About

I work at the intersection of perceptual science and real-time rendering. My background is in VR distance perception, controlled experiments, and the software pipelines required to run studies reliably at interactive frame rates.

Recently, I have been extending this foundation toward gaze-aware rendering (eye-tracked foveated rendering and blur control), and toward simulation and data collection pipelines that support robotics learning in environments like Isaac Sim.

Core strengths
  • Unity VR prototyping with robust experiment logic
  • Graphics systems and shader work (OpenGL / GLSL, Unity shaders)
  • End-to-end experiment pipelines (instrumentation, logging, analysis)
  • Applied ML and analytics experience from industry internships
Tooling
  • Unity, C#, shaders
  • Python (NumPy, SciPy, Pandas)
  • OpenGL / GLSL
  • Data logging and analysis workflows

Current work

Gaze-aware rendering for distance perception

Eye-tracked foveated rendering and gaze-contingent blur control in Unity, targeting perceptual evaluation in VR distance judgment tasks.

  • Meta Quest Pro eye tracking integration
  • Stable smoothing and parameterization for experimental conditions
  • Data logging and analysis-ready outputs

VR to Isaac Sim data pipelines for robot learning

Human-in-the-loop teleoperation and demonstration collection to evaluate whether VR data improves learning on manipulation tasks.

  • Interaction design for reliable demonstrations
  • Structured datasets for training and evaluation
  • Simulation and validation mindset (repeatable runs)

Experience

Lecturer in Computer Science, University of Massachusetts Boston

2024 to present
  • Teach large-enrollment and upper-level courses across core CS topics
  • Design projects, exams, and scalable grading workflows
  • Mentor student work spanning theory, systems, and VR prototypes

Ph.D. Researcher, Michigan Technological University

2019 to 2023
  • Thesis: the impact of pre-experiment walking on distance perception in VR
  • Designed controlled VR studies and built experiment software and analysis pipelines
  • Collected and analyzed high-frequency HMD tracking data (about 70 Hz) across 130+ participants
  • Quantified pre-experiment blind walking effects, improving distance judgment accuracy from about 80% to 97%+
Methods and algorithms (selected)
  • Cumulative distance integration: computed true walked distance by integrating path deviations
  • Turning point detection: identified meaningful turns using angular velocity signals
  • Step detection: filtering plus scipy.signal.find_peaks on vertical HMD motion
  • Reusable tooling: Python modules for data processing and visualization

Visteon Corporation (3 co-op terms)

2020 to 2022
  • Applied ML, data engineering, and system integration to automotive workflows
  • Progressed from foundational AI research to technical lead responsibilities
  • Delivered production-minded tools that reduced multi-day analysis cycles to minutes
Co-op III (Summer 2022): Product Design Technical Lead Intern
  • Built V-PEDAT, a Python desktop application (Tkinter, Pandas, Matplotlib) to automate analysis
  • Automated processing of 26,500+ data points and graphs previously handled manually
  • Impact: reduced analysis time from multiple days to under 5 minutes
Co-op II (Summer 2021): AI and System Integration Engineering Intern
  • Optimized a DMS-related algorithm using sin(2x) = 2sin(x)cos(x) for efficient arm-angle detection
  • Worked with Leica 3D Disto lidar hardware and conducted testing on Mahindra test benches
  • Skills: Python, C, Bash, Docker, embedded testing, computer vision
Co-op I (Summer 2020): ADAS Engineering Intern
  • Built monocular depth estimation pipelines, converting 60,000+ images from .npz into CNN-ready datasets
  • Trained PackNet models using Keras and TensorFlow, managed reproducible runs with Docker

Publications

Selected work. Full list on Google Scholar.

  1. VR Distance Judgements (ACM SAP 2022)
    ACM DL
  2. Brightness vs. Distance Judgements (ACM SAP 2020)
    ACM DL
  3. Sorting Algorithm Comparison (ACM ACAI 2019)
    ACM DL

Google Scholar

Service

Program committee

  • ACM Symposium on Applied Perception (SAP) Program Committee (2025, 2026)

SAP 2025

Reviewer

  • IEEE VR 2023, IEEE VR 2024
  • ACM VRST 2023, ACM VRST 2024
  • PeerJ (paper reviewer)

Volunteering

  • ACM SIGGRAPH 2024, Student Volunteer
  • AWE USA 2025, Volunteer

Teaching

Courses

  • CS420: Theory of Computation (Rocq / Coq for formal reasoning)
  • CS450: Structure of Higher Level Programming Languages (Racket and functional programming)
  • CS240: Programming in C
  • CS210: Data Structures
  • CS110: Introduction to Computing
  • CS220: Discrete Mathematics

Honors

  • Finishing Fellowship (Ph.D.), 2023
  • Business Opportunity Recognition (VRSPACE), 2022

Contact

Email is best: sepahyarsoheil@gmail.com You can also reach me via LinkedIn.