Agnieszka Roginska is a Professor of Music Technology at the Steinhardt School, New York University, specializing in immersive audio, spatial sound, and auditory displays. Her work integrates acoustic science with virtual reality and medical applications, including postural stability studies for vestibular rehabilitation. She holds leadership roles as AES President-Elect and co-edited the authoritative book 'Immersive Sound'. Education: B.A. in Piano Performance and Computer Applications in Music (McGill University, 1996); M.M. in Music Technology (NYU, 1998); Ph.D. in Music Technology (Northwestern University, 2004). Research focuses on 3D audio technologies, auditory displays for virtual environments, and sensory integration studies. She leads NYU's Music and Audio Research Lab (MARL) and advises the Society for Women in TeCHnology (SWiTCH) at NYU. Awards include AES Fellowship and leadership in international audio engineering societies. Recent publications emphasize audio's role in postural control, distributed music performance frameworks (Holodeck), and VR sound design. Her work bridges technical innovation with artistic applications, including collaborative music systems in mixed reality.
Xavier Alameda-Pineda is a Research Director at Inria Grenoble Rhône-Alpes, where he leads the RobotLearn Team. He is affiliated with Université Grenoble Alpes and has been a key member of the Perception team. His work integrates machine learning, computer vision, and audio processing for scene understanding and human-robot interaction. Research Interests: His research lies at the intersection of multimodal machine learning and social behavior analysis. He focuses on developing algorithms for understanding human behavior in natural settings using audio-visual signals, with applications in robotics and AI companions. His work emphasizes real-world challenges such as noisy data, missing modalities, and dynamic environments. Publication Trends: His recent publications reflect a consistent focus on multimodal fusion, particularly combining vision and audio for social scene analysis. Themes include group behavior recognition, sound source separation, and cross-modal learning, often applied in robotics contexts. Scientific Awards: SIGMM Rising Star Award 2018 IEEE TMM Outstanding Associate Editor Award 2022 ACM TOMM Best Paper Award 2020 Best Paper Award, ACM MM 2015 Best Scientific Paper Award, ICPR 2016 Best Student Paper Award, IEEE WASPAA 2015 Outstanding Paper Award, ICMI 2011 Novel Technology Paper Award Finalist, IROS 2017 Advising and Grants: Xavier has mentored students and early-career researchers, evidenced by co-authored student papers. He coordinated the H2020 SPRING project on socially pertinent robots in gerontological healthcare and co-leads an AI chair on audio-visual perception for companion robots, indicating leadership in funded research initiatives. Labs and Teams: He is the leader of the RobotLearn Team at Inria and was previously part of the Perception team. He has also collaborated with the Multimodal and Human Understanding Group at the University of Trento.
Mark Bo Jensen is an Assistant Professor (tenure track) at the Department of Engineering Technology and Didactics, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), specializing in Energy Technology and Computer Science. His research is centered on Perception Engineering and Extended Reality technologies, particularly Virtual Reality (VR), with applications in human cognition, computer graphics, and scientific visualization. His research interests lie at the intersection of engineering and cognitive sciences, focusing on creating immersive and convincing extended reality experiences. Jensen applies his over 10 years of expertise in real-time computer graphics to advance VR systems for perception modeling, geometric data visualization, and material appearance simulation. His work contributes to fields such as medical diagnostics, 3D annotation, and photorealistic rendering. The recent publications highlight a strong trend in leveraging VR for scientific tasks, such as anatomical landmark annotation and visual field testing, as well as advancing core graphics techniques like meshlet optimization and diffusion-based stereo image generation. His research integrates computer vision, graphics algorithms, and human-centered design. While no scientific awards are currently listed, his active participation in research projects and consistent publication output indicate a growing academic profile. He has contributed to interdisciplinary collaborations involving medical, biological, and engineering domains. Jensen has been involved in advising and research projects, including serving as a PhD student in the 'Virtual Reality-Based Visualization of Geometric Data' project and currently as a project participant in 'AL-EYE: The Visual Aid'. These projects reflect his focus on applied VR solutions and data understanding. His work is conducted within the Energy Technology and Computer Science division at DTU, where he contributes to advancing perception-driven technologies and their practical implementation in scientific and medical contexts.
