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Virtual reality, a well-established educational technology, offers unique affordances such as immersion, interactivity, visualization, and co-presence, with significant potential to enhance learning experiences and outcomes. Computational thinking, a vital skill in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, is essential for effective human-robot collaboration, enabling efficient problem-solving and decision-making in future work environments. Virtual reality provides a cost-effective, safe alternative to physical interaction with robots, reducing equipment risks and addressing the limitations of physical training. This study examines how virtual reality's affordances support computational thinking development, presenting a forward-looking training scenario and an assessment rubric for evaluation. The proposed framework and design strategies offer technological and pedagogical guidance for creating virtual reality environments that foster computational thinking in human-robot collaboration contexts. 

Humanity’s evolution toward an interplanetary species poses a new frontier for the construction industry: extraterrestrial construction. With fast technological advancements in manufacturing and robotics, it is a matter of when, not if, before humans make perpetual habitats on nearby planetary bodies. We envision the emerging frontier of the construction industry as extraterrestrial construction, where the role of workers and their required skills will change dramatically. Due to the extreme and hazardous outer-space conditions, the future of extraterrestrial construction will be technology-intensive, from using onsite machine and robot operations to using cyber-physical systems for managing logistical operations. Accordingly, the role and skillsets of construction workers in future extraterrestrial construction projects will contrast with the current practices on Earth. We aim to present a collective perspective on the nature of future extraterrestrial construction and the hierarchy of the skills required by future workers, as well as emerging technologies that can be used for developing a future-ready workforce. To accomplish this, we convened a national interdisciplinary workshop, engaging diverse stakeholders in the United States, including researchers, educators, and professionals, from academia, industry, and government. This paper summarizes the outcomes of our workshop, structured around three core themes: future work (extraterrestrial construction), future workers (extraterrestrial workforce), and future technology (emerging technologies for workforce training). The detailed exploration within these three themes marks an initial endeavor to chart a course for training in extraterrestrial construction, particularly with NASA’s Moon to Mars Program in mind. 

Comparative genomic studies of social insects suggest that changes in gene regulation are associated with evolutionary transitions in social behavior, but the activity of predicted regulatory regions has not been tested empirically. We used STARR-seq, a high-throughput enhancer discovery tool, to identify and measure the activity of enhancers in the socially variable sweat bee,Lasioglossum albipes. We identified over 36,000 enhancers in theL. albipesgenome from three social and three solitary populations. Many enhancers were identified in only a subset ofL. albipespopulations, revealing rapid divergence in regulatory regions within this species. Population-specific enhancers were often proximal to the same genes across populations, suggesting compensatory gains and losses of regulatory regions may preserve gene activity. We also identified 1182 enhancers with significant differences in activity between social and solitary populations, some of which are conserved regulatory regions across species of bees. These results indicate that social trait variation inL. albipesis driven both by the fine-tuning of ancient enhancers as well as lineage-specific regulatory changes. Combining enhancer activity with population genetic data revealed variants associated with differences in enhancer activity and identified a subset of differential enhancers with signatures of selection associated with social behavior. Together, these results provide the first empirical map of enhancers in a socially flexible bee and highlight links between cis-regulatory variation and the evolution of social behavior. 

Maps in video games have grown into complex interactive systems alongside video games themselves. What map systems have done and currently do have not been cataloged or evaluated. We trace the history of game map interfaces from their paper-based inspiration to their current smart phone-like appearance. Read-only map interfaces enable players to consume maps, which is sufficient for wayfinding. Game cartography interfaces enable players to persistently modify maps, expanding the range of activity to support planning and coordination. We employ thematic analysis on game cartography interfaces, contributing a near-exhaustive catalog of games featuring such interfaces, a set of properties to describe and design such interfaces, a collection of play activities that relate to cartography, and a framework to identify what properties promote the activities. We expect that designers will find the contributions enable them to promote desired play experiences through game map interface design. 

The emerging potential of augmented reality (AR) to improve 3D medical image visualization for diagnosis, by immersing the user into 3D morphology is further enhanced with the advent of wireless head-mounted displays (HMD). Such information-immersive capabilities may also enhance planning and visualization of interventional procedures. To this end, we introduce a computational platform to generate an augmented reality holographic scene that fuses pre-operative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sets, segmented anatomical structures, and an actuated model of an interventional robot for performing MRI-guided and robot-assisted interventions. The interface enables the operator to manipulate the presented images and rendered structures using voice and gestures, as well as to robot control. The software uses forbidden-region virtual fixtures that alerts the operator of collisions with vital structures. The platform was tested with a HoloLens HMD in silico. To address the limited computational power of the HMD, we deployed the platform on a desktop PC with two-way communication to the HMD. Operation studies demonstrated the functionality and underscored the importance of interface customization to fit a particular operator and/or procedure, as well as the need for on-site studies to assess its merit in the clinical realm. Index Terms—augmented reality, robot-assistance, imageguided interventions. 

Our objective is to explore distributed forms of creativity that arise in play to help guide and foster supportive research, game design, and technology. This workshop seeks to bring together researchers, game designers, and others to examine theories of creativity and play, game design practices, methods for studying creativity in play, and creative play experiences. Participants will present work, video prototype, discuss topics, and contribute to outcomes. 

The emerging potential of augmented reality (AR) to improve 3D medical image visualization for diagnosis, by immersing the user into 3D morphology is further enhanced with the advent of wireless head-mounted displays (HMD). Such information-immersive capabilities may also enhance planning and visualization of interventional procedures. To this end, we introduce a computational platform to generate an augmented reality holographic scene that fuses pre-operative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sets, segmented anatomical structures, and an actuated model of an interventional robot for performing MRI-guided and robot-assisted interventions. The interface enables the operator to manipulate the presented images and rendered structures using voice and gestures, as well as to robot control. The software uses forbidden-region virtual fixtures that alerts the operator of collisions with vital structures. The platform was tested with a HoloLens HMD in silico. To address the limited computational power of the HMD, we deployed the platform on a desktop PC with two-way communication to the HMD. Operation studies demonstrated the functionality and underscored the importance of interface customization to fit a particular operator and/or procedure, as well as the need for on-site studies to assess its merit in the clinical realm.