CM Seminar – Alex Olwal, “Human-Centered Augmentation: Interacting with Matter, Humans, and Machines”

Presented by: Alex Olwal

Description: “In this talk, I will share my perspectives on the evolution and future of human-centered augmentation, through the lens of two decades of research and development. Drawing from experiences across academia and industry, I will discuss insights from having led projects in augmented reality, accessibility, electronic textiles, novel sensing and displays, and their implications for emerging AI-augmented interfaces.”

Bio: Alex Olwal is a research scientist and engineering leader focused on interaction technology and human augmentation. During his tenure at Google, he founded the Interaction Lab and Biointerfaces team , and tech transferred accessibility-focused language glasses to the Augmented Reality product organization, where he established the Augmented Language Team. As an engineering manager in the product organization, he evolved his team’s scope to deliver Human-AI language capabilities, including speech perception, natural language understanding, real-time translation and captions, and generative AI. The team’s conversational AI experiences for AR glasses were a key feature in the Google I/O 2022 keynote. Alex’s research has spanned augmented reality, ubiquitous computing, wearables, and accessibility, often leveraging novel opportunities in display technology, sensing, soft electronics, and machine intelligence. He is passionate about impactful problems that can be addressed through Human-AI interfaces, real-time interaction techniques and transformative applications.

Previously, Alex conducted research at MIT Media Lab as a postdoctoral fellow after receiving his Ph.D. from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, with research conducted at Columbia University, UC Santa Barbara, and Microsoft Research (research internship). He has held faculty positions at Stanford University, Rhode Island School of Design, and KTH.

Website: www.olwal.com

Hosted by: Professor Katherine Isbister

When: Monday, June 1, 2026 from 12:30PM to 1:30PM

Location: 

IN-PERSON @ UCSC Main Campus, E2-280.

Viewing room @ SVC 3212.

LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED AT BOTH LOCATIONS! Faculty and students are highly encouraged to attend.

Zoom info:

https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/97081260699?pwd=eyt5f4CAEHHLQWBhdaLA693T3gecaj.1
Meeting ID: 970 8126 0699
Passcode: 047011