MIT’s Alexander Htet Kyaw: Bridging Design and Computer Science with AI Innovations

In an era defined by rapid technological advancement, the ability to creatively harness new tools is paramount. Alexander Htet Kyaw, an MIT MAD Fellow and graduate student pursuing dual master’s degrees in architectural studies in computation and in electrical engineering and computer science, exemplifies this innovative spirit.

Kyaw merges artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and robotics with gesture, speech, and object recognition to develop human-AI workflows. These workflows have the potential to transform our interaction with the built environment, revolutionize shopping experiences, and streamline the design and creation of complex structures.

Curator AI: Revolutionizing Furniture Shopping with AI and AR

Kyaw’s recent innovation, Curator AI, earned him and his MIT graduate student partners first prize at the MIT AI Conference’s AI Build: Generative Voice AI Solutions hackathon. Curator AI leverages AR to measure room dimensions, including window, door, and furniture placements. Users can then describe desired furnishings, prompting the system to utilize a vision-language AI model to search for and display matching options, considering both user prompts and room characteristics.

“Shoppers can choose from the suggested options, visualize products in AR, and use natural language to ask for modifications to the search, making the furniture selection process more intuitive, efficient, and personalized,” explains Kyaw. He emphasizes that Curator AI addresses the challenge many face when furnishing a room by providing smart, contextual recommendations based on the room’s visual aspects. While initially designed for furniture shopping, Curator AI holds potential for expansion into other markets.

Estimate: AR-Powered Renovation Cost Estimation

Another notable project is Estimate, created during the MIT Sloan Product Tech Conference’s hackathon in March 2024. Focused on assisting small businesses, Kyaw and his team developed Estimate based on the needs of a Cambridge painting company with 10 employees. The system employs AR and object-recognition AI to precisely measure rooms and generate detailed renovation and painting cost estimates. Generative AI is used to visualize post-renovation room appearances and create invoices upon project completion.

Kyaw’s teammates for Estimate were Guillaume Allegre, May Khine, and Anna Mathy, all 2024 graduates from MIT with master’s degrees in business analytics.

Unlog: Sustainable Structures from Whole Logs

Kyaw is set to deliver a TedX talk at Cornell University, showcasing Curator AI, Estimate, and other projects that integrate AI, AR, and robotics in design and construction. One such project is Unlog, which combines AR with gesture recognition to map building component dimensions using fingertip input on material surfaces. Unlog, a towering art sculpture constructed from ash logs on the Cornell campus, exemplifies the potential of this technology.

Unlog embodies the idea of constructing structures directly from whole logs, bypassing the traditional lumber mill process. This approach aligns with Kyaw’s commitment to sustainable building practices. A paper on Unlog, titled “Gestural Recognition for Feedback-Based Mixed Reality Fabrication a Case Study of the UnLog Tower,” was published by Kyaw, Leslie Lok, Lawson Spencer, and Sasa Zivkovic in the Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computational Design and Robotic Fabrication, January 2024.

Another system developed by Kyaw integrates physics simulation, gesture recognition, and AR to design active bending structures using bamboo poles. Gesture recognition enables users to manipulate digital bamboo modules in AR, while physics simulation visualizes bending and attachment points for structural stability. This research was presented in the Proceedings of the 41st Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe, August 2023, as “Active Bending in Physics-Based Mixed Reality: The Design and Fabrication of a Reconfigurable Modular Bamboo System.”

BendShelters: Providing Shelter for Refugees in Myanmar

Kyaw founded BendShelters to create prefabricated, modular bamboo shelters and community spaces for refugees and displaced persons in Myanmar, his home country.

“Where I grew up, in Myanmar, I’ve seen a lot of day-to-day effects of climate change and extreme poverty,” Kyaw says. “There’s a huge refugee crisis in the country, and I want to think about how I can contribute back to my community.” His work with BendShelters has received recognition from MIT Sandbox, PKG Social Innovation Challenge, and the Amazon Robotics’ Prize for Social Good.

Currently, Kyaw is collaborating with Professor Neil Gershenfeld and PhD student Miana Smith at MIT to develop a workflow using speech recognition, 3D generative AI, and robotic arms to create accessible, on-demand, and sustainable objects. Kyaw holds bachelor’s degrees in architecture and computer science from Cornell. He was also awarded an SJA Fellowship from the Steve Jobs Archive.

“I enjoy exploring different kinds of technologies to design and make things,” Kyaw concludes. “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.”