Juliana Aida Abu Bakar

I am an Associate Professor at Universiti Utara Malaysia, where I am attached to the School of Creative Industry Management & Performing Arts, UUM College of Arts & Sciences. I work at the intersection of user experience and virtual reality research, including augmented reality and mixed reality, or known as extended reality.

I was trained in virtual reality, design, and architectural heritage from UUM SOC (then Faculty of IT) and IIUM KAED; with sound EE knowledge from University of Leeds, School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. 

I was awarded Kluster Kecemerlangan Penyelidikan (KKP) grant by Ministry of Higher Education to set up Extended Reality & Human Interaction Centre of Excellence (ERHIC). As a Satellite leader, I administered the project utilising Location-based Augmented Reality for personalised tourist experience during visits to cultural heritage sites. 

I lead the VR Hajj project team where we determine the user experience of the pilgrims and attempt to bring the experience over virtual worlds. Our publication is awarded Best Paper at Fusion 2022, while the demo of the initial work won Bronze at SDC 2022. I believe this is a good start as we are still working on our next phase of the project.

I am passionate with building community, be it young researchers or practitioners - this is my role as the past President of myHCI-UX, also known as ACM SIGCHI KL Chapter, entails - to create awareness on the importance of HCI and UX in the region. I worked closely with MDEC on training schoolkids prior to LevelUp KL 2017 & 2018 initiatives and be part of Sintok International Games and Gamification SIGG as the head jury for two consecutive years (2022-2023). 

You can find me on X and LinkedIn or digest my CV as at July 2025 here.