Researcher / Developer
Rishav Banerjee
PhD candidate blending HCI research, virtual reality, and robotics to build the next generation of wearable and immersive interfaces. I design, prototype, and evaluate interactive systems at the intersection of human capability and machine intelligence.
01 // ABOUT
Tinkerer, researcher, builder.
I'm a PhD candidate in Computer Science at UBC Okanagan, working in the Okanagan Visualization & Interaction Lab. My research sits at the intersection of HCI, VR, and wearable computing: designing one-handed gestural input techniques for smart glasses and head-mounted displays.
I love tinkering with technology, getting it to shape and form to my will. Just the slightest bit crazy about custom editors like Emacs and Neovim (yes, I like both).
Primarily a Unity and Python developer, although I am well versed with a number of other languages and frameworks across the stack.
PhD
Candidate, Computer Science
4
Research Publications
3+
Years Research Experience
02 // EXPERIENCE
Where I've Worked
Okanagan Visualization & Interaction Lab
HCI Researcher
Kelowna, BC
- ▹Conducted HCI research on one-handed gestural input for smart glasses, focusing on hand-tracking interaction design, usability, and input translation pipelines for wearable computing.
- ▹Designed and implemented virtual reality applications in Unity to capture, reconstruct, and evaluate real-time hand gesture interactions for adaptive interface experimentation.
- ▹Built a real-time motion-capture pipeline using Vicon, Python WebSockets, and Unity to stream user hand-pose data into a VR environment on Meta Quest 3 for dynamic, on-hand and around-hand user interfaces.
Honda Research Institute
Robotics Engineer
Affiliated — Remote
- ▹Engineered AI sensemaking workflows for conversational robots designed for child interaction, supporting context-aware dialogue and multimodal human-robot interaction research.
- ▹Implemented a fully local, privacy-preserving speech-to-text pipeline and conversational agent on consumer-grade hardware, improving deployability and removing reliance on cloud services.
- ▹Deployed in a private middle school for investigating child-robot interactions and conversations with 20+ successful sessions.
University of British Columbia
Teaching Assistant
Kelowna, BC
- ▹Supported instruction for undergraduate and graduate courses including AR/VR Development for Immersive Storytelling, Introduction to Game Development with Unity, and Immersive Technology Design Studio using the VEMS display environment.
- ▹Taught and mentored cohorts ranging from 15 graduate students across disciplines to 150 undergraduate students, providing technical guidance in immersive technology, Unity development, and interactive system design.
03 // PUBLICATIONS
Research Contributions
ThumbSwype: Thumb-to-Finger Gesture Based Text-Entry for Head Mounted Displays
Rishav Banerjee, Shariff Faleel, Omang Baheti, Khalad Hasan, Pourang Irani
Exploring One-Handed Thumb-to-Finger Text Composition Systems for Head Mounted Displays
Rishav Banerjee, Shariff Faleel, Pourang Irani
What's the Thumb Doing? Improving Precision for Thumb-to-Finger Interactions on Hand Proximate User Interfaces
Shariff Faleel, Rishav Banerjee, Omang Baheti, Khalad Hasan, Pourang Irani
'Substitute' Knowledge of Results Provided Through Virtual Reality Enhances Motor Imagery-Based Learning
Celine Balay, Rishav Banerjee, Ghazaleh Shahin, Dingfu Lu, Pourang Irani, Cornelia Frank, Sarah Kraeutner
04 // SKILLS
Technical Taxonomy
VR Development
Research
Data & AI
Tools & DevOps
Languages
Soft Skills
05 // EDUCATION
Academic Journey
PhD — Computer Science
B.Tech — Computer Science
06 // GET IN TOUCH
Let's build something together.
I'm always open to discussing research collaborations, VR/HCI projects, or interesting ideas at the intersection of humans and technology. Feel free to reach out.