•   When: Wednesday, October 01, 2025 from 02:00 PM to 03:00 PM
•   Speakers: Craig Yu
•   Location: ENGR 4201
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Abstract

From location-based storytelling to personalized training, the Design Computing and Extended Reality (DCXR) group at George Mason University has developed a wide range of extended reality (XR) experiences across diverse domains, including fire evacuation, construction safety, driving, fitness, rehabilitation, and science education. The key to creating such adaptive and personalized XR experiences lies in reframing XR experience design as a computational design problem—one that can be efficiently solved through optimization and generative AI techniques. In this talk, I will discuss recent advances of my research team on devising novel XR user experiences, content creation tools, and user interfaces for envisioning the XR of the future. More specifically, I will discuss how to formulate optimization approaches to automate the design of human-centric virtual environments; how to integrate computer vision and scene understanding techniques into the creation of intelligent, human-friendly avatars such as virtual pets, virtual assistants, and storytellers in XR; and how to incorporate AI to unlock the full potential of XR for applications such as robot teleoperation, remote assistance, gaming, education, and training.

Speaker Bio

Lap-Fai (Craig) Yu is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at George Mason University, where he leads the Design Computing and Extended Reality (DCXR) group and co-directs the Center for Human-AI Innovation in Society (CHAIS). He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was recognized with an Outstanding Recognition in Research Award. His research spans virtual reality, computer graphics, and human-computer interaction. His work has been featured in New Scientist, UCLA Headlines, ABC News, and the IEEE Xplore Innovation Spotlight, and has earned Best Paper Honorable Mention Awards at 3DV and CHI conferences. He received the NSF CAREER Award for his contributions to computational design and virtual reality. Beyond his research, Dr. Yu served on the Panel on Assessment of Humans in Complex Systems for the National Academies. He is an Associate Editor for the ACM Transactions on Graphics and actively participates in the technical program committees of leading conferences, including ACM SIGGRAPH, ACM CHI, and IEEE Virtual Reality. Dr. Yu is the recipient of the Mason 2025 Innovators Award on Digital Innovation.