Rate My Professor Steve Boyer

Steve Boyer is an Associate Professor in Architecture and Design at California State University, Long Beach, where he serves as Director of the Hybrid Design Lab in the Department of Design. With over 30 years of multidisciplinary experience as an artist, designer, inventor, entrepreneur, engineer, and educator, Boyer has developed technologies and content for interactive media, including video games, electronic toys, musical instruments, architectural designs, and fine art installations. His professional career includes roles as software and hardware engineer, designer, and producer at leading media companies such as MTV, Nickelodeon, Mattel, and Vivendi Games, where he directed Research and Development for Interactive Entertainment at the Sierra Entertainment division. Boyer is the founder of Skyboy Productions, Inc., a boutique video game and toy design studio that produced the international arcade hit Police Trainer, and has founded three startups. He holds several patents, including for an electronic musical instrument and the world’s first volumetric LED display.

Boyer earned his Master of Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), where his thesis work examined tensions between physical and digital spaces, and collaborated on a robotic architectural installation. Prior to joining CSULB, he taught at prestigious institutions including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Department of Art and Technology Studies, the University of California, San Diego’s Visual Arts Department, and Otis College of Art and Design’s Product Design Department. At CSULB, the Hybrid Design Lab, under his leadership, explores "EMERSIVE" hybrid digital-physical products, spaces, and experiences to re-engage users with the physical world using technologies like microcontrollers, sensors, and projectors. Integrated into courses such as DESN 454/554 Technologies for Hybrid Design, the lab fosters interdisciplinary innovation. Boyer is an Affiliated Faculty at CSULB’s Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and delivered a TEDxCSULB talk on "Information Pollution." As a guest member of the AIA award-winning Workshop LEVITAS, he contributed to the Crosswired responsive architectural installation premiered at the Architecture and Design Museum Los Angeles in 2007.