Six people pose indoors for a group photo, four seated in front and two standing behind. The scene is rendered in a stylized, poster-like digital painting.

November 2025

Peer Action Pilot: Final Scene

A year of monthly Peer Action sessions ended at Café Saga—with a highly recommended drink: Spicy Mango. I didn’t expect these meetings to make such a substantial impact on my decision for the next step after the PhD. I am grateful to Dr. Inês Crisostomo for helping me remember why I chose academia in the first place and for reviving a sense of ambition I had slowly muted.

Collage of photos from ISMAR 2025 showing Sahar Niknam in traditional Korean hanbok, presenting research, and meeting colleagues at the conference dinner and NeuroXR workshop.

October 2025

Hanbok at IEEE ISMAR ‘25

The VR community is really one of the kindest and most inspiring groups I’ve met—brilliant, fun, and generous.

I had a wonderful time, I presented two papers and a poster, helped organize the NeuroXR workshop, and learned from so many amazing people.

Group photo of the ChronoPilot research team at the University of Luxembourg during the Final Review Meeting, standing in front of a large screen displaying the ChronoPilot logo.

September 2025

ChronoPilot Finale

We officially wrapped up the ChronoPilot project in Luxembourg.

I joined as a PhD student, fascinated by the idea that we can hack the human brain in virtual reality. And in six months, I will be defending my thesis on the possibility of extended Cognition in XR.

A digital cartoon-style illustration of five people posing under a tent at a science fair. In the center stands a person dressed as the Mandalorian in green and orange armor. Behind them, a woman in pink pants playfully peeks out.

Our paper ‘EEG-Based Prediction of Perceptual Timing Errors in Virtual Reality’ has been accepted for presentation at the NeuroXR Workshop at IEEE ISMAR 2025.

August 2025

Timing Error Prediction

ISMAR 2025 logo alongside a stylized line drawing of a bridge over water, possibly referencing the host city’s iconic structure. The logo itself combines abstract human and technological elements in gradient shades of red, purple, and blue.

My position paper ‘eXtended Cognition: Measuring, Modeling, and Modulating Perception in XR’ was accepted to the Doctoral Consortium of IEEE ISMAR 2025.

I’m extremely happy it wasn’t rejected.

PS. I had a great time at the LUX:PLoration booth during the 31st BD festival in Contern.

July 2025

eXtended Cognition

June 2025

NeuroXR at ISMAR 2025

We’re organizing the first NeuroXR workshop on neurophysiological signals, affective computing, and cognition in extended reality, held at the 24th IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR).

Visit the workshop website for submission and registration details.

May 2025

New Roommates

I’ve been holding onto the thought for a couple of years, making excuses that I’m about to move again, to another place—another continent, actually—and the last thing I need is more luggage, especially fragile stuff.

But then I went to a science festival for kids, and I remembered that feeling of awe, when you get to see the universe above and below human scale.

A woman in a red shirt and blue hoodie stands before a striped wall. Text reads: “#TechForGood — ChronoPilot: Redefining Time Perception Through Extended Reality.”

Hassan and I had a great conversation about the ChronoPilot project, the implications of modulating time perception across fields like medicine, art, and technology, and a few on- and off-the-record thoughts about women in science.

April 2025

Interview with Silicon Luxembourg

A presenter stands at a podium beside a slide showing EEG brain signatures of time perception, with three frequency plots labeled "Overestimation," "Correct estimation," and "Underestimation."

I presented our paper on monitoring time perception in virtual reality at IEEE VR 2025, Saint-Malo, France.

I know people often say things like this to be diplomatic or professional, but I mean it sincerely—I didn’t expect to meet so many truly nice and brilliant people there.

March 2025

VR/AR Lab in Saint-Malo

A composite image featuring six diverse women in science. The text 'WE ARE WOMEN IN SCIENCE' is prominently displayed in bold, capital letters, with 'WOMEN' highlighted in blue-green.

February 2025

Women & Girls in Science

I’m honored to be featured in this year’s Women [& Girls] in Science project. Amazing people at Research Luxembourg worked together to create a series of inspirational videos, narrating stories of Luxembourg-based women passionate about science.

I started 2025 as a member of the first Peer Action Group at the University of Luxembourg, led by Dr. Ines Crisostomo. We just held our kick-off meeting and will gather monthly throughout the year as a dynamic team of ambitious PhD students, hosting senior mentors, to network and build careers in academia and beyond.

January 2025

Peer Action Pilot at UL

2024