic career, Hong has kept a close tie with industry through her consulting activities, a four-year stint at Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing, and currently as a lead haptics scientist at Google. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for her contributions to wearable haptics.
Hong received her bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Computer Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After two years as a Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab, she joined the faculty in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University in 1998. She holds concurrent courtesy appointments in the School of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University.
Dr. Manuel Kuehner is a Haptics Engineer at Woven Planet (Palo Alto, California), a subsidiary of Toyota. At Woven Planet, Manuel works on incorporating safety-related haptic feedback in partially automated driving systems to increase safety by enhancing human driving capabilities as a part of Toyota’s Guardian system.
He worked all his professional life - since 2008 - in haptics in the automotive industry with roles in research, pre-development, and series development. Before his current position at Woven Planet in the US, Manuel worked for the Toyota Research Institute in the US, Audi and Porsche in Germany, and Geely (Lotus brand) in China.
His previous roles focused on the technical specification of haptics and related topics for infotainment systems such as classical mechanical control elements, touch-based user interfaces with and without active haptic feedback (force feedback), and control elements based on magnetorheological fluids (MRFs) to ensure the so-called “perceived quality” from the end customer point of view within the contractual relationship between the respective OEM and various tier-1 suppliers.
Named inventor or co-inventor of 120+ filed patents in different fields but mainly haptics-related. Audi currently uses several of these patents in mass production vehicles.
Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Technical University of Munich and a Diplom (FH) in Mechatronics.
Guus de Hoog is a user-centred product designer with about 15 years’ experience in the overlapping fields of product, UX and service design. He has worked on consumer electronics, sports equipment, fitness trackers, medical devices, smart wearables & IOT projects. He strongly beliefs in wearable technology and the meaningful capabilities wearables can have to improve people’s lives. Haptic feedback wearables can help people live healthier, work safer or perform better.
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.
Bio Coming Soon
Elisa is one of the founding members of GREWUS GmbH (2007). GREWUS develops and produces innovative acoustic components and haptic actuators for all industries and applications. Since 2017, she is not only Managing Director but also responsible for Automotive Haptic Key Accounts. Together with her team, Elisa supports customers in the integration of active haptics. She not only understands the market requirements on a commercial but also on a technical basis. She has been working in the international automotive industry for over 18 years. Furthermore, she was recently elected Automotive Chair of the Haptic Industry Forum.
Caleb Eubanks is an Emmy award-winning XR digital marketing professional with an outstanding track record and international renown. He has a strong background in production, social media management, content creation & web development.
He is the Founder of the original ProVRGear & 3D-Printed Accessories (2016-2020), Co-Founder of VRSpies Podcast (2015-2019) and spent three years working as Director of Communications for ARVORE Immersive Experiences based in Sao Paulo, Brazil (2018-2021). In the past year Caleb was contracted as the Social Media & Syndication Director for the Board of Advisors Mastermind and spoke on stage during their last quarterly event about the future of XR marketing.
In early 2019 Caleb represented the US in Xi'an, China during the World Cyber Games' first-ever VR eSports Tournament, while also participating and being featured in a Korean documentary series titled "We Are Gamers". Later that same year he was selected to be a TEDx speaker at Palo Alto College giving a talk titled 'A Day in the Life of VR'. He has also spent time speaking at conferences such as the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara, on a panel titled "Haptics & the Future of Immersive Technologies" as well as a Microsoft Reactor Panel in San Francisco, titled "Diversity in LBE's".
As a recognized executive in the high-tech space, Francois has spent the last two decades building strategic relationships with leading OEMs and ODMs – increasing revenue and catapulting long-term growth for leading organizations. He has held senior level positions at UPEK, a fingerprint authentication company (ultimately acquired by Apple), and helped increase revenue to $50M+ in less than three years. Most recently, Francois was CEO for until its acquisition by KEMET in 2019. Prior to that, he was Senior Director of Sales for Cambrios Technologies, leading sales activities with top tier OEMs. He holds an Engineering Degree from ICAM France and an MBA from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.
