Ravin Balakrishnan

Ravin Balakrishnan is a Professor at the Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto where he co-directs the Dynamic Graphics Project (DGP) laboratory. He served as the department’s chair from 2015-2019. His research interests are in Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Information and Communications Technology for Development, and Interactive Computer Graphics. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, working with Bill Buxton, while concurrently a part-time researcher at Alias|wavefront (now part of Autodesk). Ravin was elected to the ACM CHI Academy in 2011, is the recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2007), an Ontario Premier's Research Excellence Award (2003), the Bell University Laboratories Associate Chair in HCI at the University of Toronto (2002-2006), a Canada Research Chair (2006-2016), the Canadian Human Computer Communications Society Achievement Award (2020) and multiple best paper type awards at the top conferences in his field (ACM CHI, CSCW, UIST).

In addition to working with students and colleagues at Toronto, Ravin collaborates with researchers at leading industrial laboratories and universities worldwide, including stints as a visiting researcher at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL), the University of Paris & INRIA, Microsoft Research’s Redmond, Beijing, Bangalore and Cambridge labs, and Hewlett Packard Labs Bangalore. He has been a co-founder of several companies commercializing research conducted in his lab, including Bump Technologies Inc (acquired by Google), FindSpace (acquired by Cougar Group), and Conceptualiz. He has also consulted for various leading companies as an expert witness in patent infringement matters in multiple countries.

Further information, including publications and videos demonstrating some of his research, can be obtained here.