About

I'm a VR game developer and simulation/XR engineer who builds real-time 3D systems where data, physics, and perception meet. My game development background — shipping interactive, physics-driven experiences in Unity and Unreal — is the foundation for the simulation and robotics work I do today. At the University of Waterloo I develop XR systems that stream live ROS data into 3D environments for scientific and spatial visualization, with strict correctness and performance validation.

My background spans Unity and Unreal (C#), real-time sensor and heatmap visualization, hand- and gesture-tracking, computer vision, and ML pipelines — plus the full-stack and cloud work needed to ship these systems end to end. I'm focused on robotics simulation: digital twins, sim-to-real workflows, and the tooling that lets engineers see and trust what a robot perceives.

What I Work On

VR / XR Software

Immersive VR/XR applications and games on Quest 3 and beyond — hand and gesture interaction, 3D UI, and gameplay systems in Unity and Unreal.

Robotics & ROS

Streaming real-time ROS data into 3D scenes, validating mapping consistency, and building visualization tooling for spatial data.

Simulation & Digital Twins

Physics-driven, multiplayer-synced 3D environments and VR/XR software in Unity/Unreal with profiling and correctness validation at scale.

Perception & ML

Computer vision, sensor fusion, heatmaps, and ML pipelines (hand pose, speech/LLM, image processing) feeding interactive systems.

Projects

Watch demo

Sogen — VR Dashboard & Game Systems

A VR experience with 108 assets and 260 hand-grab poses and interactions — featuring puzzles and relics, a coin/economy system, special hidden features, and a customizable in-headset dashboard. I designed the UI and built an in-game validation SDK that checks every item and its data and verifies grab-system connections. Built in Unity for Quest 3 with OpenXR and the Meta SDK.

Unity OpenXR Quest 3 Hand Interaction Validation SDK
Demo coming soon

RL Locomotion — Unitree Go2 Quadruped

Trained a Go2 quadruped to walk via reinforcement learning over 200k iterations in simulation, tuning reward shaping and gait stability for sim-to-real transfer.

Reinforcement Learning Go2 Sim-to-Real Locomotion
Watch demo

Remote VR Robot Digital Twin (Panda Arm)

Teleoperated a real, physics-based Franka Emika Panda robot arm from a Quest 3 headset — driving the physical arm in real time from VR with a synchronized digital twin, physics collision awareness, and path planning for automatic target reaching.

VR Teleoperation Panda Arm Path Planning Digital Twin
Watch demo

ROS-Integrated XR Visualization

Unity-based XR system streaming real-time ROS data into 3D scenes for scientific and spatial visualization. Validated mapping consistency via integration testing; profiled CPU/GPU/memory on large scenes. (University of Waterloo)

ROS Unity XR Real-Time Data
Watch demo

VR Advanced Interactions (OpenXR / Unity)

Advanced VR interaction systems built in Unity with OpenXR and the Meta SDK — taking custom grab, manipulation, and interaction mechanics from idea to implementation.

OpenXR Unity Meta SDK C#
Watch demo

VR Object Interaction — Multi-Grab & Guided Animation

Multi-hand grabbing on a single object with guided, physics-aware animation in VR — built in Unity with the Meta SDK for natural, two-handed manipulation.

Unity Meta SDK VR Interaction Physics
Demo coming soon

Cross-Reality Avatar SDK (VR · AR · Multiplayer)

An SDK for full-body avatar animation across VR (OpenXR) and AR (MRTK), with multiplayer sync and Unity–ROS integration aligned to a shared origin point — co-locating real and virtual spaces.

OpenXR MRTK Multiplayer ROS
Demo coming soon

Grab-Pose Auto-Setup SDK (Unity Editor Tool)

A Unity editor tool that streamlines hand grab-pose creation across 300+ assets — a guided "click Next" flow so even QA can author and set up grab poses without writing code.

Unity Editor Tooling Hand Pose OpenXR
Demo coming soon

LOD Asset Pipeline Tool (Unity Editor)

A general Unity editor tool to bring 108 assets in at 4 levels of detail — automating packaging, naming, texture setup, pre-OpenXR grab-pose setup, and wiring each asset into the game, the dashboard, and the in-game shop.

Unity Editor LOD Asset Pipeline Automation
Demo coming soon

Advanced OpenXR Grab Interactions (2025)

Advanced VR grab interactions in OpenXR — multi-hand grabbing, automatic pose adaptation, a distance/remote object placer, and mechanical interactions like gun cocking.