To pursue a challenging and successful career that supports continuous learning and development. Have a deep understanding of Business, Technology Solutions & Products. Sometimes act as an Enterprise/Solution Architect to provide concrete contribution to Organizational strategy and most importantly enabling customers for Digital transformation.
Always a trusted advisor for clients and like to find and leverage opportunities to Improve the alignment between Business and IT in the fast paced & disruptive Technology world and keep the balance between the new technology offers and how to adopt/exploit it properly in time.
Bringing the business & technical vision together to achieve the right ROI and develop current and future state solution models for Business, Applications, Security, Data, Infrastructure & align it to technology products.
Brian has studied and contributed to the field of nonlinear acoustics for nearly 20 years. Starting with the conversion of sound to light in university (sonoluminescence) and following in industry by designing devices to turn ultrasound to audible sound (directional audio) and finally ultrasound to force (haptics). Well versed in both theoretical and practical approaches to array acoustics, he is currently the technical lead of the automotive haptic group at Ultraleap. He is the author of 11 academic publications in a variety of physics and medical journals and 30 issued or pending patents in the fields of signal processing, audio, ultrasound, and haptics. Brian hold a master's degree and PhD in Physics from The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Philippe Guillotel is Distinguished Scientist at InterDigital Research & Innovation. His research interests include UX/user experiences (immersive experiences and user sensing), human perception technologies (vision and haptics), video compression (2D and 3D) and artificial intelligence (inc. robotics and machine/deep learning) for entertainment. He published 15 + scientific papers on haptics and human-machine interactions and deposed 20 + patents on haptics technologies. He currently leads a team of experts in the field of the digital human and how to make those virtual characters, or avatars, socially interacting with the users in a realistic way (including multi-modal interfaces). He holds a Ph.D. in signal processing and telecommunication from the University of Rennes.
VR gamer, Community Manager at bHaptics, voice actor, amateur philosopher, host of the Between Realities Podcast, crusader for all things virtual reality.
Dr. Aadeel Akhtar is the CEO and Founder of PSYONIC, a company developing advanced bionic limbs that are accessible to all people with limb differences. Dr. Akhtar received his PhD in Neuroscience and MS in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016. He received an MS in Computer Science in 2008 and BS in Biology in 2007 at Loyola University Chicago. In 2021, he was named as one of MIT Technology Review’s top 35 Innovators Under 35 and America’s Top 50 Disruptors in Newsweek.
Robert is an accomplished executive who has built and led successful teams in various industries. Highlights include senior positions with D-BOX Technologies Inc., Quebecor World/Worldcolor, Apple Canada and Transcontinental. Robert's skills include strategic planning, operations and business development. Robert has developed an extensive international network, which allows him to put the right people together at the right time, creating synergy and collaboration along the way. Robert has an MBA from Montreal's prestigious HEC.
Hao-Yen Tang is co-founder and CTO of UltraSense Systems Inc. He received his PhD degree from UC Berkeley where he developed a novel PMUT ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, which was licensed by InvenSense. At InvenSense, he led a multi-disciplinary system team for commercialization of a next generation ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, coordinating development from different fields including acoustics, MEMS, CMOS and software. From InvenSense, he co-founded UltraSense Systems, to develop unique HMI Solid-State Interface Solutions which combines MEMS, ultrasound, piezo-materials and Senor Fusion technologies. Dr. Tang currently holds 10 issued US patents and 20+ papers with 1500+ citations.
Bio:
Ashley Huffman is an executive at TITAN Haptics who leads the international marketing efforts and strategic partnerships in VR/AR, gaming, and wearables. She’s the founder of the ‘All Things Haptics’ newsletter and a co-founder of The Haptics Club, a podcast created by members of the industry to support education, cooperation, and inclusion.
Links:
https://twitter.com/ChickTech
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahuffman
https://titanhaptics.com
https://thehapticsclub.com
https://haptics.substack.com
