Dessa Shapiro

picture of dessa

New Media Developer

Bringing artistry and technical prowess together through precision and creativity.


I blend aesthetic vision with robust engineering. I love finding the perfect balance between art, functionality, and technology. I build solutions for real-world use cases, always going further than the requirements to ensure my projects provide genuine value to clients and end-users alike.

OG Bubble: Mobile Rewards & R&D

App screens in device frames

Internship | Madrid, Spain: Spearheaded the R&D and high-fidelity prototyping for a cross-platform loyalty application. Optimized the UX journey for reward redemption and product discovery, resulting in a streamlined prototype ready for development.

Kandi: Alt-Ctrl Game Experience

Capstone Project: An immersive "Alternative Controller" experience bridging physical and digital worlds. Players interact with a custom-fabricated giant head sensor to control a virtual avatar in Unreal Engine 5, navigating a chaotic concert environment.

The Digital Iris: Biometric Art

IoT Hardware Stack and Schematic

R&D Prototype | IoT & Generative Design: Designed and engineered an interactive installation that transforms the human eye into digital art. Built on a custom ESP32-CAM stack, this prototype utilizes computer vision to capture biometric color data and algorithmically generate a unique, immersive starfield in real-time.

Pathfinder IOS App

Native iOS App | Swift & Data Science: Engineered an interactive educational platform that matches students to university programs via personality analysis. Features a custom MVVM architecture, real-time fetching from the U.S. Dept. of Education API, and local persistence using Apple's latest SwiftData framework.

Aerial Dance Credo Page

Aerial Site Detail

A high-performance responsive landing page for an aerial arts studio. Utilized advanced CSS animations and layout techniques to capture the fluidity of flight while ensuring full accessibility across mobile and desktop devices.