Interview: Designing a Visual AI-Enabled Power Tool to Augment Human Capabilities: Lessons Learned


Date:  Tuesday, May 17 (Main Conference Day 1)

Start Time: 12:00 pm

End Time: 12:30 pm

Alec Rivers is the co-founder of Shaper Tools, makers of an innovative woodworking tool that uses computer vision to augment human abilities, allowing for complex designs to be created more accurately and quickly compared to conventional methods. In this interview, Alec will share what he and his team learned, and the challenges they faced and overcame, in developing and launching this product—from founding the company to its acquisition in 2019.

Track

Session Speakers

  • Alec Rivers is co-founder of Shaper, a start-up that has developed innovative digital control technology for handheld power tools. In 2013, Alec received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT, where he was a member of the Computer Graphics Group advised by Prof. Frédo Durand. His Ph.D. thesis was on digital fabrication technologies. Alec also conducted computer graphics research at Cornell University, the University of Tokyo, Tsinghua University, U.C. Berkeley, the New York University Media Research Lab and Disney Research Los Angeles. He has also worked as a computer science teacher at Stuyvesant High School in New York City.


Share

Interview: Designing a Visual AI-Enabled Power Tool to Augment Human Capabilities: Lessons Learned