I’m an associate professor in the department of computer engineering and informatics, and the campus programme coordinator for the MSc. Robotics programme at Middlesex University Dubai. I’m also the head and founder of the VRX lab, a multidisciplinary space for conducting research and delivering teaching across various programmes at the university. As faculty, I’ve taught across departments and programmes, including computer science, psychology, media, and the business school (MBA). My teaching (and research) interests lie in the application of emerging technologies, such as VR/AR, Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine vision, and robotics towards other disciplines. I’m a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), and have completed a postgraduate certificate (PGCert) in higher education as well.
I completed my PhD at the EventLab, University of Barcelona with Prof. Mel Slater, where I worked on developing systems that allowed me to investigate the implications of body ownership over remotely located robots and applied this technology to various real-world situations. I was awarded a three-year pre-doctorate FI grant from the Government of Catalonia, Spain for carrying out my PhD.
Following that, I spent a year as a post-doctoral researcher at the EventLab, where I worked on a research project studying the effect of appearance of a virtual body on the higher-level cognitive functioning and implicit behaviours in immersive virtual reality.
Prior to moving to Dubai, I was the Head of Medical Rehabilitation and VR Innovation at Virtual Bodyworks, Barcelona, where I was involved in developing commercial VR applications for tackling personal and societal issues, such as domestic violence, racial bias and treatment of phobias.
I have an MSc in Computer Graphics, Vision and Imaging from University College London, UK and a Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) in computer science from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Dubai.