Hong Z. Tan

About Hong Z. Tan

I am an educator, scientist, technologist, and entrepreneur. I am best known for my research on haptics psychophysics, taking a perception-based approach to developing haptic interfaces. Throughout my academic career, I have kept a close tie with industry through my consulting activities, a four-year stint at Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing, and currently as a lead haptics scientist at Google. I am a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for my contributions to wearable haptics. I received my bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Computer Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. I earned my master’s and doctoral degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After two years as a Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab, I joined the faculty in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University in 1998. I hold concurrent courtesy appointments in the School of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University.I have led million-dollar collaborative projects with academic and industry partners that delivered end-to-end solutions with user data that prove their efficacy. An example is the phonemic-based tactile speech communication system worn on the forearm that\'s capable of encoding any English words. The best users can learn up to 500 English words at a rate of 1 English word per minute. Check out a video and a research paper with longitudinal data from 50+ participants (https://engineering.purdue.edu/~hongtan/pubs/PDFfiles/J71_Tan-etal_500words_ToH2020.pdf) on the TActile Phonemic Sleeve (TAPS) project.I have trained leading haptic designers in the science and art of creating meaningful and pleasant vibrotactile patterns for consumer products. Here is a research paper summarizing the design guidelines for creating calm and pleasant alerts with supporting user data (https://engineering.purdue.edu/~hongtan/pubs/PDFfiles/C80_ShimTan_palmScape_HCII2020.pdf).I have taken a perception-based approach to haptic technology development. An example is the idea and proof that spectrally-rich (aka broadband) haptic sensations can be achieved by interleaving multiple narrowband actuators (https://engineering.purdue.edu/~hongtan/pubs/PDFfiles/J76_MartinezTanCholewiak_FrVR2022.pdf).I am always excited to discuss haptics and tackle challenging applications with my 30+ years of experience conducting haptics R&D.

Experience

1. Research Scientist and Manager

   Google

   Jul 2021 — Present · Mountain View, CA, US

Education

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Master’s Degree, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

  1986 — 1988

• Shanghai Jiao Tong University

  Bachelor’s Degree, Biomedical Engineering (minor in Computer Science)

  1982 — 1986

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

  1988 — 1996