HOWARD KAPLAN
"I work at the intersection of technical and aesthetic design, solving problems by aligning client goals with human perception—using creativity to educate, engage, and motivate."
2023-2026 Teaching Sabbatical: Focusing on Writing, Conferences, Research, and Client Projects
2016-2023 College of Art (USF): 3D Animation and Digital Modeling
2015-2020 College of Engineering (USF), Electrical Eng.: Makecourse-Art, and course co-creator
2016 Honors College (USF): Computing for Research and Discovery, course co-creator
2015 College of Arts & Sciences, Mass Com. (USF): Creativity & Innovation in Design, course creator
2014-2024 University of South Florida- STEM Scholars, Advanced 3D Visualization Summer program, course creator
Howard Kaplan is an artist, educator, and technologist whose work explores the intersection of visual art, emerging technologies, and human experience. His practice focuses on using digital tools—such as 3D graphics, simulation, interactive media, and extended reality—as both creative mediums and platforms for research, teaching, and applied problem-solving. He designs and leads projects that translate complex ideas into immersive, accessible experiences, often integrating real-world data, user experience design, and instructional methodologies to create meaningful and effective technological solutions.
Kaplan holds a BFA from Ringling College of Art and Design, a Master’s in Education in Instructional Technology, and a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of South Florida, where he helped develop the Advanced Visualization Center as a campus-wide resource for innovation in digital media and applied technologies. His work has been exhibited in Boston, Connecticut, Miami, and Tampa, as well as in virtual and augmented installations and apps. His research and projects have been featured in outlets such as Science, Wired, SIGGRAPH, and Discovery, and he has been recognized by the Center for Digital Education as one of the Top 30 Technologists, Transformers, and Trailblazers. He also holds multiple patents for various technolgies.
Alongside his technical and visual practice, Kaplan writes poetry that reflects a similar interest in perception, abstraction, and the limits of interpretation. His work often blends humor, surreal imagery, and conceptual structure to examine how people experience and misread the world around them. Across both disciplines, his work is unified by a focus on how we construct meaning through systems—visual, technological, and linguistic—and how those systems shape our understanding of reality.
Projects include: 2D & 3D Imaging, Medical Simulation, 3D Printing, User Experience Design(UX), Instructional Design, Graphic User Interface Design (GUI), High Resolution Displays, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed and Blended Reality, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Stereoscopic Technologies, gesture control, creative coding, rapid prototyping, Forensic and Medical Reconstruction, Tactile and Haptics, Device and Prosthetic Design, Game Design, mixed media art & poetry installations, 3D Modeling, Animation.
PUBLICATIONS