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Karim Ismail
Masters in Design Engineering @ Brown + RISD
Hyundai Design Engineering Fellow, 2023 NASA Collaborator (ISP), 2x patents, prev. Aramco
Gamer, cinephile & sushi connoisseur
Hello team! My name is Karim, I was born and raised in Los Alamos, New Mexico, lived in places like Switzerland, and have traveled to dozens of other countries, each teaching me something new about how humans interact with products, the world, and each other. I did my undergraduate studies in engineering and am currently pursuing my Masters in Design Engineering from Brown University + RISD. I have worked at companies like Aramco, the world's largest energy company, and second largest company by market cap. I hold two patents in industrial design and have launched my own startups designing viral growth loops that lead to millions of online impressions, hundreds of thousands of users, and over $1 million in VC funding. Understanding user behavior excites me!
As I approach graduation in May, I am eager to dive straight into exhilarating work with motivated teams building the products of tomorrow. Particularly, I am interested in a role where I can utilize my design and prototyping skills to contribute to physical and / or digital products, including those in augmented, virtual and mixed reality. I am familiar with tools like Figma, Protopie, Adobe Suit and Blender, and am currently expanding my knowledge by picking up prototyping flows using nodes in Unity. Some of my favorite AR / VR softwares are SparkAR and GravitySketch. I am also familiar with industrial software like SolidWorks, Fusion360 and Rhino. This combination of physical and digital design experience makes me feel uniquely equipped to face the design challenges of tomorrow that merge our physical and digital worlds. Below I share a few of my
AR / VR / XR projects, and by clicking here you can see my full portfolio site.
Hybrid Reality
Catalogue
An augmented reality catalogue experience that allows customers to virtually view, interact with & analyze products and their build components in physical space.
The Hybrid Reality Catalogue ecosystem is made up of a metal and leather handcrafted folder with laser printed typography, a set of layered and stackable tracker images for AR detection, and mobile software for AR visualization.
Vision
The software detects each unique layer and brings a virtual model of the part to the user's digital space. User's can interact with the various components to examine how the product is made, and try on the item, in this case a fine wristwatch.
Augmented reality heads up display
bio-inspired technologies for a sustainable future
in autonomous vehicles
Brainstorming + Ideation
Quick 2D sketches help conceptualize and contextualize the overarching design
User research + use case study
Through user research I am able to pinpoint specific behaviors to orient features and use cases around
*protected under NDA with Kia & HMU
Prototyping AR interfaces in VR
By utilizing VR spaces, I am able to contextualize, demonstrate and test AR interfaces and scenarios
Artificial Intelligence & AR
Today's vehicles feature advanced human driver assistance technology. Level 5 autonomous vehicles of tomorrow require little to no human input.
Ergonomics in open space UI/UX
Level 5 fully autonomous vehicles will be used more like moving living spaces or living rooms. With this shift comes a reimagining of interactions and interfaces. (ex. notice how the "augmented reality" TV screen in this demo tracks the users line of sight).
NASA Collaboration design exploration. Augmented Reality tool that helps engineers measure and visualize different body sizes for spacesuit design.
NASA designers and engineers building future spacesuits need a better way to collect and visualize large sets of measurement data. By taking advantage of augmented reality and lidar technology, we can deliver precise measurements and contextually visualize them digitally in the real world.
NASA designers and engineers building future space capsules need a better way to test experiences and visualize spaces. Using Virtual Reality setups I am able to showcase lo-fi prototypes in reality and hi-fi experiences in VR.
Form, size and physics
A variety of design constraints are considered when forming aeronautics vehicles, capsules, tools and suits. In this case, our team made form decisions based on size, optimizing for fuel cost and ergonomics.
Modeling with ergonomic constraints
Space capsules must be optimized for small size, purpose and material. The smaller the capsule, the less fuel is needed to send it to orbit. This saves NASA money, and helps team efficiently complete missions.
Stimuli Limiter
Designed, prototyped, researched and field tested various wearable technologies that attempt to limit overstimulation to light for patients struggling with the lasting effects of Traumatic Brain Injury.
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