Team

Current Lab Members

Kate Hartman

Lab Director

Kate Hartman is an artist, technologist, and educator whose work spans the fields of physical computing, wearable electronics, and conceptual art. She is the author of the book “Make: Wearable Electronics”. Her work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Hartman is based in Toronto at OCAD University where she is the Associate Professor of Wearable and Mobile Technology and Graduate Program Director in the Digital Futures program. Hartman enjoys bicycles, rock climbing, and someday hopes to work in Antarctica.



Yiyi Shao

Research Assistant

Yiyi Shao considers herself as a young and promising digital artist who is looking to promote Chinese culture as part of her proud heritage through merging traditional Chinese arts with current technology. Her initial forte was in fine arts and graphic design, however, she ventured into interactive arts during her stint as a student in the United Kingdom. She is currently a graduate student from Digital Future program at OCAD University and her recent exploration is on the interesting combination of wearables and IoT.



Chris Luginbuhl

Research Assistant

Chris is an engineer, designer and serial entrepreneur. He worked in medical imaging research before co-founding Sentinelle Medical, a Toronto-based medical device company which sold to Hologic Inc in 2010. He has more than a dozen patents and publications in diverse fields. His work in photography and videography, combined with his expertise designing and building made OCADU’s Digital Futures Master’s program a perfect fit. Chris is also an active volunteer with Shambhala, an organization committed to creating good human society.



Olivia Prior

Research Assistant

Olivia Prior is an interdisciplinary artist, designer and software developer. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts from the University of Victoria and is currently a Masters of Design candidate in the Digital Futures program at OCADU. Her practice includes physical computing and wireless networking. Her most recent work provides perceived personalities to a networked group of benches through radio communication. Olivia focuses on creating anthropomorphized works that relate to the body through playful gestures and draw attention to our interactions with technology.



Manisha Laroia

Research Assistant



Priya Bandodkar

Research Assistant

Priya is a multidisciplinary designer, animation specialist and VR artist from Mumbai, India. She has over ten years’ professional experience in the field of design and animation. With an aptitude and interest for creating work that addresses the needs of an increasingly complicated digital world, Priya moved to Canada in 2019 to pursue a Master of Design in the Digital Futures stream at OCAD University and successfully completed the program in April 2021. Through her research Priya has been exploring her relationship to her Indianness and Indian culture. Her current work focuses on reviving aspects of Indian culture through interactive experiences for contemporary audiences, especially youth of Indian descent.



Lab Alumni

Alexis Knipping

Research Assistant



Boris Kourtoukov

Research Assistant



Calliope Gazetas

Research Assistant



Erin Lewis

Research Assistant



Gabe Sawhney

Research Assistant



Hazel Meyer

Research Assistant



Hillary Predko

Research Assistant



Izzie Colpitts-Campbell

Research Assistant



Jackson McConnell

Research Assistant



Julian Higuerey Nunez

Research Assistant



Ken Leung

Research Assistant



Loretta Faveri

Research Associate



Oldouz Moslemian

Fellow



Ricardo Toller Correia

Visiting Researcher



Rachael Kess

Research Assistant



Rickee Charbonneau

Research Assistant



Rob King

Research Assistant



Ryan Maksymic

Research Assistant



Stewart Shum

Research Assistant



Valerie Carew

Research Assistant