Nicolas Villar
Principal Researcher
About
Nicolas is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, incubating new tools for working and creating with AI.
Previously, he served as Director of System Integration on Microsoft Premonition in the Microsoft Discovery and Quantum division: a product for monitoring biodiversity and detecting infectious diseases and invasive insect species using robotic hardware and artificial intelligence.
Nicolas spent the first half of his Microsoft career at Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK. There, he co-led the Connected Play (opens in new tab) initiative, and was a member of the Sensors and Devices research group.
Nicolas co-led the development of Project Torino, an educational tool to teach blind and low-vision children the fundamentals of programming. He co-developed Project Emma, a platform to study the mitigating effects of vibration on tremors experienced by Parkinson’s patients. He led the R&D of Project Zanzibar, a play and interaction platform in the form of a thin, flexible sensing mat that can identify and track physical objects placed on its surface, as well as user’s touch and hand gestures. He was also one of the creators of .NET Gadgeteer (opens in new tab), a modular electronics ecosystem to accelerate development of custom electronic devices.