PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Parastoo Abtahi

Parastoo Abtahi is a Princeton assistant professor whose human-computer interaction research explores augmented reality and intelligent systems in physical spaces. She coauthored a touch-based human-drone paper in 2017 and quadcopter haptics for virtual reality in 2019. After earning a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering at Toronto, she defended a computer science PhD at Stanford in 2022, worked at Meta Reality Labs, and joined Princeton in 2023. In 2025, she coauthored Reality Promises, a mixed-reality system pairing headsets with a physical robot; the paper won UIST’s Best Paper Award. Princeton awarded her the Wentz Junior Faculty Award in 2026; she taught AR Meets AI in 2025–2026 and is available to advise in HCI, augmented reality, and spatial computing in 2026–2027.

Works
32
Citations
789
h-index
11

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 27 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2017–2019

    Drone and VR haptics

    She coauthors “Drone Near Me: Exploring Touch-Based Human-Drone Interaction” at UbiComp in 2017. In 2019, she coauthors “Beyond The Force,” which presents HoverHaptics, an autonomous safe-to-touch quadcopter for haptic interaction in virtual reality.

  2. 2022

    A Stanford computer science PhD

    She earns a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto’s Engineering Science program. In 2022, she defends her Stanford computer science dissertation, “From Haptic Illusions to Beyond Real Interactions in Virtual Reality.”

  3. By 2023

    Research at Meta Reality Labs

    Before joining Princeton, she works as a visiting research scientist at Meta Reality Labs Research in Toronto.

  4. 2023

    Joining Princeton faculty

    She joins Princeton’s computer science faculty as an assistant professor in 2023.

  5. 2025

    Reality Promises

    At UIST in 2025, she and Mohamed Kari present Reality Promises, a mixed-reality system that pairs virtual reality with a physical robot a user can control.

  6. 2025

    A UIST Best Paper Award

    In 2025, she and Mohamed Kari win a Best Paper Award at UIST for their Reality Promises paper.

  7. 2025–2026

    Teaching AR Meets AI

    Her 2025–2026 teaching includes Human-Computer Interaction (COS 436) and AR Meets AI: Augmenting Human Intelligence in the Physical World (COS IW).

  8. 2026

    A Howard B. Wentz award

    In 2026, Princeton gives her the Howard B. Wentz, Jr. Junior Faculty Award.

  9. 2026–2027

    Princeton professor and adviser

    As an assistant professor of computer science at Princeton, she is available during 2026–2027 to advise single-term independent work and senior theses in human-computer interaction, augmented reality, and spatial computing. Her topics include interaction with intelligent systems such as IoT and robots in physical spaces.

Career

  1. Since 2023Princeton UniversityAssistant Professor, Computer Science
  2. MetaVisiting Research Scientist

Education

  1. 2022Stanford UniversityPhD in computer science
  2. University of TorontoBachelor's degree in electrical and computer engineering

From the biography.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Ubicomp 2017 - Program ubicomp.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  2. Beyond The Force: Using Quadcopters to Appropriate Objects and the Environment for Haptics in Virtual Reality shape.stanford.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  3. Parastoo Abtahi cs.princeton.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  4. Parastoo's PhD Defense shape.stanford.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  5. Parastoo Abtahi, expert in human-computer interaction, joins the faculty | CS cs.princeton.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  6. Erasing the seams between the virtual and physical worlds | CS cs.princeton.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  7. UIST 2025 - Awards uist.acm.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  8. Parastoo Abtahi parastooabtahi.com. Checked 27 October 2026.
  9. Abtahi and Lombardi honored for excellence with junior faculty awards | CS cs.princeton.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  10. Advisers and Research Topics | CS cs.princeton.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.