25 Facts About Dhairya Dand

Dhairya Dand is an Indian-American inventor and artist based in New York City.

Dhairya Dand's work investigates the human body as a medium for computation; new materials as a tool to embody interactions; and design as a vehicle for mindfulness.

Dhairya Dand's work takes the form of devices, objects, installations, new technology and materials.

Currently, Dand is a principal at ODD Industries, a futurist factory and lab in NYC.

Dhairya Dand was an invited member of the W3C Standards Committee which defines standards for the Internet.

Dhairya Dand was a key member of Amazon's secretive Concept Lab which invented several Alexa devices.

Dhairya Dand has taught conceptual design-based courses at the Art Institute of Seattle, the Carnegie Mellon School of Design and the MIT Design Innovation Workshops.

Dhairya Dand is a graduate of the Media, Arts and Sciences program at the MIT Media Lab.

Dhairya Dand was born in Nasik in a interfaith multilingual family: his father was a Kutchi Jain, while his mother belonged to the Marathi Saraswat community.

Dhairya Dand attended Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute for undergraduate studies in computer science and the Industrial Design Centre for courses in design.

Dhairya Dand later lived in Singapore, Phnom Penh, Tokyo, and London before moving to the United States to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dhairya Dand's inventions include sensorial interfaces, smart devices, display technologies, Alexa, social systems, prosthesis, bio-based architecture, educational toys, and emotional robots.

In SuperShoes, Dhairya Dand created insoles that work on a tickling interface.

In Programmable Hair, Dhairya Dand made a device worn on the hair that allows the wearer to program their hairstyle, either by choosing from a library of hairstyles or by taking a picture of someone else's hairstyle.

Dhairya Dand's Cheers are alcohol-aware ice cubes that detect how much a person is drinking.

Dhairya Dand designed a bio-building that responds and reacts to its environment.

Dhairya Dand's ThinkerToys are modular educational toys made from e-waste which later led to an NGO called openTOYS.

One of Dhairya Dand's early works was Lokshahi, which was a m-governance system for political transparency in rural India.

Dhairya Dand has worked on several accessibility-related inventions for emotional communication, autism and motor impairment.

Dhairya Dand was named in the Forbes magazine's 30 under 30 list in 2016 and 2015.

Dhairya Dand was one of Elle magazine's 20 names to know and Vogue Cool People list.

Dhairya Dand's work was selected by the Smithsonian as one of finalist for the National Design Award.

In 2013, Dhairya Dand was one of the Boston Globe Top 25 Innovators.

Dhairya Dand has presented at W3C's Annual Summit, Tencent's WE Summit, Tokyo Designers Week, Wired UK Innovation Conference, INK Talks, TEDx events including TEDxHamburg and TEDxBerlin, the ICA and the MIT Media Lab.

Dhairya Dand's work has been exhibited at the prestigious Victoria and Albert Museum in London, MIT Museum in Cambridge, Singapore Arts House and at international conferences including UIST St Andrews, CHI Paris, and in TEI Barcelona.