Dr. Ivan Poupyrev directs an Interaction Technology group in Disney Research’s Pittsburgh Lab, Walt Disney Imagineering, a unit of Walt Disney Company tasked with dreaming up and developing future technologies for Disney parks, resorts, and cruises.

Dr. Poupyrev’s research focuses on inventing new interactive technologies for the seamless blending of digital and physical properties in devices, everyday objects, and living environments, a direction he broadly refers to as physical computing. It’s span a broad range of research fields including haptic user interfaces, tangible interfaces, shape-changing and flexible computers, augmented and virtual reality as well as spatial 3D interaction. His research was broadly published and received awards at prestigious academic conferences, exhibited world-wide and extensively reported in popular media, such as CNN, BBC, Financial Times, New York Times, New Scientist to name a few. The results of his research were also released on the market in various consumer products and applications.

Prior to Disney, Ivan has worked as a researcher at Sony Computer Science Laboratories and the Advanced Telecommunication Research Institute International, both in Japan. He also had a stint at the Human Interface Technology Laboratory at the University of Washington as a Visiting Scientist while working on his Ph.D. dissertation in Hiroshima University, Japan.