Kevin Ponto

Kevin Ponto
Associate Professor, Emerging Technologies Hub Leader
330 North Orchard Street, Room 3176
Madison WI 53715
(608)316-4330
Joined WID: 2010
kbponto@wisc.edu
https://blogs.discovery.wisc.edu/kponto/


Use virtual reality to simulate the experience of real-life spaces for real-world outcomes.

About

Kevin Ponto is Associate Professor in the Design Studies Department in the School of Human Ecology and faculty in the Virtual Environments Group (formerly the Living Environments Lab) at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He received his BS, Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, his MS from the University of California, Irvine, and his PhD from the University of California, San Diego. Kevin has a long history of multidisciplinary studies. He has exhibited artistic work while in Arts Computation Engineering program at the University of California, Irvine. He worked on projects to rediscover a lost Leonardo da Vinci painting, locate the tomb of Genghis Khan, and facilitate natural methods for the public to explore cultural heritage artifacts in the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology at the University of California, San Diego. In his post-doctorate studies, Ponto worked on projects aimed at presenting, summarizing, and replaying virtual experiences and developed new methods for interfacing with virtual environments through the Computation and Informatics in Biology and Medicine program. His current research objectives aim to develop techniques to better the experience of virtual reality through new devices, interfaces, and techniques.

Education

BS, Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison
MS, Arts Computation Engineering Program, University of California-Irvine
PhD, University of California, San Diego
Postdoc, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Affiliations

  • 2015 - Present Affiliate Faculty, Industrial Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin - Madison.
  • 2014 - Present Affiliate Faculty, Arts Institute, University of Wisconsin - Madison.
  • 2014 - Present Affiliate Faculty, Department of Computer Science, University of Wisconsin - Madison.
  • 2014 - Present WID Frontier Fellow Mentor, Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin - Madison.
  • 2013 - Present Faculty Trainer, Computation and Informatics in Biology and Medicine (CIBM), University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Professional and Academic Memberships / Affiliations

  • 2017 - Present Member of International Society for Virtual Rehabilitation (ISVR).
  • 2017 - Present Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA).
  • 2014 - Present Internet of Things Lab, University of Wisconsin - Madison.
  • 2014 - Present McPherson Eye Research Institute, University of Wisconsin - Madison.
  • 2014 - Present UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, University of Wisconsin - Madison.
  • 2013 - Present Computation and Informatics in Biology and Medicine, University of Wisconsin - Madison.
  • 2009 - Present Member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Honors

  • 2017 Wade and Bev Fetzer Fund for Excellence (SoHE Faculty Award)
  • 2017 Joy H. Dohr Award for Design Excellence (Design Studies Faculty Award)
  • 2014 Best Poster Honorable Mention (IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality)
  • 2013 Best Paper Nominee (IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality)
  • 2012 Winners of the WARF Discovery Challenge (WARF Discovery Challenge Poster Symposium)
  • 2007 Prix Ars Electronica Honorary Mention in the Category of Hybrid Art
  • 2006 Adobe Emerging Artist Award