Brendan David-John

Get to Know Me

How I’d capture the essence of my work in a newspaper headline.

Balancing privacy and security while innovating for the future virtual, augmented, and mixed reality.

Something that excites me in my field...

The overlap between more traditional VR/AR and Privacy/Security academic communities has produced a strong sense of community and collaboration for those at the intersection of HCI/VR/AR/Privacy/Security.

My work has an impact on society because... 

It provides an understanding of risks for emerging technology before they become ubiquitous and supports adoption by providing practical protections that ensure new innovations will be successful and accepted.

I first discovered my passion for this work...

… by working on undergraduate research projects on eye tracking my junior year of undergrad. I quickly realized the role of HCI and human vision in Computer Science, and that Computer Science was more than just making computers run faster or perform better at classification tasks.

I find the most joy in my work when ...
I get to see mentees succeed as a result of their hard work.

My no-fail, power-track, motivational song is...

“Strawberry’s Wake,” Dance Gavin Dance

My hidden talent... 

Scrabble

Best advice I've ever received... 

Don't develop a hammer and then look for the squeaky board it fits, look for the squeaky board, then build the hammer that fits the problem. 

More plainly, evaluate your research ideas by asking, “Who would be so excited if your project is successful that it changes their life? What do you need to accomplish to make your project support this person or their application domain?”