Apurva Shah

Apurva Shah is Founder and CEO of Duality AI, a company devoted to building interactive worlds to solve real problems. Previously he was head of creative technology and design systems at Capital One, and visual effects supervisor and member of the technical brain trust at Pixar, SVP of global technology at Rhythm & Hues Studios, and effects supervisor at Dreamworks Animation. His film credits include Ratatouille, Shrek, Finding Nemo, and Toy Story 3. Apurva is the Adjunct Professor in emerging technology at the California College of the Arts covering topics such as Metaverse Design, Designing for Trust and social implications of web3 technologies. He has previously taught animation and visual effects at Ringling College of Art & Design, San Francisco Art Institute and the Academy of Art University. Apurva has spoken and written extensively about the intersection of design and emerging technologies with a recent focus on interactive worlds. This includes the metaverse.fm podcast; presentations at the Digital Twin and Industry IoT consortia; founding member of the Metaverse working group in the Open Geospatial consortium; SF Design Week Metaverse panel; and contributed articles to several publications including Electronic Design. He holds several innovative patents in simulation, robotics, rendering, and digital payments. He has served on the Siggraph committee and on the board of the Visual Effects Society. He currently serves as advisor for non-profit Kids & Art Foundation.