Andrew Moran

Andrew Moran

Virtual | Augmented | Mixed Reality Expert

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About Me

I have completed my Masters in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, with a concentration in Computer Graphics & Human-Computer Interfaces. My work in UI/UX software engineering and interaction promotes the development and integration of emerging technologies. I continue to pursue my passion in gamification and visualization by exploring the interactive and immersive experiences provided by VR/AR/MR technologies.

I want to continue pushing the limits of our technologies - from 3D and immersion to Generative AI and automation.

Previous academic and work experience involves research and development in usability and exploratory immersive experiences applied to different contexts from education & entertainment to cyber security and big data visual analytics.

I enjoy leading and managing teams, bringing products to their full potential - and the people building them!

Current Products

Microsoft Teams | Dynamics 365

Portfolio of business applications that empowers your organization including mixed reality integration


If you already have a Dynamics 365 Field Service, Dynamics 365 Guides, and/or Dynamics 365 Remote Assist license, you can access the new remote assistance capabilities in your mobile Teams app automatically upon release at no additional cost. Previously, Remote Assist capabilities required a standalone mobile app or a HoloLens 2 device. Now frontline workers can benefit from using the Spatial Annotations feature inside their Teams mobile app.

Android iOS
project name

Dynamics 365 Guides provides people with the tools they need to learn new skills faster. Create guides for training or day-to-day processes, with no programming skills necessary. Using a holographic overlay, provide hands-on training and step-by-step instructions right where the work happens. Create interactive content, attach photos and videos, import 3D models, and customize training to turn institutional knowledge into a repeatable learning tool.

PC / Hololens

Latest Projects

Create AWE 2019 Auggie Award

Launch title for Magic Leap One, leveraging Unity3D on a spatial computing platform
MR App

 Step into a delightfully weird new world of colorful characters, art and physics. 

Take a World Brush to your wall and paint a forest full of life. Build a castle made of cake for a knight who’s on the run. Arrange a room full of dominoes and watch a testy T-Rex knock them all down. And when you’ve had your fun, toss it all in a vortex and start a brand-new adventure. This world is uniquely yours, play the way you want to play.

Developed by Magic Leap Studios, Create is a playful sandbox mixed reality experience where anything's possible. It's a broadly accessible experience, offering the oppurtunity to explore mixed reality and learn how Magic Leap One works. It's also a fun way to learn how to interact with virtual content on a spatial computing platform. Our application has been featured by Unite LA, LeapCon, and GDC 2019. Create has also received the 10th Annual Auggie Award: Best Game & Toy at AWE USA 2019.

Gameplay Programmer

Found Cinequest 2017 VR Award Oculus Launch Pad Winner

Interactive narrative film in virtual reality utilizing Unity3D, HTC Vive, and Oculus Touch

56 K

Free Licenses Granted

25 K

First-Time Downloads

90 %

Positive User Reviews
VR Film

 A dimly lit train cabin … swaying grassy plains … flickering fireflies … a mighty dragon. 

Found is an interactive short film experience for virtual reality built in Unity3D. It's story speaks to the connection and lack there of between nature, technology and fellow travelers as you make your way through a fantastical yet familiar world. With an awe eerily reminiscent of a Miyazaki film, this departure from traditional gameplay delivers the feels we’ve been dreaming of since VR landed.

We developed this experience in less than a month as part of the UploadVR + MakeSchool VR Academy to showcase our talents and vision of creating a VR cinematic experience that accommodates limited user interaction. The narrative, art, and gameplay mechanics are a proof of concept we plan to improve on later iterations or carry over to future content. Our application has been featured by Oculus Launch Pad and received Best Motion Picture: Fantasy & Sci-Fi VR Award at Cinequest Film & VR Festival 2017.

Technical Director

Steam Viveport Oculus
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Virtual Chinatown

Virtual Chinatown is a mixed reality platform that preserves and promotes cultural heritage, history, and art through immersive experiences - with fun and engaging ways to crowdfund. Tech lead engineering community driven VR experience via WebXR/BabylonJS, targeting Vision Pro & Quest 3. Participant in the first inaugural Vision Hack - global visionOS hackathon.

