MIT’s Alexander Htet Kyaw: Merging Design and Computer Science to Reimagine Human-AI Interaction
The intersection of design and computer science is yielding groundbreaking innovations, and Alexander Htet Kyaw, an MIT MAD Fellow, stands at the forefront of this convergence. Pursuing dual master’s degrees in architectural studies in computation and in electrical engineering and computer science, Kyaw is redefining how we interact with technology and our environment.
Kyaw’s work focuses on integrating technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), and robotics with human-centric interfaces like gesture, speech, and object recognition. This fusion creates human-AI workflows capable of transforming various aspects of our lives, from shopping to architectural design and manufacturing.
One of Kyaw’s notable innovations is Curator AI, developed with MIT graduate student partners Richa Gupta, Bradley Bunch, Nidhish Sagar, and Michael Won. Curator AI won first prize at the MIT AI Conference’s AI Build: Generative Voice AI Solutions hackathon. The platform is designed to revolutionize online furniture shopping by providing context-aware product recommendations using AI and AR.
Curator AI employs AR to measure room dimensions, including the locations of windows, doors, and existing furniture. Users can then describe their desired furnishings, and the system uses a vision-language AI model to search for and display suitable options that match both the user’s prompts and the room’s visual characteristics. According to Kyaw, this makes the furniture selection process more intuitive, efficient, and personalized, solving the common problem of shoppers not knowing where to start.
Another impactful project is Estimate, created during the MIT Sloan Product Tech Conference’s hackathon in March 2024. Focusing on assisting small businesses, Kyaw and his team developed Estimate for a painting company in Cambridge. This product uses AR and object-recognition AI to precisely measure rooms and generate detailed cost estimates for renovations or paint jobs. It also leverages generative AI to visualize the room’s potential look after the work and generates invoices upon completion. Kyaw’s teammates were Guillaume Allegre, May Khine, and Anna Mathy.
Kyaw’s innovative spirit extends beyond these projects. Unlog, a towering art sculpture on the Cornell campus, demonstrates his approach to sustainable building practices. Unlog was built using software that maps the dimensions of building components directly from the touch of a fingertip on the surface of a material using AR and gesture recognition. This eliminates the need for logs to be processed into standard lumber, reducing waste and promoting sustainability.
He also developed a system integrating physics simulation, gesture recognition, and AR to design active bending structures using bamboo poles. This system allows users to manipulate digital bamboo modules in AR and visualize how the bamboo bends, facilitating the creation of stable structures.
Driven by a desire to address the effects of climate change and poverty in his home country of Myanmar, Kyaw founded BendShelters through the MITdesignX program. BendShelters aims to build prefabricated, modular bamboo shelters and community spaces for refugees and displaced persons. His work with BendShelters has garnered recognition from MIT Sandbox, PKG Social Innovation Challenge, and the Amazon Robotics’ Prize for Social Good.
Kyaw is currently collaborating with Professor Neil Gershenfeld and PhD student Miana Smith at MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms to develop a workflow that uses speech recognition, 3D generative AI, and robotic arms to build objects in an accessible, on-demand, and sustainable manner. With bachelor’s degrees in architecture and computer science from Cornell, Kyaw was also awarded an SJA Fellowship from the Steve Jobs Archive, supporting his projects at the intersection of technology and the arts.
“I enjoy exploring different kinds of technologies to design and make things,” Kyaw says. “Being part of MAD has made me think about how all my work connects and helped clarify my intentions. My research vision is to design and develop systems and products that enable natural interactions between humans, machines, and the world around us.”
