Bran Ferren

Ferren has an extensive public speaking career as a subject matter expert, that has spanned a wide range of professional, government, and academic audiences. His over 250 speaking engagements include Harvard's Center for Public Leadership, MIT, MIT Media Lab, MIT Sloan School, Wharton, The Smithsonian Institution, SIGGRAPH, the ACM/IEEE Supercomupting Conference SC98, The Art Center College of Design, Florida International University 2018, The U.S. Council on Competitiveness, The Caltech Entrepreneurs Forum, The International Design Conference at Aspen (IDCA), The Aspen Ideas Festival 2015, NASA, The U.S. Army, The US Air Force, The U.S. Navy, UCLA, USC, National Academy of Engineering, NYU, Intel Corporation, Infosys, The AUVSI Driverless Car Summit, The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, The Engineers' Council 2012, Two Optical Fiber Conferences (OFC-2007 & OFC-2017), The Engineers Council, The Electric Infrastructure Security Summit VII, Westminster Palace, London, The Global Grand Challenges Summit 2013, in London, The EIS Council World Summit VIII on Infrastructure Security, U.S. Capitol Building, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Smithsonian Digital Futures Conference, The Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, Inc. (IFPA) Fletcher Conference 2007, Two Geodesign Summits, RealComm IBcon 2015, The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), TTI/Vanguard, The Aspen Ideas Festival, The GEOINT Symposium, The 2017 National Competitiveness Forum, 2018 Miyamoto International, Great Minds Series, several E.G. Conferences, has given multiple TED talks, the IEEE EZVO19 Innovation conference, and The Explore's Club Global Exploration Summit GLEX2019 in Lisbon.

In his role as Chief Creative Officer and Co-Chairman, Ferren serves as lead technical consultant, management consultant, systems engineer, engineer, and designer across multiple disciplines. He has headed projects for General Motors, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, John Deere, Herman Miller, Intel Corporation, Sony Corporation, ESRI, the Smithsonian Institution, Genworth Financial, the Library of Congress, and several US Government agencies. He was the creative design lead at Applied Minds, for the Genworth R70i Aging Experience, featuring a novel computerized robotic exoskeleton to simulate aging with live audiences at venues such as the 2016 CES and then the Liberty Science Center, as well as Genworth Financial's new, multi-award-winning website. The R70i Aging Experience at CES received the 2016 Cool Tech award.

Ferren's advisory work has included board memberships at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, International Design Conference in Aspen, PBS Kids and the science magazine Nautilus. He has also served as a member of the Army Science Board for 5 years, the Defense Science Board, the Naval Historical Foundation Advisory Council, The USO Digital Advisory Council, The Department of Homeland Security, and the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel. Bran Ferren is a member of the advisory boards for The Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation at UC Berkeley, CuriosityStream, NanoMech, ReactiveCore. He has also been a senior science and technology advisor for over a dozen US Government agencies and the US Senate. In 2016, he was appointed to Toyota Research Institute (TRI) senior advisory board for driving autonomy, artificial intelligence, and robotics. He is a member of the board of directors for NPR's The Loh Down on Science.

A 2013 ELLE Magazine article on Ashton Kutcher, referenced a "memorable birthday party" with Ferren and other friends.

Ferren's company Applied Minds L.L.C. (AMI) has been described as a "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" for geeks. AMI invents, designs, prototypes, and creates high-technology products, vehicles, architectural designs, and services for government institutions and Fortune 100 companies. For example, the Smithsonian American Art Museum selected Applied Minds as winner of an international design competition for the renovation of the Renwick Gallery's Grand Salon. AMI also spins off technology companies. Notable spinouts include Metaweb, purchased by Google in 2010 and cancer diagnostics firm Advanced Proteomics.

In 2009, Ferren collaborated with Laurie Anderson on the exhibition "The Third Mind" at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In 2004, he helped to develop a gigapixel image system and 360 degree cyclorama with artist/photographer Clifford Ross. He worked with Patrice Regnier and Carter Burwell on his film project TESLA. He had creative meetings with Jim Henson in 1988 about a Muppets theme park prior to Henson selling his company to Disney. Prior to the Disney acquisition, Ferren had been in discussions with Steve Ross, CEO of Warner Communications about his acquiring Associates & Ferren and collaborating with Alan Kay on advanced entertainment and gaming technology. He is cited as a senior inventor at the company Intellectual Ventures, headed by former Microsoft CTO, Nathan Myhrvold. Myhrvold and Ferren are often cited as being close or best friends and collaborators.

Two of his photographs have been accepted into the Smithsonian Museum for American Art permanent collection. He has presented and exhibited his artwork at 2008 the Entertainment Gathering (e.g.) Conference, and exhibited his photography and multimedia work at the Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton. His photographs are part of several private collections, and he is completing the editorial work for a large format photo book project called Eleven Seconds.

