Olga concluded an MArch at the School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in 2004. After a professional sprint in architecture, she continued her studies in 2012 with an MSc in "Geoinformatics" at NTUA, where she focused on the blend between physical and digital space using photogrammetry and stereoscopy. She moved to Glasgow, Scotland, in 2018 to attend the interdisciplinary MSc programme "Serious Games & Virtual Reality" of the Glasgow School of Art, which she completed with Distinction.
Since then, she has worked as a researcher at the Glasgow School of Art and at Heriot-Watt University for the UKRI-funded project SECRIOUS, exploring game-based learning methods for cybersecurity. She has collaborated with the US-based, non-profit organisation Studio Bahia for the promotion of low-cost VR for mental health support, with C-Brain lab at Stanford University for cognitive health research using VR, and with the Cyprus Institute on immersive technologies for cultural heritage for the UNESCO World Heritage monument of Choirokoitia. Since 2022, she has been working as a research associate and XR developer for Gruppo Maggioli in EU-funded research projects, most notably VoxReality.
In 2023, she became a PhD candidate at the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications of the University of Athens, focusing on Human-Computer Interaction in immersive environments, under the supervision of Dr. Maria Roussou, investigating the cognitive and affective influences of voice-based interactions in immersive experiences.
In 2024, alongside fellow PhD students and collaborators -Christina Chrysanthopoulou and Renia Papathanasiou- she founded the non-profit company “Otter Space XR” for the use of XR for social change.
In her free time, she is volunteering mentorship on interactive application development using the Unity game engine for the Game Developer Association of Greece and offering teaching assistance in the postgraduate course "Interactive Systems".
∵ Expertise
Serious game research, design and development
Immersive experience research, design and development
∵ Research
Scopus: 57388719700
ORCID: 0000-0002-9881-9991
∵ Business
LinkedIn: olga-chatzif0ti