October 11 2022 . MZ Publicly Announces the Anticipated launch of Avatars in Video calls in Meta Connect Keynote Address
Mark Zuckerberg (MZ) and Aigerim Shorman announce the anticipated launch of avatars in video chats on Messenger and Instagram during MZ’s Keynote address at Reality Labs 2022 Connect Event. I was the research lead who supported this team, and drove generative, strategic, and tactical research that led up to informed this announcement.
MZ: “And we’re also brining avatars to video chat. I think using an avatar in a video call is like this third mode, between video on and video off, you can still express yourself and react, but you’re not on camera, so it’s sort of like a better camera off mode. And in virtual reality there is already head and hand position so your avatar moves and sounds like you, and now we want to bring that to phones and computers to using cameras and microphones, so if you wink at your phone, your avatar should wink too!”
October 9, 2018 . Honored as one of the STAT 2018 Wunderkinds
I was honored as one of 30 early career scientists and researchers named 2018’s Wunderkinds by STAT, a life sciences publication produced by Boston Globe Media. In selecting this year’s class (2018) of Wunderkinds, STAT reports: “Over the past several months, a team of STAT editors and reporters pored through hundreds of nominations from across North America. We didn’t set an age limit; we were on the hunt for the most impressive doctors and researchers on the cusp of launching their careers but not yet fully independent. Most were postdocs, fellows, and biopharma employees working with more senior scientists. All are blazing new trails as they attempt to answer some of the biggest questions in science and medicine.”
August 11, 2018 . Talk given at ACM's 2018 Symposium on Applied PERCEPTION
I presented recent work published in the ACM 2018 Symposium of Applied Perception in a talk given in Vancouver, BC on August 11, 2018.
Update: This talk was awarded "Best Presentation" by the program organizers!
May 23, 2018 . Nature Materials Covers our Work
Philip Ball publishes a News & Views article in Nature Materials called "Zombie Materials" highlighting our work and it's connection with a recently published focus article by Murphy (2018) who suggests that the 'uncanny valley' for humanoid robotics only arises when weak Artificial Intelligence leads us to suspect that the robot is a humanoid automaton emulating a conscious agent.
April 19, 2018 . We Published a popular science article in Scientific American describing our most recent publication in Science Robotics
We published a popular science piece in Scientific American's 'Observations' section that describes our recent findings published in Science Robotics to a wider audience. The piece is called, "If (Virtual) Reality Feels Almost Right, It's Exactly Wrong" and describes the findings published in the article "The Uncanny Valley of Haptics" that was published on April 18, 2018 in Science Robotics.
April 19, 2018 . Science News Magazine Covers our recent findings published in Science Robotics.
Science News Magazine interviews my co-author Mar Gonzalez-Franco for a piece they did on our work on the theory of an uncanny valley for haptics in virtual reality that was published in Science Robotics this week.
April 13, 2018 . Newsweek covers recent FINDINGS published in Psychological Science
Newsweek covers our work demonstrating that what you imagine seeing can lead to cross-modal plasticity and change where you hear sounds in the future. The original article entitled, "Mental Imagery Induces Cross-Modal Sensory Plasticity and Changes Future Auditory Perception" is published in Psychological Science and can be found here. Click here to read Newsweek's coverage of the work.
March 14, 2018 . Selected for Panel Session at SXSW Tech Conference
I have been selected to give a session entitled "Augmented Minds: VR That Pushes Perceptual Limits" together with Daniel McDuff from Microsoft Research, as part of the VR/AR Track at the 2018 South by South West (SXSW) Festival in Austin, Texas.
Update (03/15/2018): Our talk was extremely popular and both the main talk and encore talk had full rooms! Thanks to all who turned out. See photo from an audience member of the encore session here.
September 28, 2018 . Invited Talk given at Microsoft Research
I gave a talk entitled, “Multimodal Devices: Learnings from Multisensory Perception and Plasticity” following my appointment as a visiting researcher at Microsoft Research (MSR) at Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond, WA. In this talk, I describe how I applied research in Neuroscience on multisensory integration of the senses to the development and improvement of multimodal devices at MSR.
June 2, 2017 . Awarded the Swedish Research Council International Postdoc Grant
I was awarded the prestigious Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsradet) International Postdoc Grant which comes with 3 years of funding, two of which will be spent in Prof. Shinsuke Shimojo's Psychophysics Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA, and one year in Stockholm Sweden.
June 28, 2013 . Psychology Today Covers our work on Mental Imagery .
Christopher Bergland writes a popular science article covering our research article published in Current Biology entitled 'Mental Imagery Changes Multisensory Perception'. Read our article here.
June 27, 2013 . Science Daily covers our Work
Science daily covers our work published in Current Biology entitled 'Mental Imagery Changes Multisensory Perception'. Read our article here.
June 14, 2012 . Dagens Nyheter Covers a popular science article I wrote
Respected Swedish Newspaper, Dagens Nyhetter, covers a popular science article I wrote for Scientific American (read article here) highlighting the work of Stefanie Brassen and colleagues (access article here) that highlights the importance of letting go of regrets for healthful aging.