A lab for people who refuse to stay inside
a single discipline.
HIVE — Harmony, Interaction, and Versatile Exploration — is a research lab that started from a simple frustration: the things we wanted to make didn't fit neatly into any existing box. Music Technology had no home at an IIT. Interactive art had no serious research address in India. The intersection of all five senses, computation, and human experience had no lab willing to sit with its full, uncomfortable breadth.
So we built one. Designers, engineers, musicians, and artists — working on the same problems, in the same rooms, with the same tools. Every sensor, every headset, every algorithm here is in service of one thing: a human experience worth having.
IIT Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh — 208016
About HIVE Lab
HIVE — Harmony, Interaction, and Versatile Exploration — is a research lab at the Department of Design, IIT Kanpur founded by Gowdham Prabhakar. It began with a question: what are the things that people in India have been craving to do, but nobody was doing? Music Technology was one. A space where designers, engineers, musicians, and artists could work on the same problem was another. HIVE was the answer to both.
A place where tools are treated as means, not ends. Where an eye tracker is not "an eye tracking project" but a way to understand where attention goes, or to let someone select a note in a song without lifting a hand. Where the same sensor can be a research instrument and a performance instrument. Where every device is in service of a human experience.
We take the full cradle-to-grave cycle seriously: an idea is only complete when someone has stood in front of it, been changed by it, and gone home thinking differently. That means we prototype early, exhibit often, and write about what we built. Research and making are not two different activities here — they are the same one.
There is no hierarchy in ideas at HIVE. An intern's insight and a faculty member's instinct are both welcome in the same room. What we look for in people is not credentials but openness — the willingness to learn, to unlearn, and to be slightly different on the way out than they were on the way in.
Mission, Vision & Culture
Mission
To build interactive systems, instruments, and experiences that treat every sensor, every modality, and every interface as a tool in service of a human. From audio to robotics, XR to assistive technology — all of it is in service of the person on the other side of the screen, the stage, or the installation.
Vision
A future where computers are embedded in walls, rooms, and everyday surfaces — and where India is not just consuming that future but shaping it. HIVE exists to grow that capability here, so students and researchers no longer have to leave the country to work on Music Technology, New Media Art, or the frontiers of HCI.
Culture
Inclusive, accepting, and flat. No idea is too junior or too unconventional to be heard. We value human life over monetary outcomes, curiosity over credentials, and the willingness to change over the certainty of knowing. Fun is a legitimate driver. Conversation is how we think.
Our Approach
Ideas are only complete when someone has experienced them. We go cradle to grave — every time.
Question
Start with what is missing — a human experience nobody has designed for, a modality nobody has explored, a problem that crosses disciplines and refuses to fit neatly into one lab.
Ideate
Bring together people who think differently. An intern's instinct and a PhD's literature review belong in the same conversation. Brainstorm without hierarchy until something clicks.
Build
Prototype with whatever tools the problem demands — hardware, software, sound, XR. Build to understand, not just to demonstrate. If you hit a wall, the wall is data.
Test & Exhibit
Put the work in front of people — in user studies, exhibitions, festivals, and conferences. A working system presented to an audience reveals things no paper can.
Publish & Share
Document what was learned and share it — at CHI, NIME, UIST, IndiaHCI, and beyond. National recognition matters as much as international. Knowledge grows when it circulates.
Technical Capabilities
Every tool here is a means to an end — creating an experience, solving a problem, or understanding a human.
Interactive & Generative Media
Real-time generative visuals, AI-driven installations, and live performance systems where computation becomes material.
Music Technology & Sound Design
Custom instruments and sonic interfaces — because sound is a sense too. We build the tools that musicians and researchers in India never had access to before.
XR & Spatial Computing
AR, VR, MR, and diminished reality — the full spectrum of extended reality, from headsets to projection-mapped rooms to digital twins.
Sensing & Tracking
Eye tracking, EEG, motion capture, depth sensors — tools for passively reading the body or actively letting the body control the machine.
Hardware & Electronics
Custom mechatronic systems, wearables, soft robots, and PCB designs — built from scratch in the lab, not ordered off a shelf.
AI & Machine Learning
Generative AI, computer vision, and human behaviour analysis — used when they serve the interaction, not as a destination in themselves.
Robotics & Mechatronics
Soft robots, HRI systems, and autonomous navigation — exploring how robots move through the world and how humans move with them.
Research Methods
User studies, in-the-wild evaluations, thematic analysis, and exhibition-based feedback — because a working system in front of people is also a research instrument.
Equality & Inclusion
HIVE Lab is committed to equal opportunity and an inclusive research environment. We do not engage in discrimination on the basis of age, ancestry, ethnic origin, caste, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital or family status, minority status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, union membership, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations, and ordinances.
Inclusivity here is not a policy statement — it is the condition for good research. When people feel safe enough to be different on the way out than they were on the way in, the work gets better. We believe in spaces where people open up, gain trust, and learn to think differently — not by being told to, but by being in a room where that is already happening.
Explore HIVE
Find out more about our people, work, and spaces.