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Sheena Tu Sheena Tu is the co-founder of Meshki Design Center, where she oversees the firm’s work across the fields. Passionate about all aspects of design, she specializes in web design and development, as well as presentation creation and implementation, on behalf of a wide range of clients.

Prior to founding Meshki, Sheena spent nearly a decade helping clients with many forms of design initiatives, including branding, presentations, motion graphics, video editing, UI/UX design, web programming and development, 3D design, and much more. Through creative thinking, technical design prowess, and an outside the box approach, Sheena continues to push herself with each and every project.

While it may sound a bit cliché, design truly runs in Sheena’s blood. Her father has spent his professional life as an interior designer and businessman, and her grandfather was an accomplished artist, painter, illustrator, and Art Director for a prestigious newspaper in Southern China. In fact, her grandfather’s art was one of her first sources of design inspiration and she often reflects on his work as she thinks about her own projects.

Born and raised in Guangzhou, China, Sheena’s close-knit relationship with her parents and grandfather helped to mold her into the person she is today. As a child, she kept a regimented schedule that was teeming with competitive activities like swimming, track & field, roller-skating, board gaming, and playing musical instruments on both regional and international levels. Her mother and mentor, known for being endlessly patient and supportive, is responsible for helping to manage Sheena’s busy schedule and instilling in her the idea that competing was not about winning or losing; rather, it is about being part of the process and being the best that you can be.

These teachings from Sheena’s family have stuck with her and helped to propel her forward in her academic and professional career. She graduated from UC Davis with honors, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Bachelor of Science in Textile & Clothing and, as well as a Master of Fine Arts focused on Design, Technology & Music. Through this educational background in diverse disciplines, Sheena found herself well-equipped to apply her knowledge to creatively solve contemporary real-world problems for businesses.

Mahan Soltanzadeh is the co-founder and co-CEO of Meshki Design Center, where he heads up all marketing and business development operations. Forward-thinking in his approach to leveraging new technologies in the design process, he also acts as the product manager for Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (XR) software development for the firm.

No matter the medium, Mahan specializes in taking design projects of all sizes from the conceptual stage all the way through final production. His world-class technical expertise includes visual ideation and technical software, including 2D, 3D, CAD and BIM applications and visual programming for 3D animations, simulations, and VFX. His passion for design and making the world a better place has also inspired him to focus his future efforts to utilize AI and robotics to tackle the issues of homelessness and assisted living by applying principles of sustainable design.

A rising star in the industry, Mahan’s work has been featured in prominent international design competitions and trade shows across the globe. Always one to think creatively and solve problems, he approaches each project with excitement and vigor as he helps to bring Meshki’s vision to life and to the forefront of the design industry.

As a child in Tehran, Mahan harnessed his youthful energy into a passion for design through illustration and painting. His focus and attention to the smallest details were evident dating back to his earliest drawings of beloved animals as a young child. As he grew older, he became an avid handballer, soccer player, bodybuilder, meditator, and student of martial arts. To this day, Mahan practices several martial arts styles and applies the discipline learned over the years from this craft to his professional work as a world-class designer.

A lifelong learner, Mahan holds several undergraduate and graduate degrees from the prestigious Azad University of Art & Architecture in the fields of graphic design, interior architecture, and environmental design. Prior to and during his formal design education, he cut his teeth in the business world through sales and marketing roles, and as an entrepreneur specializing in branding, advertising, trade show, interior and architectural design and construction, and commercial exhibit organization.

With this robust educational and professional background, he moved to the U.S. and taught courses on Commercial Exhibition Design before transitioning back into his professional career where he has expanded his work in a variety of design-related fields, including lighting design, education, and software development with a keen focus on AR and VR.

Sahoko Yui is a consultant for Meshki Design Center, specializing in user experience research, design, and development. She combines academic experience with skill sets gained from the completion of real-world, practical projects to deliver immense value to Meshki’s clients.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Sahoko uses qualitative methods to validate emerging technologies and create user research-driven designs. She employs this approach as she partners with Meshki’s design, development, and engineering teams to deliver product design features and roadmaps to develop products and services for clients. Her extensive research and development skills and hands-on projects have laid the foundation for our future endeavors in the mentioned fields. Sahoko also aids Meshki with its ambitions for developing cutting-edge solutions for assisted living design and tackling the important issue of houselessness using AI, robotic technology, and applying sustainable design principles.

Sahoko has extensive experience in landscape architectural design and research. While completing her Ph.D. in Geography at the University of California, Davis, she assisted the team at Meshki with several design, planning, and research projects in this space. One of these projects was the complete landscape design of Cruess Hall at UC Davis. With her input, the team came up with several innovative ideas, including the design of adaptive furniture for students to use on campus and the creation and presentation of ReFrame, which is UC Davis Design Department’s installation prototype for the prestigious Sofa Chicago event.

Continued collaboration between Sahoko and the team at Meshki has resulted in several successful projects over the years, and her expertise in this space presents a great opportunity for clients looking to bring their visions to life.

VR Language Training

  • Experience,  Immersive
  • 2017 - 2019
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Language Training in Virtual Reality

Harness the power of VR for essential language training

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Overview

Mahan led the LLVR Systems' team to develop and implement an innovative language training system for a large government service provider that went beyond traditional classroom learning.

The task was to develop a training platform that addresses the challenges presented by traditional training models. The creation of an immersive virtual reality environment to help instructors and students better grasp the key concepts of 5 high-level foreign languages resulted in higher passing rates of Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) exams.

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Challenge

The traditional language learning process was impeded by the impersonal nature of current training programs. Students were not able to see and visualize the people they were speaking with and the foreign surroundings of the situations they were simulating, making it very difficult to have a natural conversation.

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Solution

The team developed an innovative, immersive virtual reality application to function as a critical tool for instructors to strengthen the quality of language training for their students. Using realistic virtual environments and reprogrammable scenarios, students and instructors would enter the software from around the world to practice, collaborate, and interact in this dynamic and intelligent environment.

This game-like experience made the learning experience more interactive and fun, and the 3D immersion also allowed students to use body gestures as part of their conversational learning, which is an essential part of communication. After each immersive session that consisted of activities and assignments, the software would provide the data about each student's performance to the instructor for analysis.

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Realistic Environments

The learning platform was centered around virtual environments that consisted of various real-world settings that the students would possibly find themselves in, including banks, coffee shops, outdoor areas, and more. The  team tirelessly completed a detailed series of processes to make all the computer-generated imagery (CGI) elements as realistic as possible.

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Multiple Intuitive User Interfaces

The system contained two distinct interfaces for the various users, creating the ultimate learning setting for both students and instructors.

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Results

The results from each training lesson were compiled in a clean, easy-to-navigate dashboard for the instructors to review with their students. The data included in the dashboard helped guide the learning process by identifying areas of strength and weakness, painting a clear picture of the areas the students needed to work on. The instructor could analyze and devise specific learning and study solutions for each individual student, which resulted in higher rates of passing the OPI exam.

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Credits

Client
Federal Government of the United States

Company
LLVR Systems

Agency
Meshki

Year
2017 - 2019

Role
Director of Product Design