WebXR Developer

project name

Amazon Sumerian AR/VR Challenge

Alphabet Pictionary is a 3D virtual teaching assistant utilizing Amazon Sumerian and Host AI. Interactive avatars help teach the alphabet utilizing gesture maps & voice recognition provided by Amazon Polly and 3D imported models from Google Poly. Built as part of a multi-week online hackathon hosted by Amazon Sumerian AR/VR Challenge and ported to ARCore & ARKit.

Amazon Sumerian Developer

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UploadVR + MakeSchool VR Academy Unity Certified

Graduate from the first inaugural VR developer training course by MakeSchool & UploadVR Collective. Curriculum involves best design and coding practices for VR development utilizing HTC Vive, Oculus Rift with Unity3D and SteamVR. Learned VR's practical applications for industry from speakers such as Google, Oculus, High Fidelity, etc.

Unity Developer Alienware x51 R3 Oculus Rift Leap Motion

HoloLens for Hospitals Best Design

HoloLens Tower Defense Game for hospitalized kids to visualize their immune system combating rampaging monsters! Microsoft held a hackathon for local developers at Boston VR to come up with apps for social good. Our tower defense game was developed for the HoloLens in room scale environments using Unity3D and Blender. Our team effort earned us the prize for best design!

Unity Developer

project name

Unity3D and Vuforia AR Workshop

Managed first inaugural meeting of virtual and augmented reality in Chile, titled VirtualChile, for social impact within the Santiago community. Promoted content & state-of-the-art development of VR/AR immersive technologies. Hosted workshops and lectures dedicated to Unity3D & Vuforia AR development.

Founding Director of Technology & Content

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Virtual Reality and Leap Motion for Air Traffic Control

Simulation to better monitor and coordinate model airplanes for local air traffic control. Incorporated multiple iterations of prototyping, gesture recognition and input management. Developed immersive 3D environment in Unity3D utilizing Oculus Rift and Leap Motion SDKs.

Student Researcher

3D Reconstruction from Multi-View Stereo (MVS)

Visualization of MVS Pipeline and related algorithms in VR via Oculus Rift SDK, Unity3D, Python. This includes verifying results of Point Clouds, Quadtrees, Octrees, Marching Cubes, Surface Reconstruction, and its exploration in a 3D virtual reality environment. Extension of Computer Vision Final Project

Student Researcher

project name

Digital Computational Photography Snippets

Completed exercises in Python reiterating foundational principles of photography, computer vision, image processing and computer graphics. This includes HDR, homographies, panoramic stitching, light fields, video magnification, resampling, warping and morphing.

Student Researcher

Other Projects

Swing It Better

Provided technical guidance on iOS app using AI technology to analyze golf swings and performance, from UI/UX design to sensory data collection techniques

Technical Advisor

The Unreal Engine Developer Course - Learn C++ & Make Games

Actively learning Unreal Engine with C++ to make AAA games. Enhancing my skills in game development, C++ software construction, and best game programming practices

UE4 Student

Technologies for Visualization of Big Medical Text Data

Performed topic modeling of MIMIC text data. Implemented web application for visualizing medical data utilizing D3.js, Vega and Python Flask.

Graduate Student Research Assistant

Paper Poster Video

D3.js Visualization - The More You Snow

Demonstrated human visual system processes and good design practices & methods for programming interactive web-based visualizations using D3.js

Game Developer/Programmer

IOS Game Design Competition

Exercised game development & coding practice on iOS devices via Objective-C, SpriteBuilder and Xcode. IAP Course 6.670 co-hosted by MIT and Make School.

  • One Man Team, Final Round Candidate

Game Developer/Programmer

Designing Interactions for MBTA

Prototyped mobile app utilizing Yelp API, Google AdWords to enhance ridership experience. As part of the MIT Mobile Experience Lab.

