Sepehr VAEZ AFSHAR

Digital Heritage

Serious Game

Digital Fabrication

Sepehr VAEZ AFSHAR

Digital Heritage

Serious Game

Digital Fabrication

Education

2022 - Present
M.Sc. - Architecture Post Professional
Huckabee College of Architecture, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, USA (Fully funded Position)
2019 - 2022
M.Sc. - Landscape Architecture (English Program)
Department of Landscape Architecture, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey Thesis supervised by Dr. Ikhwan Kim ‘Virtual Landscape in Serious Games: ‘A Framework for Enhancing the Player Interaction Focusing on The Learning Rate’ (Overall GPA: 3.88/4.00 - Graduated with Honors)
2015 - 2018
B.Sc. - Architectural Engineering
Department of Architectural Engineering, Azad University (IAU), Urmia, Iran Final Project: ‘ARTech Startup, an innovative Augmented Reality platform in the architecture field’ (Awarded) (Overall GPA WES: 3.91/4.00 - Graduated with Honors)

Articles

1. Mostafavi, S., Mehan, A., Eshaghi, S., Afshar, S. V., Stuckemeyer, J., Howell, C., & Etemadi, A. (2023). Co-production of Liminal Spaces: Tectonics and Politics of Socio-Environmental Justice in Urban Thresholds, In book: Venice 2023 Architecture Biennial: Time, Space, Existence, Publisher: European Cultural Center, Venice, Italy.

2. Vaez Afshar, S., Eshaghi, S. (2023). Leveraging Landscape Architecture and Environmental Storytelling for Next-Generation Gaming Experiences: A Holistic Approach to Virtual World, 11th International Conference of the Arab Society for Computer-Aided Architectural Design, ASCAAD 2023 (Accepted)

3. Vaez Afshar, S., & Hadighi, M. (2023). Revolutionizing Historic Preservation: Analyzing Henry Trost's Buildings Using Data Gathering, Mining, and Visualization Technologies, The Association for Preservation Technology Journal, APT23. (Accepted)

4. Vaez Afshar, S., Eshaghi, S., & Hadighi, M. (2023). The Union Depot Journey: Raising public awareness for the preservation of registered historic buildings through educational games, 9th eCAADe Regional International Symposium, RIS2023, Tallinn, Estonia.

5. Eshaghi, S., Vaez Afshar, S., & Hadighi, M. (2023). A Framework Proposal for Developing Historical Video Games Based on Player Review Data Mining to Support Historic Preservation, ARCC 2023 International Conference, The Research-Design Interface. (Awarded)

6. Vaez Afshar, S. (2023). A Virtual Tour of Anatolian Caravanserais with Historical Puzzle, TTU 22nd Annual Graduate Student Research Poster Competition, Texas Tech University, USA. (Poster)

7. Vaez Afshar, S., Aytaç, G., Eshaghi, S., & Vaez Afshar, S. (2022). Online Footprint - A serious game for reducing digital carbon emission, International Conference of the Ibero-American Society of Digital Graphics, SIGraDi 2022. DOI: 10.19083/978-612-318-444-5

8. Aytaç, G., Aluçlu, G., Dalay, L. & Vaez Afshar, S. (2022). Around Water: A Research-Based Landscape Design Studio. Journal of Design Studio, Landscape Research, 35-50. DOI: 10.46474/jds.1074495

9. Vaez Afshar, S., Eshaghi, S. & Kim, I. (2022). Pattern Analysis of Virtual Landscape within Educational Games. Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture: HYBRID: Analog + Digital = The next normal, DLA 2022, 435-442. DOI: 10.14627/537724042

10. Varinlioğlu, G., Vaez Afshar, S., Eshaghi, S., Balaban, Ö., & Nagakura, T. (2022). GIS-Based Educational Game through Low-Cost Virtual Tour Experience. 27th International Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia: Post Carbon, CAADRIA 2022, 1, 69-78. DOI: 10.52842/conf.caadria.2022.1.069

11. Vaez Afshar, S., Aytaç, G., & Eshaghi, S. (2021). SU: A Serious Game for Water Management - Based on Istanbul. XXV International Conference of the Ibero-American Society of Digital Graphics, SIGraDi 2021, 523-532. DOI: 10.5151/sigradi2021-205

12. Vaez Afshar, S., Eshaghi, S., Varinlioğlu, G., & Balaban, Ö. (2021). Evaluation of Learning Rate in Serious Game: Based on Anatolian Cultural Heritage. 39th International Conference of Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe: Towards a new, configurable architecture, eCAADe 2021 (WOS), 2, 273-280. DOI: 10.52842/conf.ecaade.2021.2.273 (Awarded)

13. Vaez Afshar, S., Eshaghi, S., & Örnek, M. A. (2021). A Game-Based Tool for Freshmen Design Students During the Pandemic Distance Learning. 4th International Symposium on Art and Design Education: Art and design during and after the Covid-19 Period, Başkent University.

