Design Researcher and Project Manager
Design Researcher and Project Manager
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Moonisa Ahsan, PhD
Moonisa Ahsan, PhD
With 6+ years of experience in designing human-centric technologies and systems based in Amsterdam currently working at Centrum Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI).
I turn research into impact
I turn research into impact
With 6+ years of industry and academia experience, I enjoy designing user-centric systems and technologies, focusing on scaling research practices and translating qualitative and quantitative insights into measurable design and performance outcomes.
Proven track record of contributing to cross-functional research initiatives from discovery to deployment in large-scale EU-funded projects. Currently working on AI-enabled XR systems with AR, VR, NLP integration and intelligent agents.
Top Skills
Top Skills
Human-Centric Design Research
User Experience (UX)
Concept Development
Wireframing & Prototyping
Qualitative & Quantitative Analysis
Agile / Iterative Design
Cross-functional Team Leadership
I am a UX Design Reseacher in the Distributed & Interactive Systems (DIS) Group at Centrum Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI), the Dutch national research institute for computer Science and mathematics in the Netherlands.
Currently, I am part of VOXReality (Horizon-EU Project) where I focus on enhancing user experience and design for XR Applications.
Previously, I did my joint doctoral studies as a Marie-Curie fellow at Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia, (Italy) with Dr. Gobbetti (Director ViC Group) and was also enrolled in the PhD Program, supervised by Prof. Dr. Riccardo Scateni at the state Università degli Studi di Cagliari(Italy).
My PhD Topic was "Scalable Exploration for Completed Objects and Environments beyong plain visual replication", more details can be found here and thesis PDF can be downloaded from this link.
Areas of Research Interest:
👥 Human-Computer Interaction (HCI),
🌟 User Experience (UX),
eXtended Reality Applications (XR),
🖥️ Computer Graphics (CG)
🏛️ Cultural Heritage (CH).
What I learnt at Meta?
What I learnt at Meta?
Designed and co-developed interactive experiences within Horizon Worlds, emphasizing user engagement mechanics, interaction design, and end-to-end user journey optimization.
Received 1:1 mentorship on product lifecycle strategy, pre-production planning, production, release, and monetization approaches.
Engaged with Meta’s ecosystem at Meta Connect, gaining early exposure to device launches and emerging immersive technology trends.
Research Publications
Research Publications
User centric Requirements for Enhancing XR Use Cases with Machine Learning Capabilities. Lee, S.; Ahsan, M.; Viola, I.; and César, P. In IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, VR 2025 - Abstracts and Workshops, Saint Malo, France, March 8-12, 2025, pages 753–757, 2025. IEEE
Enhancing the Audience Experience for VR and AR Theatre with AI-generated Subtitles. Viola, I.; Ahsan, M.; Chatzifoti, O.; Yonkov, A.; Oikonomou, E.; Radin, I.; Maka, P.; Issam, A.; and César, P. In Batmaz, A. U.; Machuca, M. D. B.; Ortega, F.; Zielasko, D.; Kim, K.; Skarbez, R.; Plabst, L.; Banic, A.; and Stroppa, M., editor(s), Proceedings of the 2025 31st ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology, VRST 2025, Montreal, QC, Canada, November 12-14, 2025, pages 71:1–71:11, 2025. ACM
VRD: A multi-lingual translation and Ai-Assisted Navigation experience for VR Conference Application. Ahsan, M.; Viola, I.; Toledo, M.; Kontopoulos, D.; and César, P. In Batmaz, A. U.; Machuca, M. D. B.; Ortega, F.; Zielasko, D.; Kim, K.; Skarbez, R.; Plabst, L.; Banic, A.; and Stroppa, M., editor(s), Proceedings of the 2025 31st ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology, VRST 2025, Montreal, QC, Canada, November 12-14, 2025, pages 135:1–135:3, 2025. ACM
LEGO Co-builder: Exploring Fine-Grained Vision-Language Modeling for Multimodal LEGO Assembly Assistants. Huang, H.; Pei, J.; Aliannejadi, M.; Sun, X.; Ahsan, M.; Yu, C.; Ren, Z.; César, P.; and Wang, J. CoRR, abs/2507.05515. 2025.
Artwork
Artwork
What do I think about Rayban Display Glasses?
What do I think about Rayban Display Glasses?
My quick impressions
The glasses
🌍 Translations & command control: 9.5/10
🎛️ Interface: 7/10 (my impression was that it is currently optimized only for the right side, check website)
📷 Image / video quality: approx. 3K
Neural Band
⚡ Responsiveness: 9.5/10
🤲 Comfort: 8/10
✋ Works smoothly with both hands
🖐️ Gestures UX: 9/10
🎚️ Haptics control: 8.5/10
Let's work together
Let's work together
Open to research collaborations, UX consulting, project management roles, and speaking opportunities.
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