  • Final Presentation to MBTA panel, including Chief Director of Innovation

GUI Engineer Raspberry Pi

Work Experience

Senior Software Engineer - Microsoft (May 2020 - Present) Exhibitor

Tech lead for development and task management of most recent Dynamics 365 Guides and Remote Assist on Teams Mobile releases! More to come

Dynamics 365 Remote Assist Mobile improvements to MR capabilities including asset capture for entities within CDS/Dataverse, authentication for Teams Meetings, and iOS/Android/HoloLens device optimization

Dynamics 365 Field Service mobile app contributions for technician success such as embedded MR capture via Power Apps model-driven apps, NPM packaging, and React Native / BabylonJS / TypeScript tech stack

Adjunt Professor - Univeristy of Advancing Technology (Jan 2022 - Mar 2025)

Teaching, mentorship, and curriculum design for Virtual Reality bachelor's degree, from introductory to graduate level.

Courses include Human-Computer Interaction, Virtual & Augmented Reality Hardware, Virtual Environments, Virtual Reality World Build.

Technical Advisor - Swing It Better Inc. (Aug 2021 - Dec 2021)

Swing it Better uses revolutionary AI technology to analyze your swing and generate a program custom made for your swing and desired goals.

Get expert feedback without leaving the comfort of your own home and learn the right way to transfer your skills to the golf course!

Software Development Engineer - Magic Leap (Sept 2017 - Apr 2020) Speaker Inventor

Lead gameplay programmer within Magic Leap Studios devoted to Unity3D content creation & prototype engineering on Magic Leap One. Developed on Create, a sandbox mixed reality experience shipped as Magic Leap's Launch Title.

Integrated internal persistence API, privilege management, automation/performance testing for production.

Extended frameworks for character AI utilities, PhysX locomotion agent authoring, and UI/UX interaction.

Tech & design lead of inaugural HQ Pilot Game Jam "Ball-In-A-Maze" MR adaptation; published on internal app store.

Co-Founder - Syndikit Studios LLC (Dec 2016 - Jun 2019) Get A Quote

Centered in the crossroads of art and technology, Syndikit builds engaging content from animated short films and games to training and data visualization.

Full-stack development and design for virtual, augmented, and mixed reality experiences.

Lead management and engineering of 3D/2D rapid prototyping, multi-platform deployment, third-party demos with ARCore, ARkit

Expert Unity3D curriculum design & instruction; instructor/TA at Upload VR Collective

Chief Technology Officer - Arges, Inc. (Oct 2015 - Jul 2016) Start-Up Chile

Arges is a company utilizing augmented reality technologies to improve air traffic control management. We leverage 3D displays to mitigate low visibility conditions and cognitive overhead

ReticleOS & Android mobile development on mobile wearables such as ODG R-7 Smartglasses

Lead architect & Unity3D engineer for integrating real-time flight simulation, field testing & on-site demos

Research Assistant - MIT Lincoln Laboratory (Sept 2014 - Jan 2016) Best Student Paper Finalist

M.Eng Thesis in Big Data Visual Analytics utilizing Twitter API, Oculus Rift & Leap Motion SDKs

Performed data ingestion in Matlab, Accumulo/D4M and visual integration in Unity3D, Maya

Thesis Paper Slides Poster

Technical Assistant | Game Developer & Programmer - MIT Lincoln Laboratory (Jun 2012 - Aug 2014)

Enhanced Cyber Security Situational Awareness visualization tool with mobile game development

Utilized game development tools such as Unity3D to benefit player interaction & gamification

Enhanced proficiency in co-optimization, usability, user-testing, cross-platform networking

Review Article Paper

Software & Game Development Intern - Grasshopper NYC (Jan 2013 - Feb 2013)

Created digital multiplayer game via Unity3D for circular touch top tables and related physical media to foster meaningful social interaction, player usability and Indie game development

Promoted theoretical implications of systems engineering, gamification and learning effectiveness

Lead Programmer/Game Engineer - MIT Systems Engineering Advancement Research Initiative (Jun 2011 - Feb 2012)

Organized game development, spanning both software modular implementations and engineering

Promoted theoretical implications of systems engineering, gamification and learning effectiveness

Programmer/Developer - MIT Field Intelligence Laboratory (Feb 2011 - Jun 2011)

Implemented applications optimizing hybrid-electric vehicle efficiency titled StreetSmart

Executed various algorithms such as reverse geo-coding, map matching & fundamentally regressing vehicle-street parameters against physics models and collected sensory data