Ferren has been named inventor on over 500 current and pending US patents. His 2005 patent with Hillis for multi-touch gestures led to the invalidation of Apple's "pinch-to-zoom" patent, which Apple cited in its billion-dollar lawsuit against Samsung. His 2009 US patent #8381985 (assigned to Intel Corporation) teaches the use of two cameras and electronic image processing to emulate the function of zoom lenses within devices such as smart phones, where traditional zoom lenses cannot fit. Another of his patents is for Metaweb, a contextual database technology that Google acquired in 2010 and which now underlies Knowledge Graph. Google claims Knowledge Graph is "a critical first step towards building the next generation of search". Its output appears on a panel to the right in Google search results or in a carousel at the top of the screen. In addition, Knowledge Graph technology drives Google's autocomplete feature in the search box.

While at Disney, Ferren developed a unique test for screening design & engineering talent, when he found that traditional Disney process of resume screening, reviewing bios, and interviews often did not identify the kinds of multi-domain savvy talent he needed at Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development. Known as the Yellow Box Test, it asks the candidate to go through 100 or so items in the box, all selected for their uniqueness and interest. As featured in an 2003 article in Discover Magazine, they are scored on not just how well they can correctly identify the items, but also their thoughtfulness in explaining how they would be used and why, material selection, sourcing, cost, viable alternatives, and the technical and design principles, and even aesthetics. The candidate is also evaluated subjectively as to their enjoyment of the process, speed, enthusiasm, thoughtfulness, and appreciation of technology. For example, do they elect to first start with the things they understand, or those they do not.

He has delivered the commencement speeches to the California State University, Northridge - College of Arts, Media and Communication (2002)The University of Redlands- College of Arts and Sciences (2014), and the University of Irvine - Claire Trevor School of the Arts, the School of Education, and the School of Physical Sciences (2015).

While serving as head of Creative Technology for Disney, and also a member the Army Science Board (ASB), Ferren played a key roll in the creation of what became USC's Institute for Creative Technologies. As a science & technology advisor to Four-star Army General Paul J. Kern in Modeling & Simulation (M&S) he recommended creating a new entity in the vicinity of Los Angeles that would be anchored at a major university. The purpose of this organization being to draw from the local talent pool, and its deep expertise in gaming, visualization, and UI/UX design. When asked why it should be there, rather than say the DC area, he stated emphatically that to be successful in this new domain, the army "...needed to be where the action is." Under Gen. Kern's leadership, and with the help of Army funding, the ICT was established in 1999 at the University of Southern California (USC), and has become an important and sustaining resource for the Department of Defense in gaming, modeling, & simulation technologies.

Ferren served as lead designer, engineer, and producer of the 50-state, 16-month tour of the Bill of Rights, which celebrated the document's bicentennial. For the tour, he designed and built the Bill of Rights Secure Transit Vehicle, which transported the fragile parchment document, as well as a 15,000-square-foot travelling exhibit equipped with state-of-the-art lighting, A/V, security, and safety systems. He was the chief designer for the award winning Columbus Center Hall of Exploration, a science discovery center, located at Baltimore's Inner Harbor in 1997.

In 1996, Ferren created the Disney Fellows Program which attracted some of the brightest minds in Computer Science, including Alan Kay, Marvin Minsky, and Seymour Papert, as well as astronaut Story Musgrave. The first Disney fellow was parallel-computing pioneer Hillis with whom Ferren went on to found technology innovation and design firm Applied Minds in 2000. Applied Minds is now headquartered in Burbank, California, a few miles from Imagineering headquarters. In 1997 Ferren and the Disney fellows were profiled in a major article in The New Yorker, by David Remnick, and in many other publications and news service including Bloomberg, and Newsweek.

By the time Disney acquired Associates & Ferren in 1993, Ferren and the company had won an Academy Award for Science and Engineering as well as two Academy Awards for Technical Achievement. Ferren was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Visual Effects for "Little Shop of Horrors", and received a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nomination for special visual effects. He is a voting member of both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars), and the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences (Emmys).

Ferren led the Disney Imagineering R&D group as Senior Vice President, then Executive Vice President, before eventually becoming President of R&D and Creative Technology for Disney, and head of technology for the company for 10 years. According to his former boss, CEO Michael Eisner, Ferren's mission was "to dream about the future and show us new and innovative ways to tell stories". Starting in 1993, he was the first corporate executive to receive the now-common job title of "Creative Technology", indicating responsibility for both creative and technical domains. When Eisner interviewed him on his new talk show, Conversations with Michale Eisner, he said that he loved that Bran "pushed me against the wall, and pushed management" in the areas of creativity and technology. The idea to create the USC Institute for Creative Technologies, and its name (derived from Ferren's title at Disney), originated from discussions with US Army leadership (four-star general Paul J. Kern) on how to gain access to Hollywood entertainment industry expertise in high-technology areas such as computer-based Modeling & Simulation, and Virtual Reality.

