Academic Research & Creative Projects — Tina Korani Studio

ACADEMIC
RESEARCH

A verified collection of university research initiatives, peer-reviewed visual experiments, and peer-recognized instructional design frameworks funded by national and local grants.

Education Leadership & Curriculum

Globally recognized resources and funded educational initiatives.

Adobe Resources
Adobe Education Leader

Adobe Master Teacher Resources

12+ Published Creative Lesson Plans

12+
Published
1.4M
Members
Global
Scope

Recognized as an Adobe Education Exchange Influencer and Master Teacher among only 340 educators worldwide from 15 countries, selected to develop comprehensive educational resources for the Adobe-BetterLesson partnership. Created 12+ published resources including both student-facing and faculty-facing lesson plans, each featuring step-by-step implementation guides, video tutorials, downloadable templates, and assessment rubrics. These resources now serve 1.4 million BetterLesson members globally, with particular emphasis on bridging the digital divide by providing low-bandwidth alternatives and culturally responsive architectural design modules.

Clients: Adobe Education & BetterLesson • Recognition: Clara Galan (Adobe Global Programs), Cheryl Belknap (BetterLesson Director)
Design for Change
$910K Koret Grant

Design for Change

Digital advocacy systems for climate education

100+
Pages
4
Modules
11
Schools

Developed a comprehensive 100+ page resource guide for the Professional Learning Community for Interdisciplinary Science, funded by a prestigious $910K Koret Foundation grant. Created four extensive modules teaching educators how to leverage creative tools for climate communication and data visualization, with each module containing both student-facing projects and faculty-facing implementation guides. The materials empower teachers across 11 participating schools to guide students in translating complex science data into accessible visual systems.

Lead: Dr. K. Virginia Lehmkuhl-Dakhwe (STEM Education Officer) • Collaborator: Tina Korani
Watching Over Water
ECCLPs Committee Member

Watching Over Water

Pre-service teacher guide for climate frameworks

1 / 170
Selected
3 Mo
Timeline
7
Sections

An intensive collaboration developing a comprehensive educative companion guide for pre-service teachers as part of the UC-CSU Environmental and Climate Change Literacy Projects (ECCLPs). Contributed expertise in digital media integration and data storytelling. Materials empower educators to integrate water conservation, Indigenous knowledge frameworks, and environmental advocacy through justice-centered structural design workflows.

Authors: Tina Korani (Data Visualization), Shelley Alden Brooks, Fawn Canady, Lauren Fletcher, Megan Sulsberger • Lead: Heather Clark

VR/AR Research & Immersive Media

Funded research in virtual environments, interactive narrative, and spatial data storytelling.

Lincoln VR
$50K Anderson Fund

Bringing Lincoln Back to Life

AI & motion capture frameworks in historical VR

UE5
Engine
Xsens
MoCap
5
Team Size

Pioneered educational applications of AI and digital human pipelines by recreating Abraham Lincoln using Xsens motion capture suites and Unreal Engine 5. Addressed MetaHuman model boundary constraints by designing custom architectural character texture maps in Adobe Substance Painter, achieving a visceral historical performance mapping model.

Team: Tina Korani (Project Director), Amirhussein Abbaszadeh (3D Modeler), Hope Nguyen (Animator), Sneha Krishnan, Mike Corpos
Sea Level Rise VR
$10K AGU Grant

Coastal Flood Risk VR

Immersive climate change spatial photogrammetry

Unity
Engine
18%
Awareness ↑
4
Team Size

Developed a photorealistic VR pipeline of Little Corona Del Mar using UAV spatial drone photogrammetry and GIS coastal data, funded by the American Geophysical Union. Combined RealityCapture workflows with FEMA hazard grids in Unity 3D to translate complex climate risk models into intuitive spatial awareness systems.

