I am Ali Shtarbanov and my mission is to remove barriers to creativity and to make innovation and prototyping in emerging fields faster and more accessible for everyone. I develop general-purpose tools and platforms that enable makers, researchers, artists, and designers to rapidly turn ideas into reality. Inspired by platforms like Arduino and Raspberry PI that liberated electronics and computing for everyone, my current work focuses on building and deploying novel hardware & software platforms for rapid prototyping with soft robotics, programmable materials, and wearable haptics.

I recently completed my PhD from MIT Media Lab and I am currently a BrainPool Fellow at the newly-established Robotics Institute as Seoul National University in Korea. I have degrees in Electrical Engineering, Physics, MAS, and HCI with focus on Interactive Interfaces, Soft Robotics, Haptics, and Ecosystem Building.