9/8/2026
More than 280 researchers, students and industry leaders representing 45 organizations gathered at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for the IMMERSE Symposium 2026, where immersive computing experts explored the technological advances and interdisciplinary collaborations expected to shape the field over the next decade.
More than 280 researchers, students and industry leaders representing 45 organizations gathered at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for the IMMERSE Symposium 2026, where immersive computