I am an Assistant Professor of Product Design at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. I received my Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Mechanical Engineering department studying creativity, humor and idea generation. I completed my Master's work at MIT studying projectile toy design with Hasbro Inc. and my Bachelor's at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. In 2006, I was a visiting researcher at TU Delft in the Netherlands studying industrial design and surprise in products.

I love to work on projects combining design, art and the entertainment industry such as amusement park rides, toy product design, and design television. I hold two patents and currently have a Nerf® toy on the market.

Most recently I created a partnership called Popcorn Tuba LLP and we released a game for the iphone called Word Bounce available at the itunes store.

I design special effects and have worked on animatronics and storyboarding for 5-Wits, an interactive entertainment company. I helped design an elevator simulator for Operation Spy an immersive adventure show at the International Spy Museum in Washington DC.

In 2005, I hosted and produced a design television pilot called "Designerds!" The show featured interdisciplinary teams of graduate students competing in a product design showdown.

I worked with my former advisor David Wallace on recreating the Archimedes Death Ray. The Death Ray is actually an array of mirrors which we used to set a wooden boat on fire. Our work can be seen on Discovery Channel's Mythbusters Episode 46. I was also a consultant and guest client for DesignSquad, a design television show for high school students currently airing on PBS.

In 2005, I developed the award winning Catsup Crapper® the first ketchup bottle to roller skate to your plate and excrete a mound of ketchup. The Automato is the new iteration featured on The Martha Stewart Show and Conan. With a team of graduate students, I designed and patented a new form of coring endoscopic biopsy needle which preserves tissue histology. These needles will help oncologists when determining the nature of a tissue sample.

Speaking of tissues, I also studied bathroom tissue.

I am the co-founder of MIT course 2.00b Toy Product Design which will be offered at the University of Minnesota in the College of Design in Spring 2011 as DES 3170. In the class, students work with children and local toy companies to experience a product design process.

I was a lab instuctor for the undergraduate MIT Product Engineering Processes course (2.009) for many years and also the teaching assistant for an MIT graduate level product design class (2.744)

I love to paint, draw, sculpt and animate. Some of my work is posted in this very website in the Art section. I created a series of illustrations called CourseToons which depict some of the Courses (majors) at MIT in a fun fanciful manner. At one time I began making illustrations of everyone I know in a series called Friends of Barry or FOB Toons.

I played guitar and sang in a gypsy rock band called Supa Dupa. Previously, I was in a band called Off White Noise. I also had a leading role in the Music Theatre Guild Production of Cabaret.

I love to write and I have written two children’s novels. The first book is called “The Enchanted Poetry of Arnold Soft."

I am a poet or “rapper” if you can imagine. Some of my work is posted in the Hip Hop section of this website. In 2004, I held the title “Orlando Grand Slam Master” and was ranked 25th Greatest Slam Poet in the World at the World Poetry Competition of 2004. I am currently in a hip hop group called the Capacitors with Nathan Ball.