OpenXR Hand Interaction Unity VR
Demo coming soon

Real-Time Sensor Twin (2600-Sensor Body Map)

ML + image-processing pipeline driving a real-time heatmap visualization of the human body across 2,600 sensors in Unity, integrated with a .NET backend over sockets. Validated correctness and edge cases. (XSENSOR, Medical Tech)

Unity ML Shaders .NET
Watch demo

Quest 3 Multiplayer Game (BMad)

Multiplayer VR simulation on Quest 3 using Photon PUN and Meta SDK. Built interaction systems, physics-based object logic, gesture-driven 3D UI, and a full operator dashboard with an LLM assistant (voice/TTS, RAG, function calling). Debugged multiplayer desync/authority through systematic root-cause analysis. (BMad)

Unity Photon PUN Physics Multiplayer
Watch demo

Quest 3 AI Operator Dashboard (BMad)

In-headset AI operator dashboard on Quest 3 combining an LLM and a vision-language model (VLM) with speech-to-speech (STS) interaction and a function-calling system that drives in-game actions and tools, grounded with RAG.

LLM VLM Speech-to-Speech Function Calling
Watch demo

VR CPR/AED Coach (NASA-Affiliated Prototype)

Immersive in-headset VR medical assistant for a NASA-affiliated project at Arizona State University — an AI coach that guides a user through CPR/AED emergency response in real time, combining an LLM, a vision-language model (VLM), and RAG.

VR LLM VLM RAG
Demo coming soon

LLM Voice Assistant — Speech-to-Speech & Function Calling

Real-time voice assistant built on an LLM: speech-to-speech (STT → reasoning → TTS) paired with an AI function-calling system that lets the model trigger app actions and tools, grounded with RAG for accurate responses.

LLM Speech-to-Speech Function Calling RAG
Demo coming soon

3D Inspection & Reporting System

Unity Android app for 3D report generation with a Google Cloud backend and an OpenCV+ML barcode scanner. Inspection tooling deployed for SAQ and IKEA warehouses; improved report-generation efficiency ~4×. (Optim Structure)

Unity OpenCV Android Cloud
Watch demo

Unreal Fellowship — Game Demo (Epic Games)

Game built during the Epic Games Unreal Fellowship: Blueprint and C++ systems, custom gameplay shaders, Niagara VFX, procedural content generation, and production-optimized packaging.

Unreal Engine Niagara VFX PCG Shaders
Watch demo

Character Rig & Animation (Unreal Engine)

Character rigging and animation for a music-video piece in Unreal Engine, driving cohesive, gameplay-style motion with Blueprint and C++.

Unreal Engine Animation Blueprint C++
Watch demo

Full-Stack Web Platform (Next.js · CI/CD)

Multi-site full-stack platform — multiple front and back ends, a management/role system, and two CI/CD pipelines (test + publish) with auto git-push deploys on Netlify and Vercel.

Next.js Full-Stack CI/CD Vercel
Watch demo

GenAI Platform (Sibnik AI)

End-to-end AI platform — web, iOS, admin dashboards, chatbot, RAG. Scalable Cloudflare Workers backend for asset ingestion and multi-tenant APIs; embeddings and semantic search; shipped to the App Store with CI/CD.

RAG Cloudflare iOS APIs
Watch reel

2024 Work Recap Reel

A short showreel spanning a year of work: VR ML research, mobile and tick-based multiplayer games, VR dashboards, and the Unreal Fellowship — across Unity and Unreal (C#, C++, Blueprint).

Showreel Unity Unreal VR

Professional Experience

Nov 2025 - Present

PhD Researcher — Robotics, XR & Real-Time Visualization

University of Waterloo — Waterloo, Canada

Developing Unity-based XR systems that stream real-time ROS data into 3D environments and drive remote robot movement (teleoperation), with digital-twin visualization of robot and sensor state. Applying Gaussian-splatting 3D reconstruction for high-fidelity scenes. Verifying mapping consistency via integration testing and profiling CPU/GPU/memory on large-scale scenes.

ROS Teleoperation Gaussian Splatting Unity XR
Nov 2023 - Present

Unity VR Developer

BMad Technology Inc. — Montreal, Canada

Developed and owned quality of a Quest 3 multiplayer VR simulation using Photon PUN, Meta SDK, Firebase, and MongoDB. Integrated a full operator dashboard with an LLM assistant — voice (text-to-speech and speech-to-speech), a RAG knowledge system, business logic, and function/tool calling. Built interaction systems and developer tooling. Debugged multiplayer desync, authority, and timing through systematic root-cause analysis. Maintained CI/CD (GitHub Actions) and optimized runtime with the Unity Profiler.

