Principal Investigator
Pattie Maes
Pattie Maes is an associate professor, and holder of the Alexander W. Dreyfoos chair in MIT's Program in Media Arts and Sciences. She founded and directs the Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces group. Previously, she founded and ran the Software Agents group. She currently acts as the associate Department Head for the Media, Arts and Sciences Department. Prior to joining the Media Lab, Maes was a visiting professor and a research scientist at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. She holds bachelor's and PhD degrees in computer science from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium. Her areas of expertise are human-computer interaction, intelligent interfaces and ubiquitous computing. Maes is the editor of three books, and is an editorial board member and reviewer for numerous professional journals and conferences. She has received several awards: Newsweek magazine named her one of the "100 Americans to watch for" in the year 2000; TIME Digital selected her as a member of the Cyber-Elite, the top 50 technological pioneers of the high-tech world; the World Economic Forum honored her with the title "Global Leader for Tomorrow"; Ars Electronica awarded her the 1995 World Wide Web category prize; and in 2000 she was recognized with the "Lifetime Achievement Award" by the Massachusetts Interactive Media Council.Students
Charlie Blonde Linder
Charlie is a Dog-in-Residence in the Fluid Interfaces group at the MIT Media Lab. He is a six month old yellow Labrador Retriever, or simply a Lab Lab. Charlie's work spans leash chewing, stuffed animal destruction as well as recreational digging. He is currently researching novel techniques for garden engineering. Before joining the Media Lab, Charlie spent his days in the beautiful countryside of Vermont.
Natan Linder
Natan is a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces group at the MIT Media Lab. His work fuses design and engineering to create novel human experiences. Natan's background is in Computer Science, Product Design and Entrepreneurship. As a ten-year industry veteran, he worked for Sun Microsystems, and was the co-founder of Samsung Electronics Israel R&D Center and served as its Mobile R&D General Manager. He was also an Entrepreneur in Residence at Jerusalem Venture Partners, a leading VC in Israel. Just before joining the Fluid Interfaces group, he was the Lead UI Designer at Heartland Robotics. Natan holds a BA in Computer Science from the IDC in Herzeliya, and his research interests span mobile technologies, rapid prototyping, robotics, augmented reality and industrial design.Portfolio, Linkedin
Sajid Sadi
Sajid Sadi is a fourth year PhD candidate and research assistant at the Media Lab. His current work focuses on objects that help people think about their actions and change their behavior based on subtle, ambient nudges delivered at the moment of action. As the world becomes more rich in media, there has been a proliferation of methods via which outside entities can affect our actions and decision-making. His work attempts to harness these techniques and combine them with experimental work in smart materials and ambient interfaces to allow people to benefit from the rich, interactive environment that surround us today.
Roy Shilkrot
Roy is a first year PhD student in the group. His interests are in augmented user interface and interpersonal communication experiences, alongside sailing, writing and music. He recieved his B.Sc and M.Sc in Computer Science from Tel-Aviv University and Tel-Aviv-Yaffo College. Among his studies, he has some 8 years of experience in Israeli high-tech industry, both in start-ups and enterprise. Prior to the MIT Media Lab he worked in Comverse Innovation Labs, researching and designing mobile user experience.
Marcelo Coelho
Marcelo Coelho is a PhD student at the MIT Media Lab. His work explores how technology can refashion communication by incorporating computation into common substrates and materials. Some of his projects include shape-changing garments, flying robots and edible circuits. Marcelo also holds a BFA in Computation Arts from Concordia University and, before joining the Fluid Interfaces Group, he was a research partner at XS Labs developing wearable technology and interactive textiles.
Pranav Mistry
Pranav Mistry is second year PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT Media Lab. Pranav is passionate about integrating the digital informational experience with our real world interactions. He holds a Master in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT and Master of Design from IIT Bombay. Pranav received his Bachelor degree in Computer Engineering. Before joining MIT, He also worked with Microsoft as a UX researcher. Pranav's research interests include Gestural and Tangible Interaction, Augmented Reality, Ubiquitous Computing, AI, Machine Vision, Collective Intelligence and Robotics.
Seth Hunter
Seth E Hunter is a first year PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces group focused on how to develop social experiences that deepen the value of "interactive interfaces" through reflection, communication, and embodiment. His work integrates software design, video projection, and sound in environments that support creative engagement in the physical world. He has a BA in Cognitive Science and Studio Art from the University of Virginia, and an MFA in Art and Technology from the Art Institute of Chicago. He has been employed as a multimedia developer, instructional technologist, media artist, and teacher. For more information on his work please visit perspectum.com
Pol Pla i Conesa
Pol is a first year masters candidate at the Fluid Interfaces Group. He is interested in exploring how interfaces affect people and group behavior and how to create environments that foster collaboration between people. Previous to his arrival at the group, he cofounded Multitouch Barcelona an artistic collective that explored natural interaction between people and technology, specially but not uniquely with multi-touch technologies. He graduated Multimedia Engineering by Ramon Llull University (Barcelona) and he holds a Masters in Cognitive Science and Interactive Media by Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona).
