Jack McCauley

Jack McCauley is Innovator-in-Residence, Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation at the UC Berkeley College of Engineering, an American Engineer, Inventor, Hardware Designer, Gaming & Gaming-Interface Developer, Car Guru, and Philanthropist. He is best known as a co-founder and former chief engineer at Oculus VR, a pioneering company in the field of Virtual Reality, which was acquired by Facebook for $2.3 Billion in 2014. McCauley is also known for his work in designing the guitar-and-drum interface for the 2005 cultural phenomenon, Guitar Hero video game series, and is also credited for inventing the first scrolling feature for the computer mouse. Aside from being one of the originators of the USB port standard, McCauley also holds numerous U.S. patents for inventions in software, audio effects, virtual reality, motion control, computer peripherals, and video game hardware and controllers.

McCauley currently sits as a Board Trustee at his alma mater, UC Berkeley College of Engineering. He is also an avid philanthropist in the areas of education and science, where his efforts and contributions led to the recent establishment of the McCauley Chair in Drug Policy Innovation at the RAND Corporation, aimed at supporting fact-based drug policy research to improve the health and well-being of communities around the world.