Team: Tina Korani (Director, Photogrammetry Builder), A. Martinez, Shashank Mittal, Andrea Casas Topete
San Joaquin Delta
$7.5K CUAHSI Grant

Following Water: San Joaquin Delta

Dual-Format Immersive Documentary Framework

360°
Format
20+
Interviews
6
Team Size

Created an immersive 360° virtual reality documentary highlighting the San Joaquin Delta's crucial agricultural and ecological infrastructure. Developed custom interactive user flows where ambient environmental field capture arrays run beneath secondary nested video panels without active framework conflicts.

Team: Tina Korani (Director, Lead Cinematographer), Anthony Lucido, Keyvan Korani, Andrea Casas, Sandra Santos-Cruz
Wildfires VR
360° Documentary

Burned Out: California Wildfires

Spherical journalism and environmental narrative

VR
Format
10+
Interviews
2
Team Size

An immersive interactive documentary mapping California's critical climate hazard lines. Placed users directly into high-exposure impact boundaries to evaluate the communicative efficacy of spherical media versus traditional linear broadcast streams for risk visualization.

Team: Tina Korani (Project Director), Anthony Lucido (Main Editor & Videographer)
Climate Game
AWE XR Challenge — Top 50

Your World Your Choices

Branching interaction climate game architecture

Unity
Engine
1 Mo
MVP Build
5
Team Size

Directed rapid MVP development with only one month for execution, selected as Top 50 shortlist globally for AWE USA's XR Challenge. Built all Unity scenes in just two days, integrating research and video footage from fast fashion factories in Bangladesh to create Chapter 1 focused on the environmental impact of fast fashion. This choose-your-own-adventure virtual novel empowers players to navigate branching narratives where their consumer choices cascade into different endings - from environmental catastrophe to sustainable futures. Working with student research assistant Ethan Kelley to brainstorm user flows, developer Matin Esmaeili for technical implementation, and narrator Isabella Carino for voice work, we created an immersive experience that transforms abstract climate data into personal moral dilemmas. Players face real-world scenarios like choosing between cheap fast fashion and sustainable alternatives, experiencing firsthand how individual decisions compound into global impacts.

Team: Tina Korani (Project Director, Unity Scene Builder), Matin Esmaeili (Developer), Ethan Kelley (UX Research Assistant), Isabella Carino (Narrator)
This Far by Faith
Heritage Preservation

This Far by Faith

Digital spatial preservation of cultural architecture

Matterport
3D Scan
2
Churches
WebVR
Platform

Co-investigator and spatial interactive experience architect chronicling northern California's oldest Black churches. Orchestrated spatial photorealistic matter capture frameworks with Matterport pipelines, bridging WebVR structural deployment with local oral histories.

Lead: Dr. Michael Cheers • Digital Design Architect: Tina Korani

EdTech & Interactive Design

User experience systems and cognitive interface engineering frameworks.

OptiLyfe App
$20K LevelUp Grant

Quality of Life: Breast Cancer App

User-centered post-treatment tracking system

Figma
Prototype
14
Interviews
5
Team Size

Designed an evidence-based mobile application tracking interface for multi-ethnic post-treatment recovery systems, mapping cross-disciplinary public health frameworks into an empathetic, highly secure data logging platform.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Marcelle Dougan • Interaction Designer: Tina Korani
Reflection Dance Performance
Shaver Theatre live install

Reflection

Real-time live interaction performance architecture

Unity
Engine
Frame
Rotoscope
9
Artists

Collaborated on a live projection-mapped theater installation where physical body expressions dynamically updated real-time procedurally drawn environmental elements using custom algorithmic tracing frameworks in Unity.

Choreographer: Sandra Parks • Sonic Artist: Jesse Allison • Digital Matt Artists: Tina Korani, Derick Ostrenko
Interactive Map
BEA Best of Competition

Climate Disasters Interactive Map

Multimodal touch & voice data system layout

Adobe XD
Platform
NOAA
Data Pack
Multi
Modal

Transformed complex National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration billion-dollar extreme climate data arrays into an interactive human-centered dashboard using advanced voice activation and tactile trace inputs in Adobe XD.

Design Architects: Tina Korani Studio Team • Data Integration: Tableau + NOAA Rest API