Research Project Name:
Exploring acceleration of arts and entertainment applications through next generation generative AI
Researcher:
Ken iiyoshi (Postdoctoral Innovation Fellow at New York University)
Funding source:
New York University - Office of the Provost, through the Center for Faculty advancement, in partnership with the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF).
More information on the Innovation Fellowship program here.
Research Problems:
1. You want to celebrate your family members’ birthdays', anniversaries, etc., but you are short on time. You have a nice message to send through Canva, but you want something more entertaining, like a video! Activate the artist inside you!
Hypothesis: (audience) have pain points in planning for making celebration videos.
Questions to ask: How often they face this issue.
Working solution: AutoGPT Platform frontend and Genesis-backend -based software, turning text input to 30s cinematic birthday/celebration video generation, so those on long-distance can send their loved ones creative videos, but focus on making their heartfelt messages.
Participation Opportunities:
Posted 20 Sept 2025.
I’m looking to interview people about how they celebrate important days with their long-distance family and friends, and how next generation video generators can help that.
celebrate important days with your family and friends, and how next generation video generators can help that. if you're available for a 15-20 min conversation (zoom, preferably in person near Washington Square Park) in the next two weeks, please fill out this google form: https://forms.gle/8p1D9YMdSNGJtrSG8
2. Software-accelerated art creation.
Hypothesis: Artistic design and prototyping are both time and capital consuming.
Questions to ask:
Working solution: Methodology: AI-accelerated soft robotics simulation for design and prototyping cycles using Genesis. Will expand to wider soft robotic applications in the long term.
3. Mid-air acoustic holography for mid-air object manipulation and user interactions.
Hypothesis:Lack of real-life Holodeck from Star Trek: Current technologies are not powerful enough.
Questions to ask:
Working solution: Methodology:: 10x more powerful mid-air haptics devices for human computer interface companies to solve scalability and power-limit, compared to existing startup technology.
Collaborations Opportunities:
Co-researcher:
Through my postdoctoral innovation fellow position in NYU, I am looking into urgent problems in the industry that I can solve through my PhD research in Soft Haptics ( https://aimlab-haptics.com/soft-haptics ) under Prof. Mohamad Eid's Applied Interactive Multimedia Lab in New York University Abu Dhabi. I have both software and hardware skills ranging from materials science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, to computer science.
If you are interested, have questions, or can recommend anyone, please email me at ken.iiyoshi@nyu.edu starting with the title "NYUEN:"
Internships:
We are now looking for a graduate or undergrad intern who is interested engineering, robotics, and team working. 10~15 hours per week (Sept 22-Dec 10). You will start as a volunteer, which may get upgraded to a paid position. Wish to apply/re-apply? Please send me your up-to-date CV, transcript, and relevant materials to ken.iiyoshi@nyu.edu, titled "Internship:Your preferred name" by Sept 22nd. We plan to accept 1 to 2 applicants.
Your job would be to help us provide additional support in the following activities. We'll cater to your interests and make them fun!
-Soft actuator fabrication: mixing resins, spin coating them into films in a cleanroom, and assembling them into actuators.
-Actuator experimentation: Running experiments on arduino, recording thermography and videos, and making tables and plots from them.
-Make simulations for these using Genesis: https://genesis-embodied-ai.github.io/
The application is for robotics and the metaverse, which you will learn in detail through literature reviews.