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1. Robotics, Personalized Learning, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Diversity, and Inclusion

   Bogosian, B; Peterson, E; Vassigh, S (August 2025, AMPS Architecture, media, politics, society proceedings series)

   This project addresses the urgent need for inclusive and scalable robotics training in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) through the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and extended reality (XR) technologies. In collaboration with three Minority Serving Institutions (Florida International University, Arizona State University, and University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa), we developed and tested immersive, adaptive learning environments that personalize robotics education for diverse student populations. These efforts include a VR-based curriculum for industrial robotics, an AR curriculum for environmental sensing technologies, and an overarching Robotics Academy framework that promotes open knowledge exchange and workforce connectivity. By combining real-time performance analytics, natural language processing, and biometric inputs, our systems support individualized learning paths and help mitigate algorithmic bias. This research advances equitable access to robotics education and provides a replicable model for technology-driven workforce development in the AEC sector. Ongoing evaluation demonstrates improved learner engagement, accessibility, and cross-platform skill transferability. 

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2. Reinforcement Learning Content Generation for Virtual Reality Applications

   Lopez, Christian E; Ashour, Omar M; Tucker, Conrad (August 2019, ASME IDETC-CIE)

   This work presents a Procedural Content Generation (PCG) method based on a Neural Network Reinforcement Learning (RL) approach that generates new environments for Virtual Reality (VR) learning applications. The primary objective of PCG methods is to algorithmically generate new content (e.g., environments, levels) in order to improve user experience. Researchers have started exploring the integration of Machine Learning (ML) algorithms into their PCG methods. These ML approaches help explore the design space and generate new content more efficiently. The capability to provide users with new content has great potential for learning applications. However, these ML algorithms require large datasets to train their generative models. In contrast, RL based methods do not require any training data to be collected a priori since they take advantage of simulation to train their models. Moreover, even though VR has become an emerging technology to engage users, there have been few studies that explore PCG for learning purposes and fewer in the context of VR. Considering these limitations, this work presents a method that generates new VR environments by training an RL in a simulation platform. This PCG method has the potential to maintain users’ engagement over time by presenting them with new environments in VR learning applications. 

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3. Travel Kinematics in Virtual Reality Increases Learning Efficiency

   https://doi.org/10.1109/VL/HCC51201.2021.9576317  

   Nersesian, Eric and (October 2021, IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC))

   Virtual reality (VR) computer interfaces show promise for improving societal communication and representation of information due to their unique ability to be placed spatially around the user in three-dimensional (3D) space. This opens new possibilities for presentation and user interaction with the target information, and may be especially impactful for the education of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals. Simulations and visualizations have been shown in research studies to improve the efficiency of STEM learners compared to the less sensorimotor rich learning mediums of live instruction and textbook reading. Yet, learning science research into immersive computer simulation environments for educational applications remains limited. To address this research gap, we analyzed a fundamental VR interface capability, virtual environmental traversal, and its impact on participants' learning. We altered the traversal ability between two groups of STEM learners within the same virtual environment and compared their performance. Findings point that VR computer interfaces, regardless of environmental traversal, are suitable STEM learning environments, but that environmental traversal can increase learning efficiency. 

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4. Collaborative Tasks in Immersive Virtual Reality Increase Learning

   Queiroz, A. C.; McGivney, E.; Liu, S. X.; Anderson, C. O.; Beams, B.; DeVeaux, C.; Frazier, K.; Han, E.; Miller, M. R.; Petersen, X. S.; et al (April 2023, Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning)

   Advances in immersive virtual reality (IVR) are creating more computer-supported collaborative learning environments, but there is little research explicating how collaboration in IVR impacts learning. We ran a quasi-experimental study with 80 participants targeting ocean literacy learning, varying the manner in which participants interacted in IVR to investigate how the design of collaborative IVR experiences influences learning. Results are discussed through the lens of collaborative cognitive learning theory. Participants that collaborated to actively build a new environment in IVR scored higher for learning than participants who only watched an instructional guide’s avatar, or participants who watched the guide’s avatar and subsequently discussed what they learned while in IVR. Moreover, feeling negative emotions, feeling active in the environment, and feeling bonded to the group members negatively correlated with learning. Results shed light on the mechanisms behind how collaborative tasks in IVR can support learning. 

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5. Queering Virtual Reality

   https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29489-2_17  

   Paré, D. (January 2019, Critical, Transdisciplinary and Embodied Approaches in STEM Education)

   null (Ed.)

   In this chapter, we investigate how innovations in STEM, such as Virtual Reality (VR) and 3D Sculpting, can support the development of critical literacies about gender and sexuality. Our work arises from the concern that the assumed \naturalness" of male/female binary categories in biol- ogy is often at the center of the queer, trans, and intersex panics in public education. Echoing sociologists and critical scholars of gender and sexu- ality, we posit that transgender and queer identities should be positioned as realms of playful, active inquiry. Further, we investigate how new forms of computational representational infrastructures can be leveraged to support productive and playful experiences of inquiry about gender and sexuality. We present a retrospective analysis of a design group meeting of a small group of friends in their early thirties with gender nonconforming and queer identities and life histories. The group interacted in VR-based environments, where they engaged in two dierent forms of construction- ist learning experiences: creating 3D sculptures of personally meaningful objects, and re-creating their VR avatars in VR social media. Our analysis illustrates how such experiences can be productively analyzed using so- cial constructivist perspectives that situate knowing as boundary play and gured worlds, and the roles that play and friendship have in supporting deep and critical engagement with complex narratives and marginalized experiences of gender and sexuality. 

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