Welcome to my Personal Website!

Hi there! I am Marios Bikos. I graduated from University College London with an MSc in Computer Graphics, Vision & Imaging (Distinction) in 2016 and hold a Diploma in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece since 2015.

I joined Bytedance (Pico Team) in 2022 as an SDK Technical Engineer to support developers that build XR Games on Pico VR headsets.

Before that, I worked as an Associate Lead Gameplay Engineer at Sharkmob (owned by Tencent) on an undisclosed AAA multiplayer game built on Unreal Engine 5. Prior to that, I was a Developer Relation Engineer for HTC Vive, serving as a technical bridge between Vive Engineering and EMEA customers and VR developers. My role involved advocating the VIVE technology stack, enabling developers to developer high-quality VR content across VIVE hardware in all content verticals.
Among my various professional roles, I have worked with Academy Award-winning creatives at Framestore to build Virtual Production tools and interactive XR experiences for clients such as VW China(Hyper Reality Test Drive) and Warner Bros(AR Experience for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald). I also gained games industry experience working as a Games Programmer on the commercially released racing game Forza Street at Electric Square. Before all that, I was a Research Intern at the Technical University of Munich(TUM) and the Institute of Communications & Computer Systems (NTUA).

I am always interested in exploring novel 3D user interfaces and interaction techniques, particularly those that exploit the unique capabilities of augmented and virtual reality. Highlights of my work include an Autonomous Vehicle VR Simulation to evaluate the morality of decisions a driverless car should inevitably make in moral dilemma situations that won the 1st place at the Polycount-Unity Connect Contest out of 112 projects and an interactive AR Chess Game that allows seamless manipulation of virtual chess pieces using bare hands that was presented in the International Conference on Cyberworlds.

I have received several awards for organizing technical events and demonstrating outstanding involvement as an IEEE volunteer, including a 2013 Richard E.Merwin Student Scholarship, a 2012 Regional Exemplary Student Branch Award and a 2012 Outstanding Chapter Award. I was the Head Organiser of the 1st Games Exhibition in Greece (Games Expo 2012), in an effort to bring together students and gaming companies, which was awarded with the 2013 Gold Darrel Chong Student Activity Award by IEEE.

I invite you to take a look around my website and take a look at my professional background. You can also find information on the cool projects that I’ve been involved in and browse the resulting publications.

I love networking. If you would like to connect and converse, please feel free to contact me.

Experience

  • Nov 2022 Present

    SDK Technical Engineer

    Pico (Bytedance/TikTok)

  • May 2022 Nov 2022

    Associate Lead Gameplay Engineer

    Sharkmob

  • May 2021 May 2022

    Senior Gameplay Engineer

    Sharkmob

  • Nov 2019 Apr 2021

    Developer Relations Engineer

    HTC VIVE

  • May 2018 Nov 2019

    VR Developer

    Framestore

  • Sep 2017 May 2018

    Programmer

    Electric Square

  • Sep 2016 Sep 2017

    Graduate Programmer

    Studio Gobo

  • Mar 2015 Jun 2015

    Research Intern

    Technical University of Munich

  • Jul 2013 Aug 2013

    Research Intern

    ICCS NTUA

Education

  • MSc 2016

    Computer Graphics Vision & Imaging

    University College London (UCL)

  • Integrated MEng 2015

    Electrical & Computer Engineering

    University of Patras, Greece

Achievements

  • Jan 2017
    Grand Prize Winner- Polycount & Unity Connect Contest
    My Unity Project ``VR for the Study of Moral Dilemmas Involving Driverless Cars`` was the Grand Prize winner of the Unity Connect contest out of 112 projects. I received an HTC Vive and toolkits at an estimated total Prize Value of US$2899.00.
  • Oct 2014
    Winner of TechCrunch Disrupt App Ideas Contest by Meta
    My Augmented Reality App Idea was selected to be one of 10 out of hundreds to receive Meta Glasses and an invitation to a Meta Pioneers Workshop in Berlin.During this workshop, I became familiar with the Meta SDK and built an AR Application using Meta Glasses.
  • Aug 2014
    6th Place - European BEST Engineering Competition (Case Study)
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    3 rounds:
    ► Local-Patras: 1st place
    ► PanHellenic-Greece: 1st place
    ► European: 6th place / 14 teams (final ranking), 1st place(Day 2), 2nd Place(Day 1)
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    European BEST Engineering Competition (EBEC) is the largest real-time based engineering competition, which challenges competitors, who are winners from competitions all over Europe, by presenting them with engineering problems that can be addressed in many ways.

  • Mar 2014
    People's Choice Award - Global Game Jam Athens & Patras
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    The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the world's largest game jam event taking place around the world at physical locations. Think of it as a hackathon focused on game development.

    ►Placed 1st/15 teams in GGJ Athens & Patras Voting Contest.

  • Dec 2013
    IEEE Computer Society Richard E. Merwin Student Scholarship
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    ``For demonstrating outstanding involvement in an IEEE Computer Society Student Chapter, excellence in academic achievement, and promise in future efforts``

    This scholarship was created in honor of the late Richard E. Merwin, past president of the IEEE Computer Society, to recognize and reward student leadership.

  • Sep 2013
    The Darrel Chong Student Activity Award - Gold
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    This award was created to change the mindset of IEEE student groups from being number-driven to becoming value-driven and to acknowledge exemplary student activities around the world. The goal is to improve the quality of activities and to foster knowledge sharing among students.
  • Jul 2013
    IEEE Regional Exemplary Student Branch Award
    The purpose of this award is to provide public recognition of exemplary IEEE Student Branch operations.This award was given because the student branch conformed to IEEE Bylaws, had an active programme and supported IEEE goals.
  • Jan 2013
    IEEE Computer Society Outstanding Chapter Award
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    Recognition of the excellent, high-quality work of our Computer Society Student Chapter during 2012 in providing the best overall set of programs and activities for local members and prospective computing/IT student members.
  • May 2011
    Educational Trip US: Corallia Scholarship Innovation Programme
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    Selected by the Hellenic Student Association of Stanford and sponsored by Corallia to visit Stanford and Berkeley Universities and famous Silicon Valley companies in order to get inspired and improve student life back in Greece.