14. Eshaghi, S., Vaez Afshar, S., & Varinlioğlu, G. (2021). THE SERICUM VIA: A Serious Game for Preserving Tangible and Intangible Heritage of Iran. 9th International Conference of the Arab Society for Computer-Aided Architectural Design, ASCAAD 2021, 306-316. (Awarded)

Projects

Co-Production of Liminal Space, Extended Reality R&D, Project Leaders: Prof. Mostafavi, Prof. Mehan, Venice Biennale-ECC, Italy | 2023 – 2024

SILK Research Project, Project Advisor, Conducted by Prof. Varinlioğlu, University of Oxford & MIT University | 2023 – 2024

Digital Caravanserais Research Project, Researcher & Game Developer, Conducted by Prof. Varinlioğlu, Sponsored by the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program- hosted by Prof. Nagakura at MIT University, Department of Architecture| 2021 – 2022

eCAADe 2022 Conference, Researcher, Johan Verbeke International Exhibition, KU Leuven Technology Campus, Ghent, Belgium | 2022

The ATHENS Week Programme (Advanced Technology Higher Education Network / Socrates), Athens Network Advanced Technology Higher Education Network, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania | 2022

ClimateLa Project, Web Master & Researcher, Conducted by Prof. Gulsen Aytac, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey | 2021 - 2022

Khan Game, Researcher, Project Number AKMED 2021/P.1050, Koc University Suna & Inan Kirac Research Center, Turkey | 2021 - 2022

Reverse engineering the Virtual Landscape in the digital games: Diablo III, Project Advisor, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey | 2021 - 2022

ARTech Startup, Co-Founder, Innovative Augmented Reality platform in the architecture field (2 Awards), Iran | 2017 - 2020

Awards

APT 2023 Student Scholar, The Association for Preservation Technology International (APT), Toronto, Canada | 2023

Albert & Jackie Payne Memorial Scholarship in Historic Preservation, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA | 2023

Dr. Elizabeth Louden Scholarship in Historic Preservation, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA | 2023

Elizabeth Sasser AIA Scholarship, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA | 2023                                                                                                   

Willard B. Robinson Memorial Scholarship, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA | 2023

Texas Architectural Foundation (TAF) Scholarship, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA | 2023

Huckabee College of Architecture office of ARDS Research Scholarship, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA | 2022

Huckabee College of Architecture Graduate Student Scholarship, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA, Grant amount: $15,000 | 2022

Online Platform Design Tool for the Digital Game’s Virtual Landscape Project, The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey Grant (TÜBİTAK 1512 ESP-BIGG), Grant amount: $25,000 | November 2021

Ivan Petrovic Prize (Best Presentation by a Young Researcher), eCAADe Conference, Novi Sad, Serbia [Link] | 2021

Best Presentation Award, ASCAAD (Arab Society for Computer-Aided Architectural Design), Cairo, Egypt [Link] | 2021

1st Prize, ACCELERATION (Architect and Entrepreneur) Startup Weekend, Urmia, Iran | 2019

Distinguished Student, Department of Engineering, Azad University | 2019

1st Prize, ACCELERATION (Employment in Architecture) Startup Weekend, Urmia, Iran | 2018

2nd Prize, Tabriz Startup Weekend (Architecture Programme/Powered by Google), Tabriz, Iran | 2017

3rd Prize, Ardabil City Management & Services Competition, Ardabil, Iran | 2017

Skills

AutoCAD

Design and Modeling | ●●●○○

3Dvista

VR in E-Learning | ●●●●○

QGIS

Geoprocessing | ●●●○○

Photoshop & InDesign

Print Design | ●●●○○

RapidMiner

Data Mining | ●●○○○

Twine

Game Development | ●●●●○

TwinMotion

Arch Viz | ●●●●○

Octoparse

Web Data Extraction | ●●●○○  

DEVAR

AR/VR Development

Unreal Engine

Arch Viz & Game Developement | ●●●○○