email : anirudhs ατ mit.edu
Anirudh is passionate about blending digital and physical realities in everyday objects, devices, and the living environment. He plays with different modalities of AI applied to sensor-fusion, displays, haptics, acoustics, computer vision, and material science leading to application-oriented research that has a practical potential to make a positive impact.
As a graduate research assistant at the MIT Media Lab, Fluid Interfaces Group, he developed headset-free and gesture-based Augmented Reality interfaces under the supervision of Prof. Pattie Maes published at UIST and CHI. At Hewlett-Packard Labs and Google Anirudh led the development of a multi-projector stereoscopic (3D) gestural interface for CAD modeling through natural human gestures. His work often features at SXSW, TED, WIRED, Cannes Innovation Lions, Aspen Ideas, CES, Cooper-Hewitt-Smithsonian, and World Economic Forum.
Leadership
He led a team of anti-disciplinary scientists, engineers, and designers to build and ship products under tight constraints.
- Ducere, a wearable wellness tech startup developing a haptic platform for elderly fall prevention and sports analytics (exited 2018- link 1, link 2) .
- Graviky Labs, an electrochemical carbon emissions CO2 to product venture (Forbes article, Case Study). Led and liaised R&D pilots with Heineken, Diageo, ASICS, General Motors, and PUMA.
- Not-Profit MIT Media Lab India Initiative: 10-day hands-on workshops where MIT/Harvard researchers worked with Asian students to conceptualize novel wearables, and smart textiles.
Anirudh also loves magic. In an alternate universe, he is probably undergoing an apprenticeship with a sorcerer. He loves to collaborate and would love to hear from you if you work in the areas of human augmentation/sensory substitution or anything inspired by science fiction.
Awards
MIT TR35, 35 Innovators under 35 | Falling Walls Berlin ‘Science Startup of the year 2021’ | General Motors 50,000$ award for Circular Economy Innovation | Forbes 30 under 30 2018 | TIME Magazine Invention of the year 2020 | INK-TED Fellowship 2015 Golden Lion, | Cannes Innovation Festival, France, 2017 | Winner, D&AD Graphite Pencil Award for Innovation for AIR-INK; | Shell. ‘Make the Future’ Award 2017 | Foreign Policy 100 Global Thinkers Award, Washington DC 2016; | Panel, Sankalp Forum, Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi 2015 | ‘Top Achievement Award’ IDC | IIT Delhi | Google Summer of Code, 2009 and 2010
Talks, Demos and Workshops Conducted
TED 2019, Canada | Smithsonian | Cooper Hewitt Triennial 2018 | CES 2014 and CES 2017, Podcast 2018: Kickstarter HQ, New York | Aspen Ideas Festival 2020 | SXSW 2020 | Aspen-core, Colorado 2019 | WIRED UK 2016 | Installation at Leonardo Da Vinci Museum, Milan, Italy, 2016 | Keynote and workshop at European House, Ambrosetti, Italy 2019
Books featuring my research
Art and Technology of Entertainment Computing and Communication, Springer London| Intelligence of Things: AI-IoT Based Critical-Applications and Innovations, Springer | Smithsonian Trienneial 2020 | Disrupt 22, MIT Press | Clueless At 30: A Millennial’s Search For Everything And Nothing. Rupa | Indian Innovators: Penguin Press | Arduino For Kids, Packt Publishing | Unstoppable: How To Be Successful In South Asia, Penguin | Disrupt: 100 Lessons in Business Innovation, Nicholas Brealey Publishing
Publications
DSpace: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ‘Augmented tools with transparent displays’, 2014. | Sawada D., Sharma A., Chowdhary S., Hsieh C., Miller A. Pattie Maes ‘Wave Alchemy: Perception and Reminiscence of Expressive Moments through Waves’ ACM CHI 2013 | ‘Method for turning carbon emissions into usable material’ USPTO 2020 | Sharma A., Liu L., Maes P. ‘Glassified: An Augmented Ruler based on a Transparent Display for Real-time Interactions with Paper’ in proceedings of UIST 2013. | Modeling Actions Based on Speech and Touch Inputs’ (HP Labs) USPTO Sharma A., S. Madhvanath, M. Billinghurst, ʻMozArt: 3D multimodal CAD system: Design and Evaluation’ – 13th ACM ICMI 2011, Alicante, Spain Journal | A. Sharma, S. Madhvanath, ‘Immersive Multimodal CAD System for 3D Modeling’ ICHI 2011 | Haptic directional navigation mechanism for visually impaired USPTO
Press
1. MIT Sloan Press: Clean Consumer Tech Companies to Watch [link] 2. MIT SOLVE Newletter: Class of 2020 Solve Winners. [link] – 3. Forbes USA: Game changing collaboration between Pangaia Feat. Naomi Campbell [link] 5. Textile News: Carbon Emissions to Dope dyeing. [link] – 11. Glassified – Mixed Reality to supplement physical world| Creativeapplications | Smart shoes guide runners and the blind with vibrations| WIRED • Shoes that show the way| Live Mint | New Generation Smart Textiles to debut at Wearables Technology Show| Smart Textiles News | Devices That Touch you back| USA Today Best Invention Award | TIME Magazine 2020 | PANGAIA’s Game Changing Collaboration Draws Carbon From Air Pollution To Print Textiles| Forbes | The ink on Naomi Campbell’s Pangaia sweatshirt was made from carbon emissions| MIT News | Magic black: Air-Ink, the material made from vehicle pollution| The Guardian | Made from Air| Smithsonian Museum Press | Kering GUCCI collaborates with Graviky Labs| Moneycontrol | Spinoff Graviky Labs wins Falling Walls Science Summit 2021 award| MIT News
