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Microsoft Research
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
United States of America
desney@microsoft.com

 

 

Professional Biography

I am a Senior Researcher in the Visualization and Interaction Area at Microsoft Research, where I manage the Computational User Experiences group. I also hold an affiliate faculty appointment in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington.

My research interests include Human-Computer Interaction, Physiological Computing, and Healthcare. I spend large chunks of my time applying signal processing and machine learning to recognizing noisy signals, specifically those in or on the human body, and using them in interesting ways. However, I am a schizophrenic researcher and have worked on projects in many other domains.

I received my Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 1996, after which I spent a couple of years building bridges and blowing things up in the Singapore Armed Forces. I later returned to Carnegie Mellon University, where I worked with Randy Pausch and earned my PhD in Computer Science in 2004.

I was honored as one of MIT Technology Review's 2007 Young Innovators Under 35 for my work on brain-computer interfaces. I was also named one of SciFi Channel's Young Visionaries at TED 2009, as well as Forbes' Revolutionaries: Radical Thinkers and their World-Changing Ideas for my work on Whole Body Computing.

On the personal front, check out family pages for Angela and Ayden, as well as our latest addition Zachary.