Peter J. Kohler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology within the Faculty of Science at York University, Toronto. He is eligible to supervise graduate students in the Biology Graduate Program and leads the Kohler Visual Neuroscience Lab, which is part of the Centre for Vision Research at York University. His research lies at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and visual perception, focusing on mid-level visual processing. This involves understanding how the brain, within the first few hundred milliseconds of visual input, constructs representations of shape, motion, location, and perceptual organization—including figure-ground segregation, grouping, and constancy. His work integrates functional MRI (fMRI) , electroencephalography (EEG) , and visual psychophysics to probe the neural mechanisms underlying these processes in humans. Recent publications reveal a strong focus on symmetry processing, perceptual grouping, numerical estimation, and multisensory integration. His work often involves advanced neuroimaging techniques and collaborative international research, particularly with teams in Belgium and Luxembourg. The articles span high-impact journals such as PNAS , Nature Communications , Current Biology , and Journal of Vision , indicating a robust and influential research program in visual neuroscience. Scientific Awards and Funding: NSERC Discovery Grant (awarded April 2020) VISTA Research Grant (funded June 2023) Prof. Kohler actively mentors students, including graduate students such as Rachel Moreau, Sara Chaparian, Yara Iskandar, Shaya Samet, and Shenoa Ragavaloo, as well as undergraduate researchers. His lab has presented at major conferences including the Vision Sciences Society (VSS) and the Lake Ontario Visionary Establishment (LOVE), where he joined the organizing committee in 2024. The Kohler Visual Neuroscience Lab also develops experimental tools, as evidenced by GitHub repositories for stimulus generation and behavioral testing using jsPsych.
Brian M Deal serves as a Professor of Landscape Architecture within the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, holding additional appointments in Urban and Regional Planning, the European Union Center, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). His expertise bridges sustainable planning theory, energy systems, and spatial modeling to develop practical decision-support tools for community development and climate resilience. His educational foundation includes a PhD in Regional Planning (2002), Master of Architecture (1997), and BS in Architectural Studies (1983), all earned at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior academic experience encompasses a decade of professional architecture practice and senior research at the Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL), where he specialized in sustainable military facility design using spatial simulation. Deal's research centers on sustainable planning systems and climate adaptation, with current projects examining urbanization impacts on Korean rural amenities, advancing the University of Illinois' climate action plan (iCAP), and developing next-generation 'sentient' planning support systems. His work integrates land-use modeling, energy systems analysis, and decision-support technologies to address complex urban environmental challenges through interdisciplinary collaboration. Recent publications reveal a pronounced shift toward data-driven sustainability solutions, featuring AI applications for carbon-neutral planning, multi-scaled green infrastructure optimization, and socio-ecological modeling. Key themes include urban carbon sequestration, post-pandemic park dynamics, and climate-resilient coastal design, demonstrating consistent innovation in translating theoretical frameworks into actionable planning tools for real-world implementation. Professor Deal's scientific awards and honors were not detailed in the provided text. As faculty mentor to the Student Sustainability Committee and chair of campus sustainability planning efforts, Deal actively guides student development and institutional policy. His leadership of the LEAM Laboratory and SEDAC involves managing research grants focused on urban resilience, energy systems, and climate adaptation, fostering partnerships with government agencies and community organizations to deploy planning tools that directly impact community decision-making processes. Deal directs the Land Use Evolution and Impact Assessment Modeling (LEAM) Laboratory and Smart Energy Design Assistance Center (SEDAC), leading interdisciplinary teams in developing spatial simulation models and decision-support systems. His operational leadership extends to authoring the university's climate action plan and chairing campus sustainability committees, positioning him at the nexus of academic research, institutional policy, and community engagement for sustainable urban futures.