He also produced, directed, and was the cinematographer for the movie "Funny" (released in 1992), which received a Nomination for a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and nomination for Best Documentary at the Chicago International Film Festival, Gold Jury prize at the Houston International Film Festival (now called WorldFest Houston), and was featured in the Toronto International Film Festival Midnight Madness program, and at the Cleveland International Film Festival. "Funny" features over 100 individuals, from Dick Cavett to Frank Zappa, telling their favorite jokes on camera. It was distributed by Warner New Media, in LaserDisc and CD-ROM.

In addition to their work in the entertainment sector, Associates & Ferren was responsible for developing many technologies for industrial and government customers in the areas of robotics, sound systems, vehicle systems, control systems, scientific research & experiment design, optical systems, and 3D machine vision, as well as moving lighting fixtures for Strand Lighting Inc. Mr. Ferren was responsible for the development of advanced lens and thin-film dichroic coating technologies for the Revo Sunglasses brand, and served in the role of Director of Research & Development for Revo, which established new performance standards for sunglasses including the first to incorporate Infrared blocking. He did the lighting design and interiors concept for Ian Schrager's "White" variation of Studio 54 in NYC, as well as invented the what is believed to be the first multi-monitor video wall, which premiered at the opening of the Palladium Club, also in New York City, in 1985.

He has been recognized for his unique approach working with directors in the design of special effects and visual effects across motion pictures, television, theater, concerts, and later in theme parks and architecture. This was featured in a New York Times profile on him by Stephen Farber, when Paul Mazursky's film Tempest (1982) was released. In this article Farber quotes Mazursky as saying he is "a Renaissance man, a figure from another time... If you crossed Robert Oppenheimer and Monty Woolley, you might get Bran."

The final scene in the 1980s music video "Take On Me" by A-ha was inspired by the similar scene designed by Ferren in Altered States.

A popular 1980s MTV Television bumper featured a take-off of the final transformation scene in Altered States, designed and art directed by Ferren.

Ferren started his first design and engineering company, Synchronetics while in high school. He left high school at age 16 to attend MIT, but departed in 1970 to continue entrepreneurial pursuits. Despite his short stay at MIT, he was invited back by then school president Charles M. Vest to be a keynote speaker for MIT Technology Day 1996. Before his 21st birthday, Ferren had worked on TV commercials, films, and regional theater. He had also pioneered visual effects for arena concerts for groups such as Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Laurie Anderson, Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, David Bowie, Paul McCartney , R.E.M, Depeche Mode, and Foreigner, using pyrotechnics, audio, projection, and novel lighting techniques.

He first attended Hunter College Elementary School for gifted students in New York City, followed by a year at the American Community School, in Beirut Lebanon (1963-1964) while his father served as the first artist-in-residence for a U.S. Department of State cultural exchange program to introduce American abstract art to the Middle East. After returning from overseas, he spent three years at the McBurney School in New York City, and then the last three years of high school at East Hampton High School, in East Hampton, New York.

Bran Ferren (born January 16, 1953), is an American technologist, artist, architectural designer, vehicle designer, engineer, lighting and sound designer, visual effects artist, scientist, lecturer, photographer, entrepreneur, and a prolific inventor. Ferren is the former President of Research and Development of Walt Disney Imagineering as well as founder of Associates & Ferren, a multidisciplinary engineering and design firm acquired in 1993 by Disney. He is Chief Creative Officer of Applied Minds, which he co-founded in 2000 with Danny Hillis. Apple's "pinch-to-zoom" patent, which features prominently in its legal battle with Samsung, was invalidated by the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2013 based on a 2005 patent by Ferren and Hillis for multi-touch gestures.

For his work in theater, Ferren also received two New York Drama Desk Awards, the Maharam Foundation Award, and the American Theater Wing, Hewes Design Award. He has designed the Special Effects and Sound for several Broadway shows, and is a long-term member of the Broadway stagehands union, IATSE Local #1. His theatrical special effects design work for the Broadway productions of Frankenstein, Cats, and Sunday in the Park with George, were widely acknowledged for their groundbreaking special effects. Frank Rich said in his New York Times review of Sunday in the Park with George: "What Mr. Lapine, his designers and the special-effects wizard Bran Ferren have arranged is simply gorgeous." It was the first Broadway musical to utilize digitally-processed projection mapping (pre-processed, geometrically corrected 35mm film projection), a radio-controlled costume with a robotic endoskeleton, 20 kW xenon rotating-dichroic-filter light ray effects, and dazzling high powered lasers that broke the 4th wall, traveling throughout the audience. Frank Rich said of his work in Frankenstein, "Bran Ferren's special audio-visual effects are also impressive by theatrical standards" and Carol Lawson, said in the New York Times, that "critics have remarked that Mr. Ferren's work on this play, which included the spectacular destruction of Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory by his monster, had the lavishness that audiences have come to expect in films, but have never before seen in the theater."