Exploring the Future of Immersive Computing: The IMMERSE Symposium 2025

 “Our ambition is clear, said Sarita Adve, director of IMMERSE. “To lead immersive computing research, education, and infrastructure to propel a new era of immersive computing.”

On April 29–30, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign hosted the annual IMMERSE Symposium, a bold gathering of researchers, technologists, designers, and industry leaders exploring the frontiers of immersive computing. Held on campus, the event served as a vibrant forum for showcasing cutting-edge research, sparking interdisciplinary collaboration, and asking critical questions about the future of immersive computing.

“Such challenges are deeply interdisciplinary and require a wide range of stakeholders --from researchers to industry and more-- to come together,”

Alice Delage, executive director of IMMERSE

The symposium was organized by IMMERSE, the Center for Immersive Computing at Illinois. Immersive computing promises the seamless integration of the virtual with the physical. It ambitions comfortable, intuitive, rich interactions through technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR)—collectively known as extended reality (XR). These technologies are redefining how we perceive and navigate our environments, with transformative potential across education, healthcare, science, the arts, crisis response, and beyond. 

Yet realizing this vision requires overcoming complex technical and human-centered challenges, thus prompting the theme of the symposium: “Unlocking the Potential of Immersive Computing: What Will It Take?”

Photo Credit: Siebel School

Immersive computing’s inherently cross-disciplinary nature is reflected in the very fabric of IMMERSE, through its three main thrusts of Technologies, Applications, and Human Experience, as well as its reach. The center’s leadership and affiliates span over 40 departments and units across campus, including the Grainger College of Engineering, the School of Information Sciences (iSchool), the Siebel Center for Design, Carle Illinois College of Medicine (CI Med), the College of Fine and Applied Arts (FAA), the College of Education, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS), Gies College of Business, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and more.

“A key part of the event's success was the strong participation, with 250 registrants from over 40 organizations internationally, including senior and emerging leaders from academia and industry, and 70 posters and demos from across the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign,"

continued Delage. 

The symposium opened with major highlights from the past year of IMMERSE activities, including a new human experience-driven science of design for immersive systems; breaking the low-latency barrier for distributed XR and remote medical collaboration; generative AI for XR experiences; using XR for cultural impact; an interdisciplinary Masters program in immersive computing; and more.

Peter Capak, Senior Director of Extended Reality Systems at Meta Reality Labs delivered an insightful keynote offering a behind-the-scenes look at the nearly decade-long R&D journey behind ‘Orion’, Meta’s prototype AR glasses. Dr. Capak discussed Meta’s vision for a future of computing where wearable technology interacts with users on their own terms.

Photo Credit: Siebel School

A high-impact industry panel featuring leaders from Arm, Meta, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm reinforced the call for immersive technologies designed around people’s needs and for shared standards to evaluate user experience. The discussion underscored the value of academic-industry collaboration and the importance of pursuing long-term challenges that extend beyond immediate product timelines.

Photo Credit: Siebel School

A series of invited and lightning talks from external speakers in technologies, applications and human experience expanded on the current state of XR research. The first day concluded with a vibrant poster and demo showcase featuring 70 projects from the Illinois campus spanning 20 different units. “The poster and demo session was repeatedly praised by participants”, said Delage. “Projects ranged from VR for autism and speech therapy to empathy-building for first responders training. Seeing the range of immersive work across our campus was truly inspiring”.

Photo Credit: Siebel School

Photo Credit: Siebel School

The second day opened with an energetic keynote by Dav Rauch, who advocated for design principles in XR that put people at the center and shared advice drawn from real-world examples.  Building on the insights from the plenaries, the symposium then moved into interactive breakout sessions, designed to deepen engagement and spark new research directions.

“The breakout sessions were a highlight this year”, said Adve.

“Participants worked towards creating a community-driven vision on three topics: building an experience-centered immersive technologies roadmap; integrating XR into healthcare procedures and workforce training; and designing a graduate curriculum for an interdisciplinary XR workforce," continued Adve. 

The concluding panel brought together voices from academia, industry, and the arts to reflect on key takeaways and offer a final perspective on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Photo Credit: Siebel School

From visionary keynotes and a candid industry panel to interactive breakout sessions and a record number of poster and demo presentations, the 2025 IMMERSE Symposium captured the Center’s growing impact across immersive computing research, education, and infrastructure, reflecting IMMERSE’s vision to bridge technology, applications, and human experience.

Participant feedback reflected the enthusiasm: “inspiring”; “terrific and distinctive”; “incredibly impressive”. Looking ahead, Adve announced ambitious plans for the next year, including an even larger event, collaborative interdisciplinary research that strives to use immersive computing to solve societal grand challenges, new immersive computing labs on campus, and a new Masters program.