Faculty, Student and Alum Directory | Virtual and Augmented Reality Lab
Karen Chen
Associate Professor
kbchen2[at]ncsu[dot]edu
919.515.6403
4349 Fitts-Woolard Hall
Education
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2015
M.S., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2010
B.S., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2009
Karen Chen’s research studies human performances and uses human factors and ergonomics frameworks as the foundation. She also implements technologies such as virtual reality to explore the potential of improving the health and safety of various populations. She has investigated the use of virtual reality to understand older driver biomechanics and the utility for ranges of motion rehabilitation of chronic pain patients. Besides research, she also offers courses in Human Factors in Systems Design, Musculoskeletal Biomechanics, Human-Computer Interface, and Special Topics in Technology and Healthcare Applications.
Xu Xu
Associate Professor
xxu[at]ncsu[dot]edu
919.512.7205
4351 Fitts-Woolard Hall
Education
Ph.D., North Carolina State University, 2008
M.S., North Carolina State University, 2006
B.S., Tsinghua University, 2004
Prior to joining the NC State faculty, Xu Xu started his career as a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Public Health at Harvard University. From there he became a research scientist at Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety where he received multiple best paper and outstanding scientific contribution awards. His research interests are generally in the areas of biomechanical modeling, optimization, simulation and data mining with respect to human daily activities to promote workplace and at-home injury prevention and driving safety. Xu has published more than forty journal articles on the aforementioned research topics.
Ph.D. Student
nesander[at]ncsu[dot]edu
Education
M.S., North Carolina State University, 2020
B.S., Tufts University, 2008
Nathan Sanders‘s research is situated near the intersection of occupational health and virtual reality. After earning his B.S. in Engineering Physics, he worked for ten years, variously as a custom bicycle frame builder, horticulturalist, mechanic, chef, and production engineer. A lifelong passion for gaming and ‘secondary worlds’ attracted him to VR while he was earning his Master’s in Industrial Engineering. His current research interests are the physical and cognitive ergonomics of working in virtual environments. Can the affordances of VR support productivity and well-being in daily work? What are the adverse consequences of long-term VR use in the workplace? Do people think, feel, and behave any differently in virtual environments? What are the subjective experiences of people who use VR for daily work? His current projects include an analysis of robot-related injuries in the workplace, an exploration of the psychological validity of immersive digital twins for human-robot interaction, and a methodological investigation of user-generated gestures for VR interactions.
Ph.D. Student
lwu23[at]ncsu[dot]edu
Education
B.E., M.E., Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 2017
Linfeng Wu’s primary research interests are human-system interactions, virtual reality, and ergonomics.
Ph.D. Student
fcheng5[at]ncsu[dot]edu
Education
M.E., Tongji University, 2023
B.E., Hunan University, 2020
Fangyuan Cheng’s primary research interest is the integration of virtual reality and learning sciences, aiming to leverage VR affordance and human-computer interaction design to enhance the learning process, experience and outcomes.
Master’s Student
legomez2[at]ncsu[dot]edu
Education
Liliana‘s primary research interest is the human factors and mental health.
Undergraduate Student
efang2[at]ncsu[dot]edu
Emily Fang is an undergraduate student studying Industrial and Systems Engineering with a Health Systems Engineering concentration and a minor in Supply Chain Engineering. She is currently working on improving worker health through improving employee training using augmented reality. Emily is also interested in enhancing health systems through improving supply chain management. Her hobbies include working on her art and improving in video games.
Researcher
rkulasi[at]ncsu[dot]edu
Robert Kulasingam interested in exploring how the video game industry’s techniques for engaging and retaining users can be utilized to develop educational technologies that simultaneously teach and captivate learners.
Alumnus
kchen16[at]ncsu[dot]edu
Education
Ph.D., North Carolina State University, 2022
BE, Beihang University, 2017
Ken Chen‘s primary research interests are in Virtual Reality and Biomechanics. He is currently a Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.
Alumnus
gnperera[at]ncsu[dot]edu
Education
Ph.D., North Carolina State University, 2023
M.S., North Carolina State University, 2018
B.S., North Carolina State University, 2017
Gimantha Perera‘s research interests lie at the intersection of Technology in Healthcare Systems and Human Factors. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at University of Arizona. He has investigated the applications of assistive technologies in medical operating rooms as a part of his master’s. He wants to elevate this research by integrating Augmented Reality technology with existing assistive technologies such as checklists and passive information displays. His current work is centered on Project ARTIMISS (Augmented Reality To Improve Medical Information Sharing Systems).
Alumnus
trose2[at]ncsu[dot]edu
Education
M.S., North Carolina State University, 2018
B.S., University of Mississippi, 2016
Tyler Rose was a Master’s student in Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University. His primary research interests involve industry applications of virtual reality. Specifically, he is concerned with the ways humans interact with this technology.
Alumna
rellis6[at]ncsu[dot]edu
Education
M.S., North Carolina State University, 2019
Rebecca Widmayer‘s research was in biomechanics and virtual reality. Her research examined patient lifting transfer training in virtual reality and studied the changes in muscle activity in physical and virtual environments.
Alumna
cgreckar[at]ncsu[dot]edu
Catherine Reckard is a current master’s student studying Industrial and Systems Engineering at NC State. She was an undergraduate students with the VARL where she worked on a project to evaluate the usability of a scale-learning immersive virtual environment using virtual reality. Catherine was also a part of the Health Systems Certificate Program and is interested in performing healthcare process improvement to create more safe and equitable health systems. In her free time, she enjoys running, rock climbing, reading, and going on bike rides with friends.
Alumna
seberha[at]ncsu[dot]edu
Education
B.S., Purdue University
Shari Eberhard‘s research interest includes using virtual reality to create different “levels” of virtual while measuring the biomechanics of an individual walking.
Alumnus
Education
B.S., University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
Matthew is currently a Ph.D. student in the Industrial and Operations Engineering program at University of Michigan.
Alumna
cmroger2[at]ncsu[dot]edu
Education
B.S., North Carolina State University, 2019
Caitlin Rogers was an undergraduate student studying Industrial & Systems Engineering with a health systems engineering concentration and a minor in Spanish. She is involved with various on-campus organizations, including the Catholic Campus Ministry, Girls Engineering Change, Tau Beta Pi, and the Society of Health Systems. Her primary research interests include virtual reality and healthcare optimization.
Alumna
tkmartin[at]ncsu[dot]edu
Tara Martin was an undergraduate research assistant. Her primary research interests include improving patient and worker health through virtual reality and computer vision. Her interest in biomechanics stems from an extensive athletic background, particularly in swimming and coaching.
Alumnus
lli40[at]ncsu[dot]edu
Education
B.S., Zhejiang University, 2017
Li Li ‘s primary research interests are in ergonomics and computer vision. He is working on the identification of driving behaviors.