Kamran Gholizadeh HamlAbadi
KG
Open to Postdoc & Industry Roles

Ph.D. Candidate · University of Ottawa

Kamran
Gholizadeh
HamlAbadi

Agentic & Physical AI · Digital Twins · Reinforcement Learning · A2A / MCP · NVIDIA Omniverse & Isaac Sim

I build AI systems that reason, act, and adapt inside physical and virtual worlds, bridging agentic LLM reasoning, physics simulation, and multimodal sensing to create reliable embodied intelligence.

MCRLab, School of EECS · Supervised by Prof. Abdulmotaleb El Saddik (IEEE / ACM / EIC Fellow)

About Me

Building AI at the Edge of
the Physical and Virtual

I am a Ph.D. candidate at the Multimedia Communications Research Laboratory (MCRLab), University of Ottawa, working at the frontier of agentic AI, physical simulation, and human–AI interaction. My research produces AI systems that operate reliably in the real world, not just in benchmarks.

My doctoral work spans two connected threads: CARE-AI, an emotion-aware Digital Twin framework for personalized coaching, and NemoForge, a simulator-in-the-loop agentic system that rehabilitates physics violations in neural 3D reconstructions for simulation-ready environments.

I have published at ACM Multimedia (CORE A*), ACM TOMM (CORE A), ACM IMX, and IEEE MeMeA, received two international best paper awards, and serve on the editorial boards of the IEEE Metaverse Newsletter and ACM SIGMM Record.

Education

🎓

Ph.D. · Electrical & Computer Engineering

University of Ottawa, Canada · 2022–Present

Dissertation: CARE-AI: Coordinated, Agentic, Robust, Emotion-Aware AI

📖

M.Sc. · Information Technology Engineering

Islamic Azad University, Qazvin · 2011–2015

📐

B.Sc. · Computer Engineering – Software

Mazandaran Institute of Technology · 2007–2009

Research Interests

Agentic AI Systems Physical Digital Twins Reinforcement Learning Neural 3D Reconstruction Sim-to-Real Transfer LLM Tool-Use & RAG A2A / MCP Orchestration Multimodal Sensing Emotion-Aware Computing Embodied AI XR & Metaverse Computer Vision
Publications

Selected Research Output

Full list on Google Scholar ↗
2024
ACM TOMM CORE A

Meta-Review on Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) in the Metaverse

Gholizadeh HamlAbadi, K., Laamarti, F., El Saddik, A.

First PRISMA meta-review on BCI–Metaverse integration. 42 papers analyzed. Two novel integration frameworks proposed.

2025
ACM MM CORE A*
2025
ACM MSMA 🏆 Best Student Paper

Digital Twin AI Fitness Coach: An Intelligent Multi-Agent System for Personalized Exercise Guidance

Vahdati, M., Gholizadeh HamlAbadi, K., Laamarti, F., Kumar, D., El Saddik, A.

2025
ACM IMX

A Multi-Agent Digital Twin Framework for AI-Driven Fitness Coaching

Vahdati, M., Gholizadeh HamlAbadi, K., Laamarti, F., El Saddik, A.

2025
IEEE MeMeA

The Potential of Olfactory Stimuli in Stress Reduction Through Virtual Reality

Elsaddik Valdivieso, Y., Faisal, M., Alghoul, K., Vahdati, M., Gholizadeh HamlAbadi, K., et al.

2018
IEEE ICWR 🏆 Best Paper Award

A Framework for Cognitive Internet of Things Based on Blockchain

Saghiri, A.M., Vahdati, M., Gholizadeh, K., Meybodi, M.R., et al.

Projects

Research in Action

BCI
ACM TOMM · 2024Journal · CORE A

BCI × Metaverse

First PRISMA Meta-Review on Brain-Computer Interfaces

Analyzed 42 peer-reviewed papers on BCI–Metaverse integration. Proposed two novel frameworks covering VR, AR, XR, Digital Twins, and haptics.

PRISMABCI/EEGXRDigital Twins
VR Study
IEEE MeMeA · 2025

Olfactory VR

Multisensory Well-Being in Immersive Environments

Randomized study (N=30) showing olfactory stimuli significantly enhance physiological stress reduction (ECG-HRV analysis) in VR environments.

