Uttam Grandhi is an award-winning Mixed Reality Developer and an Origami Artist. He is an alumnus of NYU-ITP and is the lead developer for NYU College of Dentistry’s Local Anesthesia VR training program, a first of its kind in the US. In 2020 he collaborated with Rubin Museum of Art in New York City to create The Lotus Effect project, an initiative with major recognition from press and media. At the start of COVID-19 pandemic, in collaboration with researchers from MIT, he started the openPPE project, creating an origami-based, low-cost, N95+ filtration-efficient face mask which can easily be replicated anywhere in the world without the need for advanced machinery. In 2018, he co-founded PlayGAMI, an Augmented Reality Origami Creativity platform, which has been featured at Maker Faire NYC, Maker Faire Bay Area, SIGGRAPH, Chuck Jones Center for Creativity, Rubin Museum of Art, National Museum of Mathematics, and Computer History Museum. He has also won recognitions from MIT, Harvard University, and NASA for initiatives in Augmented Reality and Origami.