Robert Faludi is an advisor and consultant for connected device companies. He is currently head of product for Perceptive Things, a startup in the Smart Buildings space. For six years, he was the Chief Innovator at Digi International, working to forge strong connections with the maker community, uncover new innovation methodologies, support outstanding new work and create prototypes that spur new product development. Faludi has also been a professor in the MFA program at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and in the Interactive Telecommunications graduate program at NYU. He is the author of Building Wireless Sensor Networks, with ZigBee, XBee, Arduino and Processing published by O’Reilly Media, 2011. Faludi holds a B.A. from Oberlin College, an M.A. in Cognitive Psychology from New York University, and a second Masters in Interactive Telecommunications also from NYU. For ten years, his San Francisco-based Faludi Computing supported Internet startups like Match.com and Salon, and created interactive web sites for companies like Gap, Visa, Lonely Planet and American Eagle Outfitters. As a researcher for NYU’s Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, he investigated the connections between visual perception, motor action and the mathematical properties of environmental affordances. At ITP he specialized in physical computing, dense social networks and networked objects, work continued as a Resident Researcher there and at Microsoft Research. Faludi developed device networking and customer engagement systems for GroundedPower and Tendril, both smart energy monitoring startups. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Wired Magazine, Good Morning America, BBC World, at the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry and Museum of Modern Art among others. Projects include Social Genius, a multimedia name-learning game; WildLight, a networked device that brings organic light to dark or windowless spaces and BlueWay, a networked location and wayfinding system. He is a co-creator of the LilyPad XBee wearable radios, and Botanicalls, a system that allows thirsty plants to place phone calls for human help.