Yulio VR Employee Highlight Reel: Interview with Lev Faynshteyn

Welcome to our Yulio VR Employee Highlight Reel where we introduce to you to an on the team - and the people whose ideas and sense of how VR and AR should work have shaped Yulio from the ground up.

The Yulio VR expert team are working in roles that for the most part didn’t exist 5+ years ago, the VR job market was pretty minuscule. So the variety of experiences that led people here have created both expertise and variety in our team. And our history may lead you to the perfect VR job.

This week, we’re sitting down with one of our members on the development team -- Lev Faynshteyn! Lev is the head of research and development, ensuring we continue to incorporate the newest in technology into Yulio. His role includes looking into the technologies of the future and figuring out how we can implement it into Yulio to answer to your needs. The work Lev does is absolutely vital to Yulio, as it upholds our promise to be future-proof, and our commitment to being the best VR presentation tool for business. His dedicated hours into research is how we can continue to push the boundaries of innovation.

So, Lev tell me a bit about yourself

I was born in Russia and attended South Russia State Technical University where I did my bachelors of computer science. When I was completing my studies there, I did my thesis work in computer graphics, which got me interested in this field of work.

In 2002, I moved to Canada and worked in the security field for a few years. After a while, I got bored of it and I quit to pursue further studies in computer science at Ryerson University, specializing in computer graphics. At first, I was in the field of medical visualizations -- fossil graphics. However, when I graduated and started looking for a job, one of the first companies I found was KiSP. Personally, I don’t like really big companies because you can get sucked into politics and control. I found KiSP to be the perfect environment for me, especially since I was doing lots of experimentation, which I found really interesting.

How did you find Yulio?

I didn’t find Yulio, it found me! Before Yulio was officially formed, I started working on VR prototypes for about half a year at KiSP. In January 2018, I officially started with Yulio when it was founded as a separate VR company focused on architecture and design applications of VR.

Tell me a bit about your role at Yulio

My official title is Head of R&D -- research and development. My role is a mix of everything and requires a lot of forward-looking. Part of my role is to look at technologies we can employ or prototype to bring into our pipeline. For example, one technology we looked at was Ray Tracing, which is basically generating cube maps. Our primary basic need in our pipeline is to visualize what our audience wants, and wants to see.

Back in the day, there weren’t as many tools available, or it was very underdeveloped as compared to today. Technology is now advancing at such a quick pace, which makes researching about them vital to staying up to date. All of my work is associated with developing ways of bringing content to the consuming devices (ie. mobile devices). We have gone from 2D into transitioning to a 3D pipeline.

Tell me a bit about your first experience with VR?

My first experience with VR was with the Google Cardboard -- everything before that was tethered like the Oculus Rift. The Google Cardboard made VR perfect for business since you don’t need to be strapped in, and the experience is with brief exposures. It’s for a different use case than playing a game and being inside for a long time for entertainment.

If you got to dream up any VR experience and immerse yourself into it, what would you choose?

Maybe flying to Mars? But it has to be done right and developed enough to be deliverable. VR is about trying something that you may not be able to in real life because if I could do it in real life I would. It’s not worth it if it’s pixel-y, so in regards to content creation, it has to be executed at a high standard. I like Sci-Fi, and maybe something like an episode from the show Black Mirror. Hooking your brain up to completely suppress your physical world, and when it’s completely indistinguishable.

Outside of your VR job, what are your hobbies?

I really like board sports, like snowboarding, wakeboarding -- I’ve been into sports my whole life. Lately, I’ve been playing more table tennis and taking that more seriously. I also used to race motorcycles, but I cut back on that now. I also really enjoy sci-fi, so I read a lot of books in that genre.

What’s your favourite Friday afternoon office game that we’ve played?

Pumpkin carving is my favourite one. We also had ping pong tournaments, those were really fun too!

We’d like to say a big thanks to Lev for taking the time to sit with us for a little Q&A about himself! Stay tuned for some more interviews with the staff that power Yulio, and discover how we’re all learning more every day about our VR job!