Marwa AlAlawi

I am a second year Ph.D. student at the MIT HCI Engineering Group , advised by Prof. Stefanie Mueller.

As an HCI researcher and mechanical engineer, I am interested in solving problems at the intersection of digital and physical interactions. My interests lie in exploring haptics, materials, and sensing. During my undergrad at MIT, I worked with Dr. Brian Anthony and Professor Cynthia Breazeal. I also interned as a VR developer at REACT Neuro and GREE Japan. My current research is supported by the Crown Prince's International Scholarship Program.

Non-academic passions: digital art & animation, game design, and languages.

Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Github | Google Scholar | Instagram

Updates

June 2023 I graduated from my masters in Mechanical Engineering and started my PhD.
April 2023 I am the recipient of the MIT MISTI Ambassador Award 2023 (nominated by MIT Japan and MIT Arab World) ( News Article )
March 2023 MechSense has been featured on MIT News and other international news outlets! ( MIT News )
January 2023 My paper "MechSense:A Design and Fabrication Pipeline for Integrating Rotary Encoders into 3D Printed Mechanisms" was accepted to #CHI2023 (Hamburg, Germany)!
October 2022 I have launched MIT's first MISTI Bahrain program along with my partners Maryam Al Jomairi & Latifa Al Khayyat ( Bahrain News Agency, AUBH press release)
October 2022 I will be demoing LeviCircuits at UIST 2022 & also serve as a student volunteer!
September 2021 I started my masters in Mechanical Engineering

Papers

Marwa AlAlawi , Noah Pacik-Nelson, Junyi Zhu, Ben Greenspan, Andrew Doan, Brandon Wong, Benjamin Owen-Block, Shanti Mickens, Wilhelm Schoeman, Michael Wessely, Andreea Danielescu, Stefanie Mueller,
“MechSense: A Design and Fabrication Pipeline for Integrating Rotary Encoders into 3D Printed Mechanisms"
In Proceedings of CHI 2023.

DOI Project Page Video MIT News

Demos

Marwa AlAlawi & Brandon Wong,
“LeviCircuits: Adhoc Electrical Circuit Prototyping using Ultrasound Levitation,”
UIST 2022 Adjunct, SIC, October 2022

DOI PDF Video Preview

Thesis

Marwa AlAlawi ,
“Design of a Virtual Environment for Physiological and Subjective Monitoring of User Presence in VR,”
B.Sc. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,May 2020

DOI PDF Talk

Conferences Attended

ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2023, In Person (Hamburg, Germany), First Author Paper Presenter for MechSense
Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) 2022, In Person (Bend, Oregon), Student Volunteer & Student Innovation Contest Participant
ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2022, In Person (New Orleans, Lousiana)
Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) 2021, Virtual
ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2021, Virtual
Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) 2020, Virtual
ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW) 2020, Virtual

Teaching

Product Engineering Processes (MIT 2.009), Remote - Remote Teaching Assistant (August 2020 - December 2020)

Developed concept art and design for virtual theme reveal stage, costume design, and 2D animation.
Animation media release
Costume design media release

MIT Toy Product Design (2.00b), Cambridge, MA- Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (FBRUARY 2020 - May 2020) & (FBRUARY 2022 - May 2020))

Mentored a team of six MIT undergraduate students on toy design ideation and fabrication.
Guided 30+ undergraduate students with running shop machines and electronics (until March due to COVID-19).

MIT International Science and Technology Initiative, Amman, Jordan- Team Leader & Instructor (January 2020 - February 2020)

Developed and taught a monthlong high school STEM curriculum focusing on product design, with hands on workshops in Python, Arduino, UI/UX Design, and Unity for 120 students from the Amman Academy and Jubilee School in Jordan.

MehtA+ college level Machine Learning Bootcamp, online- Teaching Assistant (May 2020-August 2020)

Mentored 8 students with machine learning projects for peer-reviewed academic paper and poster session. Projects include: Latin Translation with Machine Learning, Handwriting Recognition with Convolutional Neural Networks on Writings of George Washington.
Taught and developed python recitation content for 40 students in online recitation format
Projects Media Release

MIT Maker-spaces (Makerlodge, Makerworks), Cambridge, MA- Undergraduate mentor (September 2017 - Current)

Trained MIT freshmen on shop machines (laser cutter, 3D printer, bandsaw, drill press, hand tools) through a two-day hands on project. (Makerlodge)
Supervised and assisted MIT undergraduate and graduate students through several shop machines (laser cutter, 3D printer, vinyl cutter, desktop CNC mill for PCB fabrication) (Makerworks)

MIT Physics (8.01): MECHANICS I, Cambridge, MA- Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (September- December 2017)

Directed and assisted more than 27 students with physics concepts by supervising in-class problem solving.
Graded more than 27 student problem sets on weekly basis

Work Experience

REACT Neuro, Cambridge, USA (Remote)- XR Development Intern (DECEMBER 2020- APRIL 2021)

Developed a VR breathing exercise experience with Unity for use on Pico Neo 2

GREE, Tokyo, Japan- XR Development Intern (JUNE - AUGUST 2018)

Developed an eductional virtual reality game for Japan’s National Space Agency (JAXA) and GREE’s “Arienai” Kids Workshop using Unity and HTC VIVE.
Voice-acted narrative for game support character, “Maru-Chan” in Japanese.

Universal Studios Japan, Osaka, Japan- Junior Experience Designer (POSTPONED)

Past Projects

2018

KanKan

Physical Kanji to Katakana convertor that utilizes OCR technology (for Japanese learners)

Documentation

2019

Aris

A mechanical beehive system eliminating heavy box lifting from beekeeping

Documentation

2019

Minion Yoyos

50 mass-manufactured yoyos using injection molding & thermoforming processes

Documentation

2017

Shark Splash

Interactive water game with a concept similiar to Russian Roulette/ Musical chairs

Documentation

Marwa AlAlawi

Updates

Papers

Demos

Thesis

Conferences Attended

Reviewing

Teaching

Product Engineering Processes (MIT 2.009), Remote - Remote Teaching Assistant (August 2020 - December 2020)

MIT Toy Product Design (2.00b), Cambridge, MA- Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (FBRUARY 2020 - May 2020) & (FBRUARY 2022 - May 2020))

MIT International Science and Technology Initiative, Amman, Jordan- Team Leader & Instructor (January 2020 - February 2020)

MehtA+ college level Machine Learning Bootcamp, online- Teaching Assistant (May 2020-August 2020)

MIT Maker-spaces (Makerlodge, Makerworks), Cambridge, MA- Undergraduate mentor (September 2017 - Current)

MIT Physics (8.01): MECHANICS I, Cambridge, MA- Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (September- December 2017)

Work Experience

REACT Neuro, Cambridge, USA (Remote)- XR Development Intern (DECEMBER 2020- APRIL 2021)

GREE, Tokyo, Japan- XR Development Intern (JUNE - AUGUST 2018)

Universal Studios Japan, Osaka, Japan- Junior Experience Designer (POSTPONED)

Past Projects

KanKan

Aris

Minion Yoyos

Shark Splash