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Najma Dawood
Najma Dawood

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.

Brooklyn, NYContact

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

Coconut Tree app—a dreamy dashboard with 'Hello, Najma,' a soft script title, and cycle, mood, and weekly calendar widgets on a watercolor branch background

Coconut Tree

2026

The AI-native lifestyle OS, powered by the Now Engine

Homepage of johnhenrythompson.com showing the POWER TO THE PEOPLE! 2024 installation as a hero video—a window vinyl projection of Du Bois-style data visualizations layered with JHT's face

John Henry Thompson

2026

Solo design and build—a portfolio that doubles as a launchpad for a free coding program for Brooklyn high-schoolers

Cover of 'Black Studies as the Study of the World—A PK-12 Black Studies Curriculum for New York City Public Schools,' yellow with photographs of Black students

Teachers College, Columbia

2024

Communications & digital architecture for a city-funded curriculum launch

A BBFLOW yoga class on the Empire Stores rooftop with the Manhattan Bridge in the background

Brooklyn Bridge Flow

2019—2022

A mobile wellness studio, rooted in community

Full archive →

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 →