Andrew Rukangu defends his dissertation
Andrew Rukangu defended his PhD dissertation, "From Robots to Realities: Engineering Extended Reality for Learning and Collaboration."
2026
Point cloud teleoperation paper at ACM SUI 2026
Our study of real-time point clouds for quadruped robot teleoperation was presented at the ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction in Bari, Italy.
Kyle Johnsen joins Computers & Graphics as Associate Editor
Kyle Johnsen has joined the editorial board of the Elsevier journal Computers & Graphics as an Associate Editor, serving through 2029.
Invited talk at the CPS Innovation Symposium
Kyle Johnsen spoke about teleoperating quadruped robots through mixed reality at the 2026 CPS Innovation Symposium at the Georgia Cyber Center in Augusta.
Jordan Smothers receives a CURO Research Award
Undergraduate researcher Jordan Smothers received a Fall 2026 CURO Research Award from UGA's Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities.
New NSF award on perception-aware wireless for XR
UGA is part of a new multi-university NSF project, SCOPE-XR, on wireless networks that can keep up with immersive, multi-user XR. Kyle Johnsen is a co-PI.
Kyle Johnsen receives a Golden Helix Innovation Award
Georgia Life Sciences recognized a gaze-controlled virtual reality therapy for phantom limb pain, developed with clinical collaborators, with a 2026 Golden Helix Innovation Award.
Presidential seed grant for disaster education with AI and immersive technology
A UGA Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grant team, led by Grace Ahn with Kyle Johnsen, is using AI and the lab's Drawn Together mixed reality system for disaster education and risk communication.
2025
NOAA funds extended reality and AI for extreme-weather preparedness
NOAA's Weather Program Office is funding "Virtual Risks and Hero Projects," led by Grace Ahn with Kyle Johnsen, to help communities prepare for hurricanes and wildfires with mixed reality and AI.
Ethan Bowmar defends his master's thesis
Ethan Bowmar defended his master's thesis, "Proprioceptive Puppeteering: Enhancing Lower-Body Control in Virtual Avatars."
Drawn Together at IEEE VR 2025
We presented Drawn Together, our co-located mixed reality sketching and annotation system, at IEEE VR 2025.
2024
Brook Bowers earns PhD
Brook Bowers defended a dissertation on augmented and virtual reality in computer science education.
Georgia AIM mobile studio unveiled at UGA
During Georgia AIM Week, UGA unveiled a 53-foot mobile studio for hands-on AI and manufacturing training, including virtual reality modules built at UGA.
Anton Franzluebbers earns PhD
Anton Franzluebbers defended the dissertation "Design and Deployment of Convergent XR Experiences."
Javier Rodriguez-Sanchez earns PhD
Javier Rodriguez-Sanchez defended a dissertation on automated unmanned systems for in-field crop phenotyping, co-advised by Changying Li and Kyle Johnsen.
Virtual Fitness Buddy trial results in npj Digital Medicine
A cluster randomized trial of the Virtual Fitness Buddy ecosystem across 19 afterschool sites found that it shifted children's sedentary time toward light activity, most for the least active children.
2023
Presidential seed grant for HEAL-XR
Kyle Johnsen leads "Healing and Empowerment after Limb Loss in XR," a UGA Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grant on virtual reality for people with limb loss.
Catherine Ball earns PhD
Catherine Ball defended a dissertation on virtual buddy-based serious games for children.
Mixed-method locomotion paper at ACM VRST 2023
Anton Franzluebbers and Kyle Johnsen presented "Versatile Mixed-method Locomotion under Free-hand and Controller-based Virtual Reality Interfaces" at ACM VRST 2023 in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Andrew Rukangu wins ASEE 2023 paper award
Andrew Rukangu's paper on virtual reality for robot control and programming in undergraduate engineering courses won a Computers in Education Division paper award at ASEE 2023.
The lab joins Georgia AIM
The VEL is part of UGA's work on Georgia Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing (Georgia AIM), funded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration, building hands-on VR, computer vision and robotics training.
2022
VR point cloud annotation at ACM SUI 2022
A hybrid VR and desktop system for annotating laser scans of plants was faster and more accurate in VR, in a study presented at ACM SUI 2022.
2020
NSF RAPID award for online social experiences
Kyle Johnsen received an NSF RAPID award to build new models for online social experiences supporting REU students, conferences and remote research during the pandemic.