MIT’s Alexander Htet Kyaw: Merging Design and Computer Science for Innovative Solutions
The rapid advancement of technology is continuously met with creative applications by talented researchers. One such researcher is Alexander Htet Kyaw, an MIT MAD Fellow pursuing dual master’s degrees in architectural studies in computation, and electrical engineering and computer science. Kyaw is ingeniously combining artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and robotics with gesture, speech, and object recognition. His work is pioneering human-AI workflows with the potential to revolutionize how we interact with our environments.
One of Kyaw’s recent innovations, Curator AI, won first prize at the MIT AI Conference’s AI Build: Generative Voice AI Solutions hackathon. Developed in partnership with fellow MIT graduate students Richa Gupta, Bradley Bunch, Nidhish Sagar, and Michael Won, Curator AI is designed to enhance online furniture shopping. The platform uses AR to measure room dimensions and existing furniture, allowing users to describe their desired furnishings. Using a vision-language AI model, Curator AI then provides context-aware product recommendations that match the user’s prompts and the room’s visual 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,” Kyaw explains. “The problem we’re trying to solve is that most people don’t know where to start when furnishing a room, so we developed Curator AI to provide smart, contextual recommendations based on what your room looks like.” While initially developed for furniture shopping, Curator AI has potential applications across various markets.
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 for a local painting company in Cambridge. Estimate utilizes AR and object-recognition AI to accurately measure rooms and generate detailed cost estimates for renovations and paint jobs. Generative AI is also employed to visualize the transformed spaces and create invoices upon project completion.
Kyaw’s teammates for Estimate were Guillaume Allegre, May Khine, and Anna Mathy. Kyaw will present Curator AI, Estimate, and other projects at an upcoming TedX talk at Cornell University. These projects showcase the use of AI, AR, and robotics in innovative design and construction applications.
One such project, Unlog, connects AR with gesture recognition to map the dimensions of building components through fingertip touch. This technology was used to create Unlog, an art sculpture on the Cornell campus built from ash logs. Kyaw’s work promotes the sustainable use of building materials by enabling structures to be built directly from whole logs, bypassing traditional lumber milling processes.
Kyaw has also developed a system that integrates 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, visualizing how the bamboo bends and where to attach poles for structural stability. Further demonstrating his commitment to social impact, Kyaw founded BendShelters through MITdesignX. BendShelters aims to create prefabricated, modular bamboo shelters and community spaces for refugees and displaced persons in Myanmar.
“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.” At MIT, Kyaw is collaborating with Professor Neil Gershenfeld and PhD student Miana Smith to develop a workflow using speech recognition, 3D generative AI, and robotic arms to create objects in an accessible and sustainable way. 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.”