Unity Photon PUN Meta SDK CI/CD
2024 - Feb 2026

Founder & Full-Stack Developer — AI Platform

Sibnik AI — Montreal, Canada

Designed and delivered an AI-powered platform (web, iOS, admin dashboards, chatbot, RAG). Built a scalable Cloudflare Workers backend for asset ingestion, AI processing, and multi-tenant APIs. Implemented embeddings and semantic search; deployed to the App Store with test/production environments and automation for catalog management and analytics.

RAG Cloudflare iOS APIs
Feb 2023 - Sep 2023

3D Software Developer (Medical Tech)

XSENSOR Technology Corp. — Calgary, Canada

Built real-time ML-driven heatmap and sensor visualizations in Unity with correctness validation. Developed large-scale 3D visualization tools (2,600 sensors) and tested stability and edge cases. Integrated Unity systems with .NET applications and ran cross-boundary integration testing. Worked with inverse kinematics, HLSL shaders, and sockets.

Unity ML Shaders .NET
Jan 2025 - Mar 2025

AR Full-Stack Developer

Blizza Brands Inc. — Toronto, Canada

Developed AR experiences and validated tracking, animation, and cross-device behavior. Built a role-based asset-management platform (Next.js + Strapi) with regression-tested API/UI flows. Delivered 3D WebGL product showcases and managed TestFlight releases with defect reproduction and verification.

AR Three.js Next.js WebGL
Jul 2022 - Mar 2023

Unity Developer — Full Stack

Optim Structure Inc. — Montreal, Canada

Built Unity Android inspection and reporting apps with verified cloud-sync accuracy. Implemented ML-based barcode scanning and improved reliability via field testing. Built dashboards and WebGL tools with regression-tested API workflows; improved report-generation efficiency ~4×.

Unity OpenCV Vue.js Cloud
2021 - 2023

Research VR Developer (MSc)

Bishop's University — Sherbrooke, Canada

MSc research on VR memory optimization (Quest 2) and ML pipelines for VR interaction. Implemented and validated hand- and gesture-recognition in Unity.

VR Research ML Pipelines Unity
Before 2021

Software & Research Developer

Multiple Organizations — Tehran, Iran

Backend, fintech, and real-time systems (Node.js, Python, Redis, MongoDB, RabbitMQ, WebSockets). Aerospace and image-processing research (CFD, OpenCV, ML, cross-correlation) with validated numerical outputs. Built Android, Electron, and Unity applications for visualization and lab tooling.

Python CFD OpenCV Real-Time

Skills & Technologies

Robotics & Simulation

ROS Real-Time Data Streams Digital Twins Robot Teleoperation Gaussian Splatting Physics Simulation Inverse Kinematics Sensor Visualization

3D / XR Engines

Unity (C#) Unreal Engine Meta Quest SDK OpenXR Photon PUN HLSL Shaders WebGL / Three.js

AI & Computer Vision

PyTorch OpenCV LLM Agents / Function Calling VLM RAG / Embeddings Hand Pose / Gesture Speech-to-Speech (STS) Image Processing

Engineering & Cloud

C# / Python / C++ CI/CD (GitHub Actions) Profiling & Optimization .NET Cloudflare / GCP Node.js

Publications

Brain Volume Predicts Skewed Locomotor Output and Lower Temporal Regularity

O. Demers, A. Yavari, S. Ghaffari, R. Nouri, M. Majidi, M. Bayatzadeh, S. Rezayani, R. Butler

Submitted, 2025

Hand-Gesture Detection for AR/VR using Machine Learning (Unity VR)

S. Rezayani, R. Butler

In Review, 2024

Education

2021 - 2023

MSc, Computer Science

Bishop's University — Sherbrooke, Canada

Thesis: Sculpting in VR with human hands and memory optimization in Unity (Quest 2).

Research: ML pipelines for VR interaction, plus hand- and gesture-recognition in Unity.

2013 - 2021

BSc & MSc, Aerospace Engineering

AmirKabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic) — Tehran, Iran

Focus: Image processing, CFD, computer vision, finite element methods, numerical methods.

Awards & Recognition

Epic Games Unreal Fellowship

Selected participant (North America), 2024

Epic Games

GameLab Technovation Jam

3rd Place, 2024

Technovation

AUT GameCraft

5th Place, 2024

AUT

Get in Touch

Open to robotics simulation, XR, and 3D engineering roles. The fastest way to reach me: