Byron Lahey

I am an artist, educator and engineer. I earned my BFA (Sculpture) from the University of Northern Iowa in 1990,  my MFA (Sculpture) from Arizona State University in 1997 and my Ph.D in Media Arts and Science from the School of Arts, Media and Engineering at Arizona State University in 2015.  Dr. Winslow Burleson was my dissertation chair. Dr. Sha Xin Wei, Dr. Garth Paine and Dr. Daniel Collins completed my dissertation committee. My dissertation is titled: A Maker's Mechanological Paradigm, Seeing Experiential Media Systems as Structurally Determined. 

I currently teach in the Digital Culture program at Arizona State University, specializing in physical computing systems. I have directorial and mentoring roles in the Digital Culture Lounge and Digital Culture Incubator and am pursuing research on "expressive robotics".

My prior work has included research in the Synthesis Center under the direction of Dr. Sha Xin Wei and the creation and evaluation of Paperphone under the direction of Dr. Roel Vertegaal at the Human Media Lab at Queen’s University. I've taught at Arizona State University, Western Washington University and Phoenix Country Day School. I was an active member of The Studio at SIGGRAPH from 2002 to 2013, producing and leading workshops and activities in wearable computing, experimental sound, video and other media. I've worked as a teacher, professional sculptor, multimedia artist, programmer, consultant, fabricator and engineer in academic and commercial realms. My research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, NASA Space Grant and the Ford Foundation.

When I'm not teaching, building media systems or conducting research, some of my favorite things to do are rock climbing, playing and building guitars and enjoying time with friends and family.