Akbar Juraev,

Student Researcher

VR Lab, University of Birmingham · BhamXR

Jun 2026 – Present · Birmingham, UK · Hybrid

Conducting HCI research in a university lab. Running DreamCodeVR, a Wizard-of-Oz study comparing three error-feedback conditions (none, text panel, embodied agent) in a live voice-to-code VR system where spoken commands become Unity C# compiled in-scene. Also co-building Omni-Connect, a cross-device interaction system. Manuscript in preparation; both studies targeting CHI 2027.

Software Engineer · Computer Vision

Turin Polytechnic University in Tashkent · Drone Edutrain LLC

Jun 2026 – Present · Tashkent, Uzbekistan · Remote

Building a drone-based computer vision system for wind-turbine health analysis. Owning the full ML pipeline: dataset preparation and preprocessing, model training (turbine condition classification and operational mode detection from aerial imagery), evaluation, and production-ready export. Also generating client-facing PDF health reports from model outputs.

Ambassador of IT Exports, UZ ⇄ UK

Ministry of Digital Technologies of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Dec 2024 – Present · Remote

Official ambassador facilitating IT export relations between Uzbekistan and the United Kingdom under the Ministry of Digital Technologies. Promoting cross-border technology collaboration, representing Uzbekistan's growing tech ecosystem to UK partners, and building bridges between the two countries' digital industries.

Student Ambassador

Birmingham International Academy, University of Birmingham

Oct 2025 – Jun 2026 · Birmingham, UK · On-site

Represented BIA students as an official ambassador. Delivered welcome talks at intake events and spoke to incoming cohorts about student life. Organised community activities to help international students transition into university life. Selected for the role out of the full BIA intake.

Information Technology Intern

IT Park Uzbekistan

Aug 2025 · Tashkent, Uzbekistan · On-site

Gained hands-on experience at one of Uzbekistan's leading technology hubs. Managed IT operations, built institutional partnerships, and supported companies through the onboarding process into the Uzbek market, working alongside investors, talent teams, and resident tech businesses.

English & Mathematics Tutor

SATashkent College Prep

Sep 2024 – Jan 2025 · Tashkent, Uzbekistan · On-site

Tutored students in SAT English and Mathematics, mentored them through the application process to top universities abroad, and supported families navigating admissions. Co-designed practice exam questions and materials for the English department.

DreamCodeVR: Error Feedback in Immersive Voice Programming

Wizard-of-Oz user study investigating how people understand, attribute, and recover from AI-generated code errors in virtual reality. Extends a live voice-to-code system (speech → LLM → Unity C# compiled in-scene) with three controlled feedback conditions: no feedback, explanatory text panel, and embodied conversational agent. Built the full experimental infrastructure: scripted error injection across 4 tasks and 5 outcome types, condition management, a hidden researcher control interface, and per-participant event and questionnaire logging.

Omni-Connect / DeviceSphere: Cross-Device Interaction

Multi-device HCI research system in which a laptop, phone, and tablet operate as a single connected workspace. The laptop runs a native Unity coordination server; phone and tablet join as zero-install WebGL clients over the local network. Implemented a novel copy-paste interaction driven by hand gestures captured with Meta Project Aria glasses: close a fist on a function tile to grab it, open it toward a device to paste. Built a real-time WebSocket-to-UDP bridge and the full infrastructure for two controlled user studies with per-participant data logging.

Cicatrixa: Autonomous Deploy-and-Heal Platform

AI system that takes any GitHub repository, determines how to build it, wires a subdomain, and verifies the deployment end-to-end. It then stays on call: every push redeploys, and every crash is diagnosed and repaired automatically before the developer hears about it. Built the entire system from scratch: build-process inference, DNS management, health monitoring, LLM-driven crash diagnosis, and automated repair workflows.

LLM Bias Mini-Evaluation

Reproducible evaluation of directional gender bias across BERT, RoBERTa, and GPT-2 using masked-language-modeling and open-generation prompts. Found a consistent directional association in top predicted tokens across all test prompts for all three models. Designed to be fully reproducible, with a public dataset, documented methodology, and a clean codebase.

Wind-Turbine Health Analytics

Production computer vision system for wind-turbine health inspection from drone imagery. Trained models to classify turbine conditions and detect operational modes from aerial photographs. Owned the full pipeline from dataset preparation and preprocessing through model training, evaluation, and production-ready export. Also built client-facing PDF health reports generated from model outputs.

This Portfolio

Designed and built this site from scratch: editorial typography with Geist and Instrument Serif, dark and light mode with smooth transitions, a custom difference-blend cursor, scroll-driven horizontal sections that pin to the viewport on desktop and stack vertically on mobile, and scroll-reveal animations throughout.