Mohamed Khaled Ashmawy — Creative Technologist

Mohamed Khaled Ashmawy — also credited and published as Mohamed Ashmawy — is a creative technologist working at the intersection of generative AI, spatial systems, and civic technology. Based in Detmold, Germany. He is Lead Research Engineer for the Smart City Detmold programme at TH OWL — Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe — and a visiting lecturer in XR and generative AI. Contact: [email protected]. LinkedIn: mohamed-khaled-ashmawy.

Work & Experience

Lead Research Engineer · Smart City Detmold

TH OWL · University of Applied Sciences · Apr 2026–Present

Promoted after 24 months to set the programme’s engineering direction, moving Smart City Detmold off the interface layer and into production simulation and live data systems. Turned a 5,000-citizen participation dataset into an input to statutory planning — Detmold’s green belt now, road and mobility policy next — by shipping the city’s first real-time mobility monitor, tracking congestion live and recomputing alternative routes on the fly.

Research Associate · Smart City Detmold

TH OWL · University of Applied Sciences · Apr 2024–Mar 2026

Grew citizen participation on Detmold’s civic platforms by 250% by rebuilding the tools as gamified real-time simulations. Routed 5,000+ citizens’ input directly into Detmold’s 2030 development plan by taking three participation platforms to public deployment; all three still in production, two of them inside the Rathaus. Presented at Smart Country Convention and Smart City World Expo 2025.

Visiting Lecturer · XR & Generative AI

TH OWL · Concurrent, 2024–Present

Took 300+ designers with no ML background from zero GPU access to production diffusion workflows by containerising FLUX and ComfyUI on shared NVIDIA DGX infrastructure and building the university’s first course on generative AI image workflows. Secured €40,000 to stand up the TH OWL XR Lab from nothing, then filled it — a Master’s-level XR curriculum (Unity3D, C#) running 60+ students a year and the university’s first AR for Designers colloquium.

Founder · Digital Heritage & Scan-to-BIM

BLD (formerly Digital Methods Collective) · Apr 2023–Present · independent side practice

Won and delivered €25,000 in institutional contracts — Schloss Corvey (UNESCO World Heritage) and the city of Petershagen — running a 7-person collective across 3D scanning, point-cloud processing and VR. Replaced manual 3D capture with generative synthesis by calling the technical pivot that produced the Generative Twins pipeline and its eCAADe 2026 paper with TH OWL and TU Delft.

Computational Designer · Design Software Development

Rhenso GmbH · Frankfurt · Nov 2022–Oct 2023

Opened Grasshopper definitions to non-experts by writing the C# components that auto-generate a real control UI for any definition, so users drive parametric models through real controls rather than the node graph. Kept nine critical stability defects out of release by owning pre-release testing on the Adaptive Parts Environment.

Research Assistant · Sustainable Mobility Design

TH OWL · MONOCAB · Dec 2021–Aug 2022

Made the sustainable MONOCAB monorail buildable by leading the conversion of its double-curved shell into manufacturable single-curved panels — around 60% less material volume, fabrication complexity and cost. The project would not have gone ahead on the original geometry.

Founder & Creative Director · Khawarizm Studio

Cairo · Jun 2020–Oct 2021

Founded and ran a computational design studio producing bespoke 3D-printed objects. Won Dubai Design Week’s award for innovation in digital fabrication.

Junior Computational Designer · Digital Fabrication

MEAN* Design · Dubai · Sep 2019–Feb 2020

Delivered the Deciduous Pavilion — AD Design Awards winner for Innovation & Sustainability — by optimising robotic concrete 3D-printing toolpaths and scripting its bio-inspired Grasshopper geometry.

Research & Publications

Active research directions: generative twins (probabilistic 3D synthesis from urban capture), mixed-reality co-design, civic simulations at scale, and haptic data visualisation for elderly citizens in smart-city contexts.

Teaching & Mentorship

Generative AI Workflows

TH OWL · 2024–Present · Course Creator & Lecturer

Built the university’s first generative AI course from scratch. 300+ designers with no ML background, zero GPU access — now running production FLUX and ComfyUI workflows on shared NVIDIA DGX. Zero cost to the class.

Extended Reality Development

TH OWL · 2024–Present · XR Lab Co-founder & Lecturer

Raised €40,000 to build the TH OWL XR Lab from nothing, then filled it. A Master’s-level spatial computing curriculum running 60+ students a year — Unity3D, C#, Meta SDK — plus the university’s first AR for Designers colloquium.

International XR & AI Workshops

DigitalFUTURES 2024 · SIGraDi 2024–2025 · Invited Instructor

Invited workshops on XR development and generative AI at DigitalFUTURES (2024) and SIGraDi (2024, invited back 2025). 200+ participants across 20+ countries — built for architects and designers who want to work at the frontier.

Speculative Design: “What If…?”

TH OWL · Detmolder Räume · Workshop Lead

Three days, one question: what if? Students paired design fiction with locally-hosted FLUX and HunyuanVideo to produce visual advocacy campaigns for real urban challenges in the Lippe region.

Contact

Email: [email protected] · LinkedIn: mohamed-khaled-ashmawy · Location: Detmold, Germany. Fast on email — usually within a day.