Jeff Lieberman

Timeline

1. By 2000

   Physics and math at MIT

   Growing up in Miami, Florida, he takes up drums at 6, saxophone at 11 and piano at 14. He enrolls at MIT at 18, earns bachelor's degrees in physics and mathematics in 2000, and starts the improvisational music group Listen-Silence.

2. 2004

   Robot learning from demonstration

   After working at several start-up companies, he returns to MIT to join the Media Lab's Robotic Life Group, where he heads design on Cyberflora, a robotic flower garden that senses and responds to people. In June 2004, he completes a mechanical engineering master's thesis, Teaching a Robot Manipulation Skills Through Demonstration. With Breazeal, he presents software in 2004 that lets a humanoid robot learn a dexterous motor skill from a few demonstrations by an operator wearing a telemetry suit.

3. 2006–2007

   The TIKL vibrotactile suit

   In May 2006, he completes a Media Arts and Sciences master's thesis, Accelerated and Improved Motor Learning and Rehabilitation using Kinesthetic Feedback, and he heads design on a robotic wearable suit that teaches motor skills for dance, sports and rehabilitation. In 2007, he and Breazeal publish TIKL (Tactile Interaction for Kinesthetic Learning), a wearable robotic system whose 5-DOF suit yields a 27% improvement in accuracy and an accelerated learning rate of up to 23%.

4. 2008

   The Absolut Quartet robot orchestra

   With fellow MIT alum Dan Paluska, he builds Absolut Quartet, an electromechanical sculpture on Manhattan's Lower East Side in March 2008 that turns short tunes submitted over the internet into pieces for a ball-firing marimba, wine glasses and robotic percussion. The work receives an Award of Distinction in Interactive Art at Prix Ars Electronica 2008.

5. 2008–2009

   Hosting Time Warp

   While pursuing a doctorate at the MIT Media Lab, he becomes host of the Discovery Channel's Time Warp, which runs from March 2008 to October 2009. With digital imaging expert Matt Kearney, he uses high-speed cameras to slow down everyday events and teach physics. He takes a leave of absence from his PhD because of the filming.

6. 2010–2017

   End Love and Slow Dance

   In 2010, he and Eric Gunther co-direct the OK Go music video for "End Love", shot in one continuous take with three cameras over 18 hours. His 2017 sculpture Slow Dance is a picture frame whose strobe lights, synchronized to vibrating feathers, branches or flowers, make real objects appear to move in slow motion. After a Kickstarter campaign, he sells it as an ongoing product through his company Wonder Machines.

7. 2021–2022

   Co-founding Sleepawake

   In 2021, he and Cat Tweedie, whom he met at MIT, cofound the nonprofit Sleepawake, and in 2022 they run its first 30-day camp for people aged 18–25.

8. As of October 2026

   Lead facilitator at Sleepawake

   He is a cofounder and lead facilitator of Sleepawake, which runs week-long retreats and shorter workshops, with an immersive near Yosemite scheduled for March 2027.