James Patten is an interaction designer, inventor, and visual artist, whose practice pushes the edges of interactivity at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds. He is a TED Senior Fellow and Director of Patten Studio, a creative agency that specializes in ground-breaking interactive activations. The studio is known for its self-initiated research projects that invent new technology platforms, such as Thumbles, tiny computer-controlled robots. Patten earned his doctorate at the MIT Media Lab where he studied in the Tangible Media Group under Hiroshi Ishii. Prior to the Media Lab, Patten studied virtual environments with Randy Pausch at the University of Virginia, and developed new interfaces for visualizing time-varying volumetric data at NASA Langley Research Center. His work has been exhibited or performed in venues such as the Cooper Hewitt, the Museum of Modern Art, the Transmediale festival in Berlin, the Museo Guggenheim Bilbao and the Ars Electronica Center in Linz, Austria and recognized in several international design competitions.