Vincent Hayward

Vincent Hayward was a robotics and haptics researcher whose work connected touch, perception, and computer interfaces. He studied engineering in France, worked at Purdue and CNRS, and joined McGill in 1989; a 2001 Nature paper with Gabriel Robles-De-La-Torre showed how force cues shape perceived form. At ISIR, his team studied tactile perception and developed haptic devices, with research linked to predictive coding in machine-learning theory; he created Actronika and held a London chair in tactile perception. He received the Grand Prix Inria and was elected to the Académie des Sciences in 2019, and he died in 2023; Sorbonne University held a haptics workshop in his honour in 2024.

Born: 1955
Died: 2023
Badges: Founder
Bridge
Boomerang
Wayfarer

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

1978–1983

From Nantes to CNRS

He earns an engineering degree at École Centrale de Nantes in 1978 and completes a PhD thesis at LIMSI in 1981. After a postdoctoral fellowship, he becomes a visiting assistant professor at Purdue in 1982 and joins CNRS as a research fellow in 1983.
1989–2006

Professor at McGill

He joins McGill’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1989 and becomes a full professor in 2006. He directs McGill’s Center for Intelligent Machines from 2001 to 2004.
1991–2001

Force feedback and touch perception

While designing a force-feedback device to give visually impaired people access to computers in 1991, he develops an interest in touch. In a 2001 Nature paper with Gabriel Robles-De-La-Torre, he shows that force cues can determine perceived shape even when surface geometry differs.
1995–2000

Co-founding Haptic Technologies

In 1995, he co-founds Haptic Technologies Inc. to simplify hardware for computer-aided design; Immersion buys the company in 2000.
2008–2014

An international chair at ISIR

He returns to France in 2008 to join ISIR through an international chair at Pierre and Marie Curie University, and he is elected a Fellow of the IEEE. He receives ERC Advanced and Proof of Concept grants in 2009 and 2014. At ISIR, his team studies tactile perception and builds haptic devices; his findings on touch relate to predictive coding, a concept studied in the neuroscience of perception and machine-learning theory.
2016–2018

Actronika and a London chair

From 2016, he devotes part of his time to Actronika, a Paris start-up he creates for haptic technology. In 2017 and 2018, he takes leave to become Professor of Tactile Perception and Technology at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study, supported by a Leverhulme Trust grant.
2019

Grand Prix Inria and academy election

In 2019, he receives the Grand Prix Inria of the Académie des Sciences and is elected a member of the Académie des Sciences.
May 2023–June 2024

Death and a tribute workshop

He dies in May 2023 at age 68. In June 2024, Sorbonne University holds a scientific workshop on haptics in his honour.