Dr. Hamidreza Mohades Kasaei is an Associate Professor in the Department of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Groningen, Netherlands. He holds positions in both the Faculty of Science and Engineering and the Faculty of Medical Sciences/UMCG, focusing on Robotics and image-guided minimally-invasive surgery. His work bridges theoretical advances in machine learning with practical robotic applications. Dr. Kasaei's research focuses on developing algorithms for adaptive perception systems through interactive environment exploration and open-ended learning. His specific interests include 3D object perception, grasp affordance detection, object manipulation, and active perception. He has evaluated his research on various robotic platforms including PR2, UR5e, Kinova, Franka robotic arms, and humanoid robots. His work enables robots to learn from past experiences and intelligently interact with non-expert human users using data-efficient techniques. Analysis of his recent publications reveals strong trends toward increasingly sophisticated manipulation capabilities, particularly in dual-arm coordination and handling dense clutter. There's a clear progression toward integrating language models with robotic control systems, as seen in works like 'Lifelong Robot Library Learning' and 'Towards Open-World Grasping with Large Vision-Language Models.' His research consistently addresses real-world challenges in agricultural robotics, assistive technologies, and service robotics applications. Gratama Science Award (2022) Google Research Scholar Award in Machine Learning (2023) Outstanding Associate Editor for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (2023) Dr. Kasaei has successfully supervised multiple PhD students including Zhenxing Zhang (thesis on 'Generative Adversarial Networks for Diverse and Explainable Text-to-Image Generation') and Hamed Ayoobi (thesis on 'Explain What You See: Argumentation-Based Learning and Robotic Vision'). His research is supported by significant grants including the Google Research Scholar Award for 'Continual Robot Learning in Human-centered Environments' and various conference organization roles including workshops at RSS 2023 and NeurIPS 2022. He leads the Lifelong Interactive Robot Learning Lab (IRL-Lab), which focuses on six key research directions: Perception and Perceptual Learning, Object Grasping and Manipulation, Lifelong Interactive Robot Learning, Dual-Arm Manipulation, Dynamic Robot Motion Planning, and Exploiting Multimodality. The lab develops cutting-edge approaches for robots to learn in open-ended fashion through interaction with non-expert human users, with applications in assistive robotics for people with disabilities.
Tanja Blascheck is a PostDoc Researcher and Margarete von Wrangell Fellow at the Institute for Visualization and Interactive Systems (VIS) at the University of Stuttgart. Her work focuses on visual analytics , eye tracking , and microvisualizations for smartwatches and other wearable devices.
Gerardo Boto Varela is an Associate Professor in the Department of History and Art History at the University of Girona, where he has been a faculty member since 1995 and holds the title of 'Professor Titular d'Universitat'. He earned his PhD in Art History from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 1998 and currently serves as Director of the School of Doctoral Studies. His academic affiliations include the Institute of Historical Research and the Research Group in Cultural, Artistic, and Political Studies (9th–21st centuries). His research focuses on medieval religious architecture, particularly Romanesque cathedrals and monastic cloisters in the Iberian Peninsula. He investigates spatial organization, visual programs, liturgical practices, and memorial discourses, combining architectural archaeology with theological and historical analysis. His work emphasizes materiality, perception, and the symbolic function of sacred spaces. Boto Varela's recent publications and edited volumes explore themes such as cathedral urban contexts, episcopal memory, emerging naturalism in sculpture, and the ritual use of space. His research is supported by major grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, La Caixa, and the European Union (Marie Curie Project), and he leads the recognized research group 'Edificis i escenaris medieval de la Corona d'Aragó'. He is a leading figure in medieval art scholarship, serving as scientific editor of Codex Aquilarensis. Revista de Arte Medieval and on the editorial boards of several international journals. He has organized numerous international conferences and collaborative research initiatives across Europe. Scientific Editor, Codex Aquilarensis Member, Scientific Committees of Medievalista , Quintana , Cahiers de Saint Michel de Cuxa , and others Principal Investigator, TEMPLA Research Team Principal Investigator, SGR 110 Research Group Member, Catalan Society of Liturgical Studies Boto Varela has supervised interdisciplinary research projects involving scholars from Spain, France, the Netherlands, and beyond. He promotes knowledge transfer through public engagement, digital documentation (3D scanning, georadar), and the integration of technology in heritage studies. His work bridges academic research and cultural preservation, contributing significantly to the understanding of Europe’s shared medieval architectural heritage.
Joan Nogue i Font is a Professor at the Department of Geography of the University of Girona , and founder-director of the Cátedra del Bosque since 2022. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts (1996-2004) and former director of the Catalan Landscape Observatory (2005-2017). A specialist in Landscape and Human Geography , he has authored and edited numerous influential works, including Nacionalismo y territorio (1998) and Geopolítica, identidad y globalización (2001). Education: PhD in Geography (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison under Yi-Fu Tuan Advisory roles: Member of Advisory Council for Sustainable Development (CADS), full member of Institute of Catalan Studies (IEC) Editorial work: Co-editor of Documents d'Anàlisi Geogràfica , co-director of Paisaje y Teoría book series International experience: Adjunct Professor at Western University (Canada), visiting scholar at Harvard University (2022) His research integrates Landscape Analysis with Societal and Environmental Studies , focusing on territorial identity, sustainability, and the interplay between culture and geography. He has pioneered methodologies for landscape cataloging and participatory management, emphasizing intangible values and citizen engagement. His work bridges European landscape policies with Catalan rural transformations. Recent publications like The other rural world (2022) and Paesaggio, territorio, società civile (2017) reflect his focus on civil society and contemporary spatial dynamics. His scientific awards include: 2009 Rei Jaume I Award for Urbanism, Landscape, and Sustainability 2010 Joan Fuster Essay Award 2022 Sylvester Baxter Lecturer at Harvard University He has served on editorial boards for journals such as Bolletino della Società Geografia Italiana and Punto Sur , and collaborates with La Vanguardia and Ara media supplements.
