Center for Immersive Experiences Alumni
Mahda Bagher
PhD Student / xR Developer
Mahda is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Geography and a member of ChoroPhronesis lab. She has a multidisciplinary background focusing on GIScience and immersive technologies. Her main focus is to facilitate embodied learning through immersive VR. She is interested in research topics related to memory and embodied cognition. She also has experience in procedural modeling, rebuilding historical data, and the integration of geospatial data in VR including LiDAR data, DEM, or any types of point clouds.
Pejman Sajjadi
Post Doc / xR Developer
Pejman is a Postdoctoral researcher in the department of geography. His primary research interests are digital game-based learning (serious games, educational/edutainment games, and simulations), immersive technologies (virtual/augmented reality), adaptive learning systems (learner-centered design, personalization, and adaptation), embodied conversational agents, and human-computer interaction.
Jack (Shen-Kuen) Chang
Post Doc / xR Developer
My research interests are (but not limited to): human-computer interaction (HCI), user experience (UX), tangible and embodied interaction (TEI), virtual reality (VR) / augmented reality (AR), and spatial cognition. I have studied the interplay between immersive technologies, the body, and space. Recently I started l exploring the role of immersive technology in education, community, and environment.
Mark Simpson
PhD Student / xR Developer
Mark is a Geography PhD student working at the intersection of immersive virtual reality, spatial cognition, and data visualization. His research investigates how to apply immersive virtual reality to visualization challenges.
Jiayan Zhao
PhD Student / xR Developer
Jiayan is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography at The Pennsylvania State University. He received his bachelor’s degree in Geological Engineering from Central South University and then received his M.A. in Geography from SUNY Albany. As a cognitive psychologist with GIScience background, he is broadly interested in immersive technologies and their application in spatial cognition, wayfinding, earth science data visualization, and place-based education
Jiawei Huang
PhD Student / xR Developer
Jiawei Huang is a Ph.D. student graduating in summer 2020 (major: GIS; minor: computational science). Her research interest lies in VR, 3D and HCI. Development-wise, she’s been developing VR and 3D applications for GIS, cultural heritage and environmental visualization. Research-wise, her dissertation is on the effects of high-fidelity VR interactions related to hand tracking and body tracking. Before Ph.D., she completed her master at University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. Her portfolio can be found here.
Xiaohui Wang
PhD Student / xR Developer
Xiaohui is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Architectural Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. Her research is focused on leveraging virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) for improving construction workforce training.
Keerthana Govindarazan
Ph.D. Student, Department of Architecture
Keerthana Govindarazan is a PhD student in the Department of Architecture in the Stuckeman School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Graphic Design. Her research is about understanding the psychological impact of architectural spaces by leveraging immersive technology. She holds a master’s degree in design computing from École des ponts ParisTech, where she devoted her research to exploring how behavioural data from immersive building visualizations can be integrated into the architectural design process. She worked as a UX designer crafting interactive marketing experiences using virtual reality, mixed reality and spatial augmented reality. She is passionate about enhancing user experiences, both in the digital realm and the physical world.
Jan Oliver Wallgrun
Senior Research Associate
Jan’s research interests include GIScience, Spatial and Temporal Modeling, Artificial Intelligence, Spatial Cognition, and Virtual/Augmented Reality. He is designing and evaluating educational immersive experiences in different Spatial Science disciplines with a
focus on multi-user and low-cost solutions and on investigating learning behavior and performance in these experiences.
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