Tariq Bahaaldeen is a Computer Science graduate (4.0 GPA) from Arizona State University, specializing in Cybersecurity — with an M.S. in Big Data Systems underway. Originally from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, he began building augmented reality experiences at 15, and hasn't stopped since.

Over the past 7+ years, Tariq has shipped 1,000+ AR/ML projects across Snap Lens Studio, TikTok Effect House, and YouTube Shorts — spanning filters, lenses, games, and animations. He's a TikTok Effect House Ambassador and Snap Lens Network member, with brand collaborations including Paramount Pictures, Coca-Cola, and Califia Farms.

In 2023, Tariq won the Grand Prize at MIT Reality Hack — the world's largest XR hackathon. He went on to co-organize the event, collaborate with Google on AR product research for YouTube Shorts, and found the ASU AR Club, the university's first student organization dedicated to augmented reality.

Today, Tariq leads SCAI research at ASU under faculty supervision, building a multimodal AR medical assistant on Meta Quest 3 that combines spatial computing, vLLM, and AI to make medical education more accessible. He is also a Tau Beta Pi inductee, recognized for academic excellence in engineering.

His work sits at the intersection of creativity and technology — designing experiences that reshape how people see and interact with the world.