Hello, My Name is Aidin

I am a (learning) technology enthusiast working at UBC in the Department of Psychology. I come from a background of software development. I graduated with a joint degree in Computing Science and Business and have since been involved with several startups, including and a couple of times as a co-founder. I started working at UBC a bit over 5 years ago and ever since being immersed in this educational environment, I’ve gained an intense appreciation for teaching and learning technologies, and specifically for software that aids that. That’s what has drawn me to the MET program, where I have taken 2 courses already, with this being my 3rd. At UBC, I work on some research projects as a software developer, creating apps together with researchers and students. The apps I work on help with the research objectives (for example in the areas of bipolar disorder and autism) and some of them are geared towards learning.

One app that I’m particularly keen on developing further is called Tapestry Tool, which is a tool for students and teachers to co-create content together in a non-linear way. We have been working on this tool for a few years and it’s been used both by faculty and students in the University and by other organizations outside of UBC as well. What Tapestry offers is a unique way for people to create pieces of content and create meaningful connections between those pieces of content, presented in a graphical form. I work with some incredible people on this project including Dr. Steven Barnes, who is the primary investigator of this project at UBC, faculty at UBC who dare to experiment with new technologies to improve the way they deliver their courses, and a myriad of talented students and research assistants who help make this project come true. We recently got additional funding to further develop and market this app, which is exciting and a great timing for me to be in this course.