Dr. Poppy Crum is a visionary futurist, neuroscientist, and innovator whose work sits at the intersection of technology advancement and human evolution. Highly regarded in both the technology sector and academic circles, she is an adjunct professor in computer research at Stanford University where she is at the leading edge of how technology innovation in robotics, machine learning and AI, augmented reality, and sensor fusion combine with data that powers the planet to sustainably transform the industries that support how we live, what we eat, how we move, how we connect, and ultimately, our quality of life. Previously, Dr. Crum was the Chief Scientist at Dolby Laboratories, a leading global innovator and developer of audio, imaging, and voice technologies, where she built new technologies that utilized human physiology to enhance the ways we interact with the world using a deep understanding of human behavior, personalized data, and immersive tech.

An advocate for empathetic technologies that learn more about us as we use them, Dr. Crum works to bridge the gap between rapidly evolving technology and insightful, more effective human interaction. She is at the forefront of developing technology that heightens our success in our human experience, especially as it relates to utilizing trusted health wearable devices that provide data-driven insights to optimize wellbeing. She blends her experience working in wellness technology and entertainment technology for Hollywood with her expertise of immersive technologies to investigate how we can leverage personalized tech to elevate our capabilities while making ourselves more human.

In fast-paced and thought-provoking presentations that encourage audiences to embrace new technology rather than fear it, Dr. Crum dives deep into the advancements will change humans and the world in the coming years, including how to power wellness and sustainability with real down-to-earth understanding of the solutions that will enhance the ways we interact with the world through robots, autonomy, and efficiencies. Whether exploring how new empathetic technologies will alter the ways we eat, sleep, move, and speak, or how we will be able to utilize data of the planet to anticipate environmental disruption, move industry forward, and strengthen the relationship between earth and humanity, Dr. Crum helps organizations embrace change while reframing the ways they think about everything from talking to consumers and understanding demographic patterns to amplifying personalization in products and marketing strategy. Noting that many behaviors today wouldn’t be possible without the advent of new technology and data collection, and that everyone experiences the world in a unique way, Dr. Crum’s presentation encourages audiences to consider how technology can improve the collective human experience as well as products and services offered by specific industries. She believes the power of intelligent technologies is only realized with dynamic optimization and learning of as much of our personal and contextual data as possible.

Dr. Crum is a U.S. representative and vice-chair to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and a member of the Stanford Research Institute Technical Council. She is also a member of the Board of Industry Leaders for the Consumer Technology Association. She was previously Research Faculty in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where her neurophysiological research focused on understanding the neural correlates of how we hear in a complex acoustic environment and the functional circuitry of the auditory cortex.

In addition to being an author on 10 patent families and connected to 37 patents, she is a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society, a 2021 recipient of the Hedy Lamarr Award for Innovation in Entertainment and Technology, and a 2018 recipient of the Advanced Imaging Society’s Distinguished Leadership Award. She is also a 2017 recipient of the Consumer Technology Association’s Technology and Standards Achievement Award for work towards the introduction of over-the-counter hearing-aid devices. She was named to Billboard magazine’s 100 most influential female executives in the music industry. Prior to academic study as a neuroscientist and work in industry, she was a performance violinist.