I’m Michael Kam Barngrover, a developer of immersive experiences, which include virtual and augmented realities, and a researcher of collaboration in shared virtual spaces. I live in Istanbul, where for several years I have been a proponent of the emerging XR sector in Turkey. I led the community of the VR First lab during its second and third years of existence, before accepting my current position as coordinator of the KARMA Lab, an extended realities research center at Koç University, where I am a doctoral student. I founded Raptor Dance Studios, an XR design and production studio, to facilitate my work with academic and corporate clients.

I’m most passionate about projects focusing on historical or cultural heritage subjects, and am currently working on a few personal projects in that area. However, I am most professionally interested in VR collaboration, hence my research focus. I speak at conferences, primarily on designing multiuser VR for collaborative and event contexts.

As a developer, I create immersive applications for corporate and instutitional clients, including professors in other fields, as well as consult on such projects. Currently for researchers at the Koç University Mustafa V. Koç Maritime Archaeology Research Center, I am developing a tool to be used by national agencies around the world to create consumer augmented reality applications to bring underwater archaeological sites to life for the public. I am also finishing up a traditional 2D game that teaches English for professors at Boğaziçi University’s Foreign Language Education Department and leading the conversion of a psychiatric experiment into VR for researchers at the Koç University Hospital.

I am also a member of the XR Crowd, for whom I also organize the ZeroEvents, a series of weekly explorations of multiuser virtual platforms. The XR Crowd is a global community of enthusiasts spanning sectors from business and event planning to art and academia. You can follow or join our group discussions and events through our Discord server.

Please feel free to reach out to me if you want to discuss any aspect of immersive technologies, or just find me on Linkedin.