ECG/HRVMeta Quest VRPython
LiDAR to USD
Pipeline · 2024–25

LiDAR to USD Pipeline

iPhone LiDAR to NVIDIA Omniverse

End-to-end pipeline converting iPhone LiDAR point clouds to simulation-ready USD scenes via NeRF/Nerfacto for robot learning and XR environments.

NeRF/NerfactoOpenUSDOmniverse
Kit Extension
Tool · Aug 2025

Omniverse Kit Extension

Live Webcam to USD Viewport

Custom NVIDIA Omniverse Kit extension streaming live webcam into a 3D USD viewport, supporting embodied AI and avatar perception pipelines.

Omniverse Kit SDKOpenUSDOpenCVPython
Experience

Academic & Professional Roles

Sep 2022 – Present

Research Assistant & PhD Researcher

MCRLab, University of Ottawa

CARE-AI, NemoForge, multimodal AI, Digital Twins, NVIDIA Omniverse/Isaac Sim

Jan 2025 – Present

Part-Time Professor

University of Ottawa

Introduction to Computing II (Java)

Jan 2023 – Present

Teaching Assistant

University of Ottawa

Real-Time Systems · Computer Architecture · Cloud Technologies · Project Management · SE Capstone

Oct 2017 – Sep 2022

Software Developer & Blockchain Engineer (R&D)

Sadad Informatics Corp. (SIC), Tehran

Open banking · Ethereum/Stellar smart contracts · KYC · Microservices (Java Spring Boot)

Technical Skills

AI & ML

PyTorchTensorFlowscikit-learnOpenCVMediaPipeNeRF/NerfactoBehavioural Cloning

Agentic Systems

A2A ProtocolMCPCrewAILangSmithNVIDIA AgentIQGPT / Gemini / LLaMA

Simulation & 3D

NVIDIA Isaac SimPhysXMuJoCoNVIDIA OmniverseOpenUSD3DGSDUSt3RCOLMAP

Programming

PythonJavaJavaScriptC#BashLaTeX

Tools

DockerPostgreSQLpgvectorRedisGitHubStreamlit

Awards & Honors

🏆
Best Student Paper Award
MSMA '25 · ACM Multimedia · Dublin, 2025
🏆
Best Paper Award
IEEE ICWR · Tehran, 2018
🎓
International Doctoral Scholarship
University of Ottawa · 2022–Present
Special Merit & Admission Scholarships
University of Ottawa · 2022

Academic Service

EditorialIEEE Metaverse Newsletter (Jun 2024–Present) · ACM SIGMM Record (Mar 2026–Present)
ReviewerACM TOMM · Telematics & Informatics (Elsevier) · TMLR · SoftwareX (Elsevier) · J. Healthcare Engineering
ConferenceACM IMX 2025 · EAI PerSoM 2022 · SIGGRAPH 2025 · ACM MM 2023
MemberACM · ACM SIGGRAPH · ACM SIGMM · IEEE
Research Vision

Toward AI That Understands
the Physical World

The next decade of AI will be defined by systems that don't just process language or images but that act in physical and virtual environments with reliability and awareness. My research builds toward that future: agents that reason about geometry, correct their own physics errors, sense human emotion, and adapt their behavior accordingly.

From real-to-sim pipelines for robot learning, to emotion-aware Digital Twin coaches, to simulator-in-the-loop agentic correction, I am building the infrastructure for physically grounded, human-centered AI.

Sim-to-Real Transfer Physics-Aware Agents Embodied Intelligence Human-Centered AI Multimodal Reasoning
Contact

Open to Academic and
Industry Opportunities

I am actively seeking postdoctoral positions at top research universities in the United States and Canada, with particular interest in groups working on embodied AI, physical simulation, agentic systems, sim-to-real transfer, or multimodal human–AI interaction.

I am equally interested in industry research and engineering roles at AI labs, robotics companies, and technology organizations working on agentic AI systems, Digital Twin platforms, autonomous simulation, LLM reasoning and tool use, or multimodal AI products. I bring both strong research depth and hands-on engineering experience in production-grade systems.

I welcome conversations about collaborations, research partnerships, and visiting positions.

Postdoctoral Research Industry Research Scientist Applied AI Engineer Research Engineer Visiting Researcher AI Consultant