Dinesh Pai
Professor
Academic Information
B. Tech., IIT, Madras. (1982); M.S., Cornell (1986); Ph.D., Cornell (1988); Research Associate, Cornell (1988-1991); Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia (1991-96); Associate Professor, University of British Columbia (1996 - 2001); Professor (2001 - ).
Visiting Professor, Carnegie Mellon University (1998); Professor, Rutgers University (2002-2006).
Fellow of the BC Advanced Systems Institute (1994). Tier 1 Canada Research Chair (2006-2020).
Research Areas
Research Groups
Interests
Pai's research is in Sensorimotor Computation, a multidisciplinary field that seeks to identify the fundamental principles of movement and sensing in biological and engineered systems. His recent work focuses on computational models of biomechanics and neural control of musculoskeletal systems. These include the oculomotor system and the human hand. He is also developing new imaging methods for constructing subject-specific models from MRI and computed myography (CMG). His work is funded by the Human Frontier Science Program, NSERC, CIHR, NIH, Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, CFI, BCKDF, MITACS, Autodesk and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair. He received an NSERC Discovery Accelerator award in 2007.
Sensorimotor Computation has direct applications in traditional fields of systems neurobiology, robotics, haptic interfaces, and computer graphics. In graphics and haptics, Pai and his students pioneered efficient algorithms for interactive multisensory simulation of contact, with friction, deformation, and sounds. The innovative robotic systems he has developed include the Platonic Beast spherically symmetric legged robot and the UBC Active Measurement Facility (ACME), a telerobotic system for physical modeling.