Pete Willemsen

Pete Willemsen is a Professor and Department Head in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Minnesota Duluth, Swenson College of Science and Engineering. His research focuses on urban microclimate simulation, virtual reality education, and human-computer interaction.

• Current research includes One Night in Tarrytown (interdisciplinary VR learning environments)
• Development of Quick Environmental Simulation (QES) for urban wind and pollution modeling
• Investigation of radiance field content generation for VR applications

Prior projects have explored:

• Locomotion mechanics in VR training systems
• GPU-accelerated environmental simulations
• Human spatial perception in virtual environments
• Low-cost Kinect-based tracking systems

Collaborations span multiple disciplines including Communications, Digital Arts, and Mechanical Engineering. Current students include Asif Sijan (VR content generation), Christianah Adigun (spatial cognition), and Noah Miller (VR controller ergonomics).