SánchezEsquivel
PhD researcher in Human–Computer Interaction at Aarhus University. I study how people work, think and play together inside mixed reality — with their hands, their gaze, and the spaces around them.
say hi :)
About the researcher.
I'm a PhD student at the Department of Computer Science, Aarhus University, working with the Extended Interaction (XI) group. My research lives at the intersection of HCI, collaboration and interaction techniques in mixed reality — how we interact in this novel medium and how we can better collaborate around spatial ideas.
Right now I'm back in Aarhus University after a research visit the University of Sydney with professor Eduardo Velloso, prototyping collaborative systems for people to ideate mixed reality, both synchronously and asynchronously. Before the PhD I did my MSc at Aarhus after a BSc at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and a year-long exchange at the University of Waterloo.
Selected research.
Blended Whiteboard
CHI · 2024Physicality and reconfigurability in remote mixed-reality collaboration.
★ Honorable Mention · CHI 2024
SpatialPad
ISMAR Workshop· 2025Air-taps for interaction in XR — a lightweight gesture vocabulary for spatial input.
Practice-informed Patterns
CHI · 2024Patterns for organising large groups in distributed mixed-reality collaboration.
FOR THE FULL ROLL — EVERY PUBLICATION, CITATION, CO-AUTHOR
FULL CATALOGUE ON GOOGLE SCHOLAR↗Awards & recognition.
- ★ 2024ACM CHI 2024
Honorable Mention Award
Blended Whiteboard — Physicality and reconfigurability in remote mixed-reality collaboration. Top ~5% of submissions.
ACADEMIC - ★ 2022Fundación Mutua Madrileña
Postgraduate Studies Scholarship
Scholarship for graduated students that made it possible to study my master's abroad.
NATIONAL GRANTMOBILITY - ★ 2019 & 2020Comunidad de Madrid
Academic Excellence Grant
Awarded twice (2019–2020 and 2020–2021) by the regional government for being among the best academic records of all university students in the region — top 2,000 out of ~200,000.
REGIONAL GRANT - ★ 2019Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Non-EU Mobility Scholarship
Scholarship from UC3M for being in the top 20 academic records applying for the non-European mobility programme (exchange at the University of Waterloo).
UNIVERSITY GRANTMOBILITY - ★ 2017IES Prado de Santo Domingo
Honors Diploma
Honors mention on my high school diploma, awarded to the top 3% of students (2015–2017).
HIGH SCHOOL
Education & career.
Places I've studied and worked — the institutions that developed the negatives.
- CAREERJan 2026 — May 2026
The University of Sydney
Visiting ResearcherFive months with the HCI group, working on long-distance mixed-reality collaboration.
- EDUCATIONFeb 2024 — present
Aarhus University · Denmark
PhD Student · Computer ScienceExploring novel multimodal techniques and collaboration in XR — interaction where gaze and gestures collaborate through new metaphors. Designing techniques, implementing prototypes, and running evaluation studies for both research and commercial applications.
- CAREEROct 2023 — Feb 2024
Aarhus University · Denmark
Research Assistant · Dept. of Computer ScienceResearch assistant under the supervision of Hans Gellersen and Ken Pfeuffer, working in HCI and XR.
- EDUCATIONSep 2021 — Jun 2023
Aarhus University · Denmark
MSc in Computer ScienceSpecialising in Advanced Machine Learning, Augmented Reality and Ubiquitous Cloud Computing. Thesis: BlendBoard — continuous reconfiguration of real-virtual surfaces to enhance remote collaboration.
- CAREERJun 2021 — Sep 2021
Amazon Web Services
Software Development Engineer Intern · NICE DCVWorked at AWS NICE DCV — one of AWS's cloud solutions used by millions of customers with a huge variety of needs. Learnt about the cloud at the highest levels and the QA procedures that go into massive development projects.
- CAREERJun 2020 — Sep 2020
Making Science
Junior Software Engineer · BackendSummer internship on the backend team. Deployed the company's new internal advertisement-tracking tool using Python and Airflow, improving time efficiency up to x3. Gained hands-on experience with Google Cloud, Google RCS and Azure VMs.
- EDUCATIONSep 2019 — Jun 2020
University of Waterloo · Canada
Exchange · BSc in Computer Science & EngineeringYear-long exchange. Ambassador for Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Coursework in Algorithms, User Interfaces, Compilers, Object-Oriented Software Development, Computer Networks, Computer Optimization.
- EDUCATIONSep 2017 — Jul 2021
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid · Spain
BSc in Computer Science & EngineeringCoursework in Data Structures, AI, Cryptography & Computer Security, Discrete Math, Programming, Operating Systems. Thesis: Harassment-in-the-workplace prevention app for iOS, iPadOS and macOS.
Landed in Sydney for six months as a Visiting Researcher with the HCI group at USYD. New continent, same questions about how we collaborate inside mixed reality.
Presenting our latest work on multimodal gaze + gesture interaction. Trying to make pointing in XR feel a little less like waving at a screen.
Blended Whiteboard received an Honorable Mention at CHI 2024 — huge thanks to my co-authors and the Extended Interaction group at Aarhus.
Let's keep
in touch.
Open to collaborations, research visits, theses, talks and the occasional film-photography conversation. Mail works best.
