People

Sidney Fels
Dr. Sidney Fels research interests include human-computer interaction, biomechanical modeling of the upper airway, speech synthesis, and neural networks. Some of his projects include: Glove-TalkII (a virtual artificial vocal tract that turns hand gestures into speech), ArtiSynth (a biomechanical modeling toolkit), and the Iamascope (an interactive artwork)
Core research areas

• Human Computer Interaction
• Speech technologies

Victoria Lemieux
Dr. Victoria Lemieux is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia’s iSchool (School of Library, Archival and Information Studies) and a records and information management expert with over twenty years of experience in government, industry, and education. Her current research interest in financial records and their relationship to risk stems from her 1999-2001 doctoral research on the information-related causes of the Jamaican Banking Crisis (University College London 2002). Following completion of her doctoral research, Dr. Lemieux joined Credit Suisse as a VP in charge of global records policy management, later taking charge of aspects of IT Security Policy development and managing the risk and security components of the bank's 2007 Swiss Franc 1.6bn network outsourcing (for which she received a "One Bank" award). She then went on to lead the bank's European infrastructure client services technology risk team. Dr. Lemieux joined the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada in July 2008 and established the Centre for the Investigation of Financial Electronic Records (CIFER Research), which she still directs. CIFER Research has focussed on the visual analysis of financial data and organizational and human behavioural risk factors in IT project implementation. In 2009, Dr. Lemieux was among 10 new academics at the University to be presented with the Peter Wall Institute's Early Career Scholar Award. In 2011, Dr. Lemieux received an Emerald Literati Award for her paper on “The Records-Risk Nexus” which used visual analysis to explore how risk is constructed in the field of records and information management. Dr. Lemieux has been a designated Certified Information Security Systems Professional since 2005. She was appointed Acting Director of MAGIC in September 2012.
Core research areas

• Field of records
• Information management

Brian Fisher
Dr. Fisher teaches in the SFU School of Interactive Arts and Technology and is the Director of the SCIENCE Lab and Member of VAR Lab. At UBC, Dr. Fisher is Associate Director of the Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre. Recent projects include CZWeb, CZTalk, Various Imager lab projects, UBC Vision Lab tracking studies and grants and publications.
Core research areas

• Visual analytics
• Cognitive science
• Graphical interfaces
• Human information processing
• Interdisciplinary collaboration

Rodger Lea
Currently adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada and visiting research fellow at Lancaster university, UK, Dr. Rodger Lea splits his time between consulting and research in Ubiquitous Computing. Dr. Lea brings to bear over 15 years in industrial research, most recently as Vice President and Director of Sony’s US distributed system lab, located in Silicon Valley, CA. In this capacity, Dr. Lea aided in developing advanced technologies to support Sony’s broadband media strategy including research and development in areas such as future media presentation formats, media delivery and caching, digital and interactive TV, home networking and peer to peer infrastructure technologies. This research generated over 100 international patents and delivered technology into a number of major products ranging from Sony's interactive set-top boxes, to the Sony PDAs and High Definition TV systems.
Core research areas

• Ubiquitous and pervasive systems
• Distributed systems, multi-media and rich media experiences, Cloud Computing
• Internet of Things
• Technology transfer and applied structured research

Keith Hamel
Dr. Keith Hamel is a Professor in the School of Music, an Associate Researcher at the Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems (ICICS), a Researcher at the Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre (MAGIC) and Director of the Computer Music Studio at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Hamel has been on the Faculty at UBC since 1987, and has been a Full Professor since 1997. He holds a B.Mus. from Queen's University (1981) and A.M. and Ph.D degrees from Harvard University (1984, 1985). He also studied Computer Music under the supervision of Barry Vercoe at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology between 1981 and 1984.

Bob Pritchard
Dr. Bob Pritchard is an Assistant Professor in the UBC School of Music, a Researcher with both the UBC Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems (ICICS)and the Media And Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre (MAGIC) and co-director of the Music, Sound and Electroacoustic Technology group (MuSET) with Dr. Keith Hamel. In 2007 Pritchard, Fels and Vatikiotis-Bateson received a Canada Council for the Arts/Natural Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant for the development of Digital Ventriloquized Actors (DIVAs) and in 2004 he received an Artist-Researcher grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for work in interactive speech synthesis and performance. In 2005 he was awarded a Killam Teaching Prize in recognition of his abilities and innovations in classroom teaching. He is the Vice-Chair B.C. Region of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers and the Canadian Electroacoustic Community.

David Vogt
Originally an astronomer, Dr. Vogt found himself in cyberspace. David is a pioneer - driven by the purposeful civilization of digital frontiers. He specializes in collaborative applied innovation, specifically bringing together entrepreneurs, researchers, customers and other stakeholders to co-create original, market-ready solutions involving emerging technologies. David's focus is the experience economy: how humanity is entering an era of almost magical ability to stage and mediate individual and collective experience.

Michael Blackstock
Dr. Michael Blackstock is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at MAGIC and co-founder of Sense Tecnic Systems. Blackstock's research focuses on systems support for the Internet of Things, ubiquitous and pervasive computing. In his thesis work he proposed a common programming model for ubiquitous systems based on existing systems' abstractions, evaluated by integrating several representative and well known research systems. Prior to joining MAGIC, Blackstock was VP of R&D at Inetco Systems, and co-founder of two local startups, Colligo Networks and Infowave Software.

Johnty Wang
Johnty is the current lab manager at MAGIC, responsible for day to day operations. He recently completed a masters degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of British Columbia and specializes in human computer interfacing technologies, specifically those pertaining to musical expression. He has worked on a variety of hardware and software systems used for musical performance including the DiVA project and Vox Tactum, a group that utilizes mobile technology based collaborative singing platform.