Alvaro Cassinelli was born in Montevideo (Uruguay) in 1972. In 1990 he earns both a French and Uruguayan B.Sc., and a grant to pursue his studies in France. He obtains a Graduate Engineering diploma from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécom (now Télécom ParisTech) in 1996, completing the same year a Doctoral Qualifying Degree (DEA/Master) in Physics (Laser & Matter Interaction) from the University of Paris-XI, Telecom and Ecole Polytechnique. In 2000 he receives a Ph.D degree from the University of Paris-XI Orsay.

From 2001 to 2015 he works as Research Fellow, Research Assistant and then Assistant Professor at the Ishikawa-Watanabe Laboratory at the University of Tokyo, where he co-founds and leads the Meta-Perception group, a research unit specialized in developing novel mediums for HCI and the Media Arts.

He is also co-founder and organizer of the “Devices that Alter Perception” international workshop (from 2008-2011), and the first “Taller de Arte y Computación Física” in Uruguay (2008).

He is presently RCAST Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo, certified SNI Researcher in Uruguay, and Director of R&D at SinergiaTech, the first certified FABLAB and private Physical Computing Academy in Uruguay.

Alvaro is routinely invited at international conferences either as keynote, “visionnaire” speaker, PC member or Jury in areas related to HCI, AR/VR and forums about Science and its relation to the Arts. He has being Visiting Professor/Researcher at renowned institutions such as KAIST (Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), NAIST (Nara Advanced Institute of Technology, Japan), ESPCI and LANGEVIN INSTITUTE (Paris), CEIBAL (OLPC Uruguay & IT R&D center). He has presented at MICROSOFT RESEARCH (Seattle), SAMSUNG THINK TANK (Mountain View), SCHOOL OF CREATIVE MEDIA (H.K.), WIRED NEXTFEST (N.Y.), as well as the MIT MEDIA LAB among other research centers and universities.

He maintains ties with the corporate world, as consultant and/or collaborator for medium and large firms (Art+Com, Electric Factory, Omron, Samsung Electronics, Hamamatsu Photonics, Nissan Research Center, Sony Labs, the Vision Chip Consortium in Japan, etc), as well as startups including EXVISION (a spin-off company from his former laboratory). His research and interests spans physics, fundamental aspects of computing, high-speed/slow-speed robotics/nanorobotics, augmented and virtual reality, cognitive sciences, artificial intelligence, wearables, augmented perception, prosthetics/rehabilitation, and in general human-machine interfaces using novel principles and custom technology – areas in which he holds five patents and one trademark.

Independently experimenting in the field of Media Arts, he has been awarded important international prizes, including the Panasonic Prize [2005], an Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica [2006], the Grand Prize [Art Division] at the 9th Japan Media Art Festival [2006], the Excellence Prize [Entertainment Division] at the 13th Japan Media Art Festival [2009], the NISSAN Innovative Concept Award [2010], the Jury Grand Prize at Laval Virtual [2011], the Digital Content EXPO Prize at SIGGRAPH Emerging Technologies [2016] among others.