Valentin Markus Josef Heun
Valentin is a first year masters candidate in the Fluid Interfaces Group. He is interested in transferring benefits from our shared digital experiences to our physical reality. Previous to his arrival in the group, he cofounded a human computer interaction related company supported by an entrepreneurs scholarship from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. He holds a Master in Design from the Bauhaus-University Weimar and studied interdisciplinary in the field of design and engineering at the Pratt Institute New York, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia and Johan-Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt.
Anette von Kapri
Anette is a first year Masters candidate in the Fluid Interfaces Group at the MIT Media Lab. She is interested in bridging the virtual with the real world and creating novel user interfaces that engage people into playful interactions. Anette holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from the RWTH Aachen University in Germany. While doing her Masters, Anette lived and studied at the ENST in Paris, at the Columbia Univerity in New York and at the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo, Japan. Prior to joining the MIT, she worked as a Research Assistant in the Virtual Reality Group of the RWH Aachen University exploring visualization techniques and interactions in virtual environments.
Suranga Nanayakkara
Suranga is a visiting faculty in the Fluid Interfaces group at MIT Media Lab. He is a tenure-track professor at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), established in collaboration with MIT. Before joining SUTD, Suranga was a visiting Postdoctoral Associate at the Fluid Interfaces group. He received his PhD in 2010 and BEng in 2005 from National University of Singapore (NUS). His PhD work was on exploring ways of providing a satisfactory musical experience for the hearing-impaired using visual and haptic feedback. His current research focuses on developing multisensory, tangible, intelligent interfaces that would enable people to interact with the environment seamlessly.
Juergen Steimle
Jürgen is a visiting assistant professor in the Fluid Interfaces group at MIT Media Lab. He also leads an independent research group at the Center for Multimodal Computing and Interaction which is a part of Saarland University and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics. He is passionate about designing interactive computer displays that have the affordances and flexibility of paper. His current research focuses on user interfaces for different types of flexible displays, including rollable and foldable displays. Previously, he has designed and studied user interfaces for electronic pens and paper as well as for interactive tabletops. Jürgen graduated in Computer Science and French Studies at the University of Freiburg and holds a PhD in Computer Science from Darmstadt University of Technology. Prior to joining the Media Lab, Jürgen was head of the Tangible Interaction group at the Telecooperation Department of TU Darmstadt.Personal website
Alumni
Iliya Tsekov
Iliya is a project assistant research staff at the Fluid Interfaces Group. He was born in Bulgaria but after graduating from Sofia High School of Mathematics, he moved to Boston to pursue a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering at MIT. During his undergraduate years, he participated in several undergraduate research projects at MIT Media Lab working with the Personal Robots and Opera of the Future groups. Iliya's main interests are sociable self-actuated objects, tangible and tactile human-machine interfaces, and actuated implants and artificial limbs.
Yoav Reches
Yoav is a recent graduate of the M.A Design Products course in the Royal College of Art; London (2010). His work is multidisciplinary at its core, product design, scenography and set design, furniture and tableware design, sculpture and performance, technology and traditional craft. Throughout his work he wishes to explore technology and material progress alongside behavioral and tactile user needs. Yoav received a B.A in Industrial Design from of the Bezalel Academy for Arts and Design Jerusalem (2003) and was a member of the performance group "Zik" since 1995. He also taught at Shenkar College of Design, Bezalel Academy for Arts and Design and the School of Visual Theatre. In addition he served as a product design consultant to various companies among them Samsung Electronics and Aran R&D. Portfolio website
Aaron Zinman
Aaron is a PhD candidate researching novel computational models and interaction techniques to help navigate virtual social spaces. He is primarily concerned with helping technology better meld with existing social norms and conventions, thus creating new opportunities for computer mediated communications. The majority of his research at MIT was performed with Judith Donath in the Sociable Media Group. He holds an SM from the Media Lab, and a BS in Cognitive Science specializing in Computation from the University of California at San Diego. Aaron has taken off time during the PhD to work for IBM Research and Google.
Susanne Seitinger
Susanne Seitinger is a Research Affiliate at the MIT Media Lab Fluid Interfaces Group, Visiting Lecturer at the Technical University of Vienna and a Visiting Scientist at the Austrian Institute of Technology. She focuses on the strategic arrangement of programmable (LED) lighting elements that shape inviting and responsive 24-hour public spaces in the city. As a post-doc with Prof. Pattie Maes's Fluid Interfaces Group and in collaboration with Philips Color Kinetics, she developed LightBridge for the MIT 150th Anniversary Festival of Art Science and Technology. Her PhD dissertation –Liberated Pixels: Alternative Narratives for Lighting Future Cities– explores the aesthetic and interactive potentials for future lighting and display infrastructures. Susanne has also worked on interactive playground environments and props for children that take advantage of full-body interaction. At MIT, Susanne participated in numerous research and design projects on digital city environments including the Digital Mile in Zaragoza and the Digital Media City in Seoul. Prior to MIT, Susanne worked as a Princeton Project 55 fellow for an affordable housing developer in New York. Susanne’s background is in architecture, urban planning and human-computer interaction at MIT (PhD 2010, MS 2006, MCP 2004) and Princeton University (BA 2001).