VR-REU: Research Experience for Undergraduates in Immersive 3D Visualization

8-Weeks, Paid Research
June 3 – July 26, 2024

The VR-REU program in immersive visualization and virtual/augmented/mixed reality (VR/AR/MR) will involved 10 students per summer directly in multidisciplinary research projects. Participants were provided training in immersive 3D visualization tools and technologies. The objective of the program is to inspire participating students to consider STEM as a career path and pursue STEM careers at the graduate level, and specifically target participation of women and underrepresented groups. The program identified research collaborators with immersive visualization needs and assign each student to a REU team. Each REU team consisted of a research mentor and a REU student. The mentoring team included members not just from CS but also from diverse backgrounds including film and media, journalism and biological sciences.

Participants gained hands-on experience doing creative VR/AR/MR and 3D Visualization projects. Students participated in mentored research projects in data driven research areas, including scientific visualization and visual analytics. Some of the planned research projects included: VR for aiding students with learning disabilities, MicroRNA (Ribonucleic Acid) as a regulator for cell lineage plasticity, immersive remote telepresence and look-alike avatars. The experience included excursions and social events.

In addition to the exposure to cutting edge research, students selected to participate received a travel stipend for one round trip to and from New York City, a housing allowance, a weekly stipend ($700 per week) to cover living expenses and access to research faculty and VR/AR/MR resources to help facilitate their success in the program.

Application Process

Funding was available for 10 undergraduate students in Summer 2024. All applications completed before the priority application deadline of January 31, 2024 were fully considered. Thank you to all applicants for the 2024 VR-REU program. For the summer of 2024, the VR-REU program was held in person at CUNY – Hunter College. 

REU Participants 2024

VR-REU 2024 Publications

• Kriti Kalary, Deshanae Morris, and Oyewole Oyekoya. 2024. Enhancing Trust in Telepresence: The Influence of Familiarity and Varied Eye Contact on Trust in Look-Alike Avatars. ACM Transactions on Applied Perception. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 13 pages. – Under Review
• Butbul, O., & Oyekoya, O. (2025, March). Rendering Reality: Measuring Time Efficiency in Virtual Human Creation. In 2025 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW) (pp. 1494-1495). IEEE. – pdf
• Amaya Keys, Oyewole Oyekoya, and Daniel Chan. 2024. Exploring effects of interactive virtual reality sensory environment on anxiety reduction on adolescents with autism. 2024 Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces (ISS Companion ’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA. – pdf
• Hong Zhao, Oyewole Oyekoya, and Hao Tang. 2024. Enhancing Virtual Mobility for Blind and Low Vision Individuals: A Stationary Exploration Method. 2024 Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces (ISS Companion ’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA. – pdf
• Caroline Klein, Oyewole Oyekoya, and Margrethe Horlyck-Romanovsky. 2024. Gamification of Food Selection and Nutrition Education in Virtual Reality. 2024 Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces (ISS Companion ’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA. – pdf

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