Syed Ibrahim Mustafa Shah Bukhari

Gilbert Place, Room 3214
Blacksburg, VA, USA

I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science at Virginia Tech, where I am advised by Dr. Brendan David-John and Dr. Bo Ji. I am affiliated with the PrivateEye Lab, the Synergistic Networking and Augmented Intelligence Lab (SNAIL), and Virginia Tech’s Center for Human-Computer Interaction (CHCI).

My areas of research interests include Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Usable Security and Privacy (S&P), AI Alignment and Evaluation, and Extended Reality (XR). My current work brings these areas together to explore how emerging technologies can become more intelligent, adaptive, and responsive to human needs, particularly around privacy and security. Broadly, my research is guided by four questions: (1) How can we evaluate whether AI technologies that power intelligent systems operate in ways that align with human values and expectations? (2) How can intelligent systems be designed to adapt their behavior as their surrounding context changes? (3) How should people interact with intelligent systems to support meaningful and human-centered interaction? (4) How can intelligent systems be systematically benchmarked in ways that are reproducible, comparable, and device-agnostic? If any of these questions resonate with your work, feel free to reach out. I am always happy to discuss ideas and potential collaborations!

I also earned my M.S. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech. Before joining Virginia Tech, I completed my B.S. in Computer Science with a minor in Psychology at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). At LUMS, I conducted undergraduate research in the Technology for People Initiative Lab (TPI) under the supervision of Dr. Muhammad Fareed Zaffar and Dr. Murtaza Taj.

News

September 2026	Awarded Tapia scholarship to attend CMD-IT/ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing (Tapia 2026) in Atlanta, Georgia, with fully funded attendance. Conference Award
July 2026	Delivered a recorded video presentation of EvaluatAR: A Cross-Device Evaluation Framework for Rapid Prototyping of Bystander PETs in AR for PETS 2026. The paper artifact received Available and Functional badges, and I received an $840 PETS 2026 stipend to support participation. Paper · Video presentation. Publication Conference Award Presentation
July 2026	Rethinking Privacy Indicators in Extended Reality: Multimodal Design for Situationally Impaired Bystanders was selected for the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative Research Paper Showcase 2026. Read the feature. Media
July 2026	Completed the UR2PhD Graduate Student Mentor Training Course, formal training in effective and inclusive research mentorship, project design, communication, and mentoring practice. I earned the program’s electronic course certificate. View verified certificate. Mentorship
July 2026	Served as a reviewer for the 32nd ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST 2026). Service

Select Publications

PoPETS’26

EvaluatAR: A Cross-Device Evaluation Framework for Rapid Prototyping of Bystander PETs in AR

Syed Ibrahim Mustafa Shah Bukhari, Matthew Corbett, Bo Ji, and Brendan David-John

Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, 2026 (PoPETS’26)

Artifact Available Artifact Functional

DOI PDF Artifacts Cite Video

@article{bukhari2026evaluatar,
  title = {EvaluatAR: A Cross-Device Evaluation Framework for Rapid Prototyping of Bystander PETs in AR},
  author = {Bukhari, Syed Ibrahim Mustafa Shah and Corbett, Matthew and Ji, Bo and David-John, Brendan},
  journal = {Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies},
  volume = {2026},
  number = {4},
  pages = {947--963},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.56553/popets-2026-0153},
  keywords = {Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs), bystander privacy, evaluation framework}
}

IEEE ISMAR-Adjunct’25

Rethinking Privacy Indicators in Extended Reality: Multimodal Design for Situationally Impaired Bystanders

Syed Ibrahim Mustafa Shah Bukhari, Maha Sajid, Bo Ji, and Brendan David-John

In IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct, 2025 (IEEE ISMAR-Adjunct’25)

DOI PDF Artifacts Cite Supp

@inproceedings{bukhari2025rethinking,
  title = {Rethinking Privacy Indicators in Extended Reality: Multimodal Design for Situationally Impaired Bystanders},
  author = {Bukhari, Syed Ibrahim Mustafa Shah and Sajid, Maha and Ji, Bo and David-John, Brendan},
  booktitle = {IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct},
  pages = {265--272},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1109/ISMAR-Adjunct68609.2025.00059},
  keywords = {Bystander privacy, privacy indicators, situational impairment, inclusive design}
}

IEEE VR’25

“Just stop doing everything for now!”: Understanding Security Attacks in Remote Collaborative Mixed Reality

Maha Sajid, Syed Ibrahim Mustafa Shah Bukhari, Bo Ji, and Brendan David-John

In IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, 2025 (IEEE VR’25)

DOI PDF Artifacts Cite

@inproceedings{sajid2025juststop,
  title = {{``Just stop doing everything for now!''}: Understanding Security Attacks in Remote Collaborative Mixed Reality},
  author = {Sajid, Maha and Bukhari, Syed Ibrahim Mustafa Shah and Ji, Bo and David-John, Brendan},
  booktitle = {IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces},
  pages = {623--633},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1109/VR59515.2025.00085},
  keywords = {Human computer interaction (HCI), interaction paradigms, mixed/augmented reality, human and societal aspects of security and privacy}
}

IEEE ISMAR’24

Visceral Interfaces for Privacy Awareness of Eye Tracking in VR

G. Nikki Ramirez-Saffy, Pratheep Kumar Chelladurai, Alances Vargas, Ibrahim Bukhari, Evan Selinger, Shaun Foster, Brittan Heller, and Brendan David-John

In IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, 2024 (IEEE ISMAR’24)

DOI PDF Artifacts Cite Supp

@inproceedings{ramirezsaffy2024visceral,
  title = {Visceral Interfaces for Privacy Awareness of Eye Tracking in VR},
  author = {Ramirez-Saffy, G. Nikki and Chelladurai, Pratheep Kumar and Vargas, Alances and Bukhari, Ibrahim and Selinger, Evan and Foster, Shaun and Heller, Brittan and David-John, Brendan},
  booktitle = {IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality},
  pages = {396--405},
  year = {2024},
  doi = {10.1109/ISMAR62088.2024.00054},
  keywords = {privacy notice, virtual reality, eye tracking}
}