Najma Dawood
Designer, researcher, and educator working in VR, XR, AI, and immersive tech.
I create immersive and interactive systems across VR/AR/XR, AI, product, and accessibility—and teach the next generation to build them. NYU Tandon IDM.
XR
Prototype · HoloLens · 2016
NASA JPL
Prototyping a HoloLens tool for NASA JPL engineers to navigate 3D CAD models in mixed reality.
Installation · AR · Havas Fellowship · 2018
Project Dandelion
An immersive AR installation triggered by a laser-cut token, built as a Havas creative-technology fellow on Governors Island.
Installation · VR · NYC Media Lab · 2017
Untitled Realities
A VR installation exploring displacement, memory, and the spaces we carry. 2nd place, Creative Technology, NYC Media Lab Summit.
Teaching · NYU Tandon IDM · Graduate · 2024
Restorative Spaces
A graduate seminar on designing XR environments for regulation, rest, and re-entry—immersive tech for health, recovery, and inclusive design.
Teaching · NYU Tandon IDM · Undergraduate · 2023
UX for XR
Wireframing, prototyping, and usability testing across AR and VR—WCAG and UDL principles applied to head-worn and spatial contexts.
Teaching · NYU Tandon IDM · Undergrad + Graduate · 2022 —
NYU VR Studio
NYU's inaugural undergraduate VR course and its graduate VR Studio. Student teams ship functional prototypes, culminating in the end-of-semester showcase at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Beyond XR
John Henry Thompson
2026Solo design and build—a portfolio that doubles as a launchpad for a free coding program for Brooklyn high-schoolers
Teachers College, Columbia
2024Communications & digital architecture for a city-funded curriculum launch
Brooklyn Bridge Flow
2019—2022A mobile wellness studio, rooted in community
Consulting
Critique, prototype, hand off.
I work with development studios, founders and nonprofits as the design voice in the room: a written critique that says what’s wrong and why, a clickable prototype of the fix, and a developer kit that lets the team build it—with or without an AI coding tool—without a single clarifying call.
Teaching
Curriculum is an ecosystem.
Since 2022 I've been designing and teaching NYU's undergraduate and graduate VR courses—alongside curriculum work at Teachers College, Platinum Edge Tutoring, and a K-5 literacy program. I treat curriculum as an ecosystem: information architecture, learner outcomes, accessibility, and iteration with feedback—never finished.
On teaching →