Entrepreneurship is quickly becoming a relevant topic in the global economy, where entrepreneurial initiatives and mindsets drive startups and innovation. However, combining the entrepreneurial mindset with the rhythm of research can be challenging, especially in Human-Computer Interaction. In this session, I’ll describe my journey, lessons and approaches so far, in balancing these two sides that sometimes overlap and sometimes conflict.

Biography

Teddy Seyed is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Microsoft Research, and currently leads the Future of Wearables group, as part of the Research in Software Engineering (RiSE) team. His research currently focuses on building out a future wearables platform, as well as using entrepreneurial approaches to influence into fashion-tech, STEAM education tools and accessible computing.

He earned his PhD in Computer Science at the University of Calgary in 2019, and was the winner of the 2019 Bill Buxton Best Canadian HCI Dissertation Award. Teddy also completed the first Entrepreneurial PhD in Canada, where he commercialized parts of his HCI research.

Overall, Teddy has extensive experience in combining Human-Computer Interaction work with Entrepreneurship, having worked for startups, as well as co-founding both startups and non-profits.