Alvaro Cassinelli was born in Montevideo (Uruguay) in 1972. In 1990 he earns both a French and Uruguayan B.Sc., and a grant to pursue his studies in France. He obtains a Graduate Engineering diploma in 1996 from the Télécom ParisTech (a French Ivy League), completing the same year a Doctoral Qualifying Degree (DEA/Master) in Physics (Laser & Matter Interaction) from the University of Paris-XI, Télécom and Ecole Polytechnique. In 2000 he receives a PhD degree from the University of Paris-XI Orsay. From 2001 to 2015 he works as a Research Fellow, Research Assistant and then Assistant Professor at the Ishikawa-Watanabe Laboratory at the University of Tokyo, where he co-founds and leads the Meta-Perception group, a multidisciplinary research unit exploring new paradigms and custom hardware interfaces enlarging the vocabulary of HCI and the Media Arts. He co-founded the “Devices that Alter Perception” international workshop (from 2008-2011), and the first “Taller de Arte y Computación Física” in Uruguay (2008). Until 2017 he worked as CTO at SinergiaTech, the first certified FABLAB in Uruguay, and a technology incubator. Presently, he is Associate Professor at the School of Creative Media (SCM) in Hong Kong, co-founder of the Extended Reality Laboratory (XRL), and presently director of the Augmented Materiality Lab (AM).
Alvaro has been invited as keynote or visionary speaker at international conferences related to related HCI, AR/VR and the relation between Sciences and the Arts. He has been Visiting Professor/Researcher at renowned institutions such as KAIST (Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), NAIST (Nara Advanced Institute of Technology, Japan), ESPCI and LANGEVIN INSTITUTE (Paris), CEIBAL (OLPC Uruguay & IT R&D center). He has presented at MICROSOFT RESEARCH (Seattle), SAMSUNG THINK TANK (Mountain View), SCHOOL OF CREATIVE MEDIA (H.K.), WIRED NEXTFEST (N.Y.), as well as the MIT MEDIA LAB among other research centers and universities. He maintains ties with the corporate world, as consultant and/or collaborator for medium and large firms (Art+Com, Electric Factory, OMRON, Samsung Electronics, Hamamatsu Photonics, Nissan Research Center, Sony Labs, the Vision Chip Consortium in Japan, etc.), as well as startups including EXVISION (a spin-off of his former laboratory).
His research interests spans physics, fundamental aspects of computing, high/slow-speed & swarming robots, augmented and virtual reality, cognitive sciences, artificial intelligence, wearables, augmented perception, prosthetics & rehabilitation, and in general human-machine interfaces using novel principles and custom technology—areas in which he holds five patents and one trademark. Independently experimenting in the field of Media Arts, he has been awarded important international prizes, including the Panasonic Prize [2005], an Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica [2006], the Grand Prize [Art Division] at the 9th Japan Media Art Festival [2006], the Excellence Prize [Entertainment Division] at the 13th Japan Media Art Festival [2009], the NISSAN Innovative Concept Award [2010], the Jury Grand Prize at Laval Virtual [2011], the Digital Content EXPO Prize at SIGGRAPH Emerging Technologies [2016], among others.
About
BIO
Alvaro Cassinelli was born in Montevideo (Uruguay) in 1972. In 1990 he earns both a French and Uruguayan B.Sc., and a grant to pursue his studies in France. He obtains a Graduate Engineering diploma in 1996 from the Télécom ParisTech (a French Ivy League), completing the same year a Doctoral Qualifying Degree (DEA/Master) in Physics (Laser & Matter Interaction) from the University of Paris-XI, Télécom and Ecole Polytechnique. In 2000 he receives a PhD degree from the University of Paris-XI Orsay. From 2001 to 2015 he works as a Research Fellow, Research Assistant and then Assistant Professor at the Ishikawa-Watanabe Laboratory at the University of Tokyo, where he co-founds and leads the Meta-Perception group, a multidisciplinary research unit exploring new paradigms and custom hardware interfaces enlarging the vocabulary of HCI and the Media Arts. He co-founded the “Devices that Alter Perception” international workshop (from 2008-2011), and the first “Taller de Arte y Computación Física” in Uruguay (2008). Until 2017 he worked as CTO at SinergiaTech, the first certified FABLAB in Uruguay, and a technology incubator. Presently, he is Associate Professor at the School of Creative Media (SCM) in Hong Kong, co-founder of the Extended Reality Laboratory (XRL), and presently director of the Augmented Materiality Lab (AM).
Alvaro has been invited as keynote or visionary speaker at international conferences related to related HCI, AR/VR and the relation between Sciences and the Arts. He has been Visiting Professor/Researcher at renowned institutions such as KAIST (Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), NAIST (Nara Advanced Institute of Technology, Japan), ESPCI and LANGEVIN INSTITUTE (Paris), CEIBAL (OLPC Uruguay & IT R&D center). He has presented at MICROSOFT RESEARCH (Seattle), SAMSUNG THINK TANK (Mountain View), SCHOOL OF CREATIVE MEDIA (H.K.), WIRED NEXTFEST (N.Y.), as well as the MIT MEDIA LAB among other research centers and universities. He maintains ties with the corporate world, as consultant and/or collaborator for medium and large firms (Art+Com, Electric Factory, OMRON, Samsung Electronics, Hamamatsu Photonics, Nissan Research Center, Sony Labs, the Vision Chip Consortium in Japan, etc.), as well as startups including EXVISION (a spin-off of his former laboratory).
His research interests spans physics, fundamental aspects of computing, high/slow-speed & swarming robots, augmented and virtual reality, cognitive sciences, artificial intelligence, wearables, augmented perception, prosthetics & rehabilitation, and in general human-machine interfaces using novel principles and custom technology—areas in which he holds five patents and one trademark. Independently experimenting in the field of Media Arts, he has been awarded important international prizes, including the Panasonic Prize [2005], an Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica [2006], the Grand Prize [Art Division] at the 9th Japan Media Art Festival [2006], the Excellence Prize [Entertainment Division] at the 13th Japan Media Art Festival [2009], the NISSAN Innovative Concept Award [2010], the Jury Grand Prize at Laval Virtual [2011], the Digital Content EXPO Prize at SIGGRAPH Emerging Technologies [2016], among others.