Elena Cologni is an Associate Professor of Contemporary Art and Critical Practice at the Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University. She serves as the Cambridge School of Art Research Lead, PGR Coordinator, Panel 32 Art and Design REF 2021 and 2029 Convenor, School Research Ethics Panel Chair, and leads the Wellbeing, Care Aesthetics and Art Research and Education Unit (We CARE). She is also the ARU partnership Lead for the British Council Venice Biennale Fellowships Programme and the Art and Health Academic Lead for The Culture Capital Exchange Programme 2022-23. Her educational background includes: BA in Fine Art from Accademia di Belle Arti Brera in Milan MA in Sculpture from Bretton Hall College, Leeds University PhD in Fine Art and Philosophy from University of the Arts London, Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design (2004) Cologni develops dialogic and situated artistic strategies for observing, recording and stimulating awareness of everyday experiences. Her interdisciplinary approach intersects artistic research with environmental psychology, care ethics, philosophy, and gender studies, resulting in dialogic sculptures, public interventions, performance scores, and drawings. Her work explores place attachment, ecofeminism, spatialized art practices, and the relationship between art, wellbeing, and care aesthetics. She is particularly interested in how artistic practice can facilitate the sharing of insights and the location of situated knowledges within our relations with one another, place, and the environment, creating instruments to stimulate awareness of everyday experiences through relational, participatory and dialogic approaches. Her publication portfolio reveals a consistent trajectory examining care ethics, dialogic practices, and the intersection of art with social and environmental concerns. She frequently investigates how artistic interventions can create spaces for dialogue about care, wellbeing, and our relationship to place and community, often bridging theoretical frameworks from feminist theory, environmental psychology, and performance studies with practical artistic applications that engage with public space, memory, and perception. Her notable recognition includes: Seeds of Attachment - The Shape of the Public's Health award - first prize - Royal Society for Public Health in collaboration with the Royal Society of Sculptors (2019) Artist Bursaries from Artists Newsletter (2018) Cologni supervises research students and has secured numerous research grants including the Practicing Feminist Care Aesthetics grant from The Getty Research Institute (2023/2025), Practices of care as ecofeminist and spatialized art funded by the Artist International Development Fund (Arts Council England and British Council 2018/19), and The Places of Memory commissioned by Universita' di Pisa (2022). She regularly collaborates with art galleries, museums, and the NHS Foundation Trust on educational activities and creative interventions that bridge art, health, and wellbeing. She leads the Wellbeing, Care Aesthetics and Art Research and Education Unit (We CARE) and coordinates the ARU Arts, Health and Wellbeing Research Network. Her work often involves community collaborations, as seen in projects like The Places of Memory, which engaged with local communities in Pisa, and Seeds of Attachment, which explored parent-child bonds in relation to place attachment through nomadic dialogic sculptures inspired by Margaret Lowenfeld's Mosaic Test.
Crystal Bae is an Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Science at the University of Chicago’s Center for Spatial Data Science since 2021. She earned her Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship under Somayeh Dodge in the MOVE Lab, focusing on geographic visualization and spatial cognition. Research Interests: spatial cognition, wayfinding, geovisualization, travel behavior, and urban built environments. Teaching Roles: Courses include Spatial Cognition, Introduction to GIS, Cartographic Design, and Social Science Inquiry at UChicago; Urban Geography and Human Geography at UCSB. Scientific Awards: Certificate in College and University Teaching (CCUT), UCSB Excellence in Teaching Award, and recognition for innovative GIS lab design in ArcUser. Her work examines how individuals and groups cognitively process spatial environments through static and animated visualizations, collaborative navigation, and urban neighborhood boundaries. She has contributed to NSF-funded projects on movement ecology and spatial cognition, with publications in Movement Ecology, COSIT, and Built Environment. Crystal also co-hosts a jazz radio show, maintains a travel blog, and engages in bicycling adventures, reflecting her interdisciplinary approach to geography and personal connection to spatial experiences.
Dr Maria Gallagher serves as a Lecturer in Cognition and Neuroscience within the School of Psychology at the University of Kent. Her research focuses on vestibular-multisensory integration mechanisms for self-motion perception, with particular emphasis on virtual reality applications and cybersickness mitigation. Her academic background includes: PhD (2019) from Royal Holloway, University of London investigating visuo-vestibular conflicts in Virtual Reality and Cybersickness Three-year postdoctoral position at Cardiff University researching audio-visual motion integration during active self-motion Dr Gallagher's work centers on how vestibular system signals integrate with visual and auditory inputs to create coherent self-motion perception. She investigates how conflicts between these sensory modalities in virtual environments cause cybersickness and aftereffects, aiming to enhance VR technology usability through neurocognitive insights. Her research bridges experimental psychology, neuroscience, and human-computer interaction. As an educator, she teaches PSYC3000 - Introduction to Psychology Statistics and Practical. Dr Gallagher currently supervises PhD student Emily Perry and actively seeks new supervisees interested in vestibular system research and VR's cognitive impacts. She also serves as Finance Assistant for the Experimental Psychology Society, demonstrating professional engagement beyond her core academic duties.
Christian Desrosiers is a Research Professor at the Department of Software Engineering and IT, École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), with a Ph.D. from Polytechnique Montréal. His research focuses on data mining, machine learning, and computer vision, particularly in medical imaging and optical network analysis. Research Units: Zebra Research Chair in Computer Vision for Industrial Applications, LIVE – Interventional Imaging Laboratory, LIVIA – Imaging, Vision and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Research Axes: Intelligent and autonomous systems, Health technologies His expertise spans medical image analysis, domain adaptation, and computer vision. Recent publications highlight advancements in 3D point cloud learning, MRI harmonization, domain generalization, and real-time segmentation networks. Scientific awards include the prestigious Zebra Research Chair. He has co-supervised over 30 graduate students in topics ranging from optical network diagnostics to brain imaging and machine learning applications.
Martha Sullivan serves as the Department Chair and Associate Professor of Practice in the Industrial Design program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Her work bridges ceramics , product design , wellness , and community development , with a focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and contemplative practices in design education. Education : M.S.Arch in Industrial Design and B.S. in Geology, both from Virginia Tech Research interests span ceramic arts , mindful design , digital fabrication , and sustainable material practices . Her scholarly outputs include ceramic installations , pedagogical research , and international collaborations in Norway and China. Recent publications highlight subliminal material experiences (2023), student learning assessment (2022), and biomimetic design methodologies (2020). Sullivan’s work emphasizes the intersection of craft and technology , with consistent recognition for teaching excellence and community engagement . Scientific Awards School of Architecture + Design Outreach Award (2022) Excellence in Teaching Award (2022) New River Valley Leading Light Award for service (2019) Tau Sigma Delta National Honor Society (2006) Teaching responsibilities include courses in Handbuilding Clay , Molded Ceramics , and Needs Identification in Healthcare , alongside directing Study Abroad programs.
Michele Guerra is a Full Professor of Cinema, Photography and Television (L-ART/06) at the University of Parma , where he has held progressively senior roles since 2011. He has directed research projects funded by MIUR, participated in international collaborations at Stanford University and Sorbonne Nouvelle, and currently oversees the film studies series "Pandora" (Diabasis). His affiliations include editorial board memberships for "Cinergie", "La Valle dell'Eden", and "Arabeschi". Principal Investigator, PRIN Project (2019-present): "A Private History of Italian Film Criticism" Principal Investigator, MIUR SIR Project (2015-2019): Film criticism in Italy 1940s-1950s Co-director, Cognitive Science and Neuroscience for the Humanities project at CASBS (2011) Guerra's research spans three major areas: Cognitive Film Studies (investigating neural mechanisms in film reception), Cinema and Visual Culture (analyzing sensory composition in media), and Historiography of Italian Film Criticism . His recent publications demonstrate interdisciplinary approaches merging neuroscience with film analysis, particularly focusing on cross-modal correspondences and emotional engagement. Scientific recognition includes: Giuseppe Medici Prize (2009) for rural class representation in Fascist-era Italian cinema Limina Prize (2016) for co-authored work "Lo schermo empatico. Cinema e neuroscienze" His academic leadership has included Vice-Director of DUSIC Department and Director of the Communication and Contemporary Media for Creative Industries degree program, though he resigned these roles in 2017 upon becoming Parma's Councilor for Culture.
