Keynote
-
Conference Start Date:
28th October 2024 -
Conference End Date:
30th October 2024
Reframing Haptics: Frontiers for Innovation and Discovery
Associate Professor Dr Yon Visell
University of California, Santa Barbara, US
Bio:
Yon Visell is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is appointed in the Bioengineering and Mechanical Engineering Departments. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at McGill University in Canada and was a postdoctoral scholar at Sorbonne University in Paris. He received his MA and BA degrees in physics from The University of Texas, Austin and Wesleyan University, respectively. Prior to his PhD studies, Visell spent several years in the R&D industry, developing machine learning techniques for speech recognition and signal processing methods for music and sonar. Visell is active in motorsports, including racing competitions and emerging technologies for safety and performance in human-vehicle interaction. Visell has published more than 85 scientific works. Research from his laboratory has attracted multiple awards from prominent haptics venues, including four best paper awards and two best demonstration awards since 2020. Visell was the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award, a Google Faculty Research Award, and a Hellman Faculty Fellowship. His research interests include haptics, human-vehicle interaction, robotics, and technologies that exploit physical principles in new or unexpected ways.
In-Situ Fabrication of Customisable Non-Intrusive Wearable Interfaces
Dr Anusha Withana
University of Sydney, Australia
Bio:
Anusha Withana is an ARD DECRA fellow and a senior lecturer (A/Prof.) at the School of Computer Science, the University of Sydney, where he leads the AID-LAB. He received his master’s and Ph.D. from Keio University, Japan. He was a postdoc at Max Planck Institute for Informatics and Saarland University before joining the University of Sydney. He works in the research field of human-computer interaction (HCI), mainly focusing on creating personalised enabling technologies using accessible fabrication methods. His research work has been published in top-tier HCI conferences and journals such as ACM SIGCHI/UIST/IMWUT. He has won numerous awards, including the Most Innovative Engineers in Australia Award 2020, and his research has been featured in leading media outlets such as CNN, Discovery TV, SBS, Straits Times, Gizmodo, and Engadget.
Physical human-machine interface to expand the human potential
Professor Yuichi Kurita
Hiroshima University, Japan
Bio:
Yuichi Kurita is a professor in the Graduate School of Engineering, director of the Applied Human Augmentation Project Research Center, and director of the KOBELCO Construction Machinery Dream-Driven Co-Creation Research Center at Hiroshima University. He received his B.E. degree from Osaka University, and his M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from Nara Institute of Science and Technology. In 2010, he was a visiting scholar at the School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, and in 2023, he founded the health-tech startup company HUMANMODEL Inc. His research career spans more than 20 years in haptics, robotics, virtual reality, and human augmentation, and he has published more than 100 journal and 150 international conference papers. He is the co-chair of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Technical Committee on Biorobotics and associate editor of the International Journal of Robotics Research and Advanced Robotics.
