News & Press

Thursday, August 14, 2025

Friday, June 27, 2025

Michael Gancz participated in the NIME Conference, showcasing a presentation of the Screenless Optical Theremin with Tremolo (ScOTT) and earning a paper acceptance.

Thursday, June 26, 2025

The XRPeds Team attended the Games for Change in New York, NY. Shu Wei presented her talk, "Emotional Avatar: Virtual Humans for Automated Mental Health Therapy", which uses data to demonstrate how affect character design can reshape user trust, engagement, and physiological response in VR therapy.

Thursday, June 26, 2025

Justin Berry attended the XR Access Symposium as a plenary speaker in New York, NY. His talk, "Lemmings: Tools for Accessible Gestures", introduces Lemmings, an open-source Unity tool that makes gesture-based controls more accessible by replacing complex hand shapes with simpler, customizable motion inputs, enabling users to interact using movements that are more physically comfortable and achievable.

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Dr. Kimberly Hieftje was a keynote speaker at iLRN 2025 in Chicago, IL. Her keynote "Reality Check: What Immersive Technology Needs from Education", highlighted findings from our statewide study based in Connecticut public high schools which examined how immersive technology is being integrated, the challenges schools are navigating, and what educators say they need to move from interest to meaningful implementation.

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

The XRPeds Team attended and presented at the IMX Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Justin Berry presented his latest work in his talk, "Lemmings: Creating Re-mappable Gestures for More Accessible Immersive Experiences" (Link). Shu Wei presented her demo for "The Arborist: A Collective Bloom Through Physiological Data in Mixed Reality" (Link) , and Michael Gancz, their demo for "...Screenless Optical Theremin with Tremolo (ScOTT)." (Link)

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

The XRPeds team traveled to Los Angeles, CA for the Cedars-Sinai Virtual Medicine Conference. It was an inspiring and eventful weekend full of groundbreaking research using extended reality to revolutionize healthcare! Our team had a strong presence, presenting two posters, three talks, and one panel. The team also had an exciting journey to Universal Studios Hollywood where we visited Super Nintendo World! Overall, an incredibly successful and insightful weekend!

Monday, February 24, 2025

The experience Si PHI (Simulated Psychedelic Immersive Experiences: Healthcare Intervention for Depression) led by Mohini Ranganathan, MBBS with team members Kimberly Hieftje, PhD; Asher Marks, MD; and Jose Cortes-Briones, PhD, is selected as a 2025 Blavatnik Award Winner. Since 2017, Yale and the Blavatnik Family Foundation have partnered to propel promising research beyond the university walls, bridging the gap between discovery and real-world application. Through the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale, a $65 million accelerator fund managed by Yale Ventures, 90 unique projects have led to 23 startups, 4 acquisitions, nine investigational new drug (IND) clearances, and work across diverse therapeutic modalities—including small and large molecules, nucleic acids, PNAs, ADCs, phage therapy, nanoparticles, exosomes, medical devices, digital health, and platform technologies.

Friday, December 20, 2024

We recently set out to explore how virtual reality (VR) is being used in Connecticut public high schools. We surveyed 181 schools and heard back from 60% of them (not bad!). To dig deeper, we also interviewed 19 school administrators to better understand their experiences and perspectives. Funded by the Connecticut State Department of Education, this study highlights the opportunities and challenges of bringing VR into classrooms. Learn more about how this innovative technology could shape the future of education in Connecticut!

Friday, December 6, 2024

The experience Si PHI (Simulated Psychedelic Immersive Experiences: Healthcare Intervention for Depression) led by Mohini Ranganathan, MBBS with team members Kimberly Hieftje, PhD; Asher Marks, MD; and Jose Cortes-Briones, PhD, wins "Audience Choice" at the 2024 Yale Life Science Pitchfest. The 2024 Yale Life Science PitchFest showcased Yale's most promising life science innovations from 34 Yale faculty-led teams. Eight Blavatnik-funded startup companies were also showcased at the event. The event, held on December 5, 2024 at 101 College Street in New Haven, served as the semifinals for the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale, Yale’s life science accelerator fund supporting the translation of groundbreaking research into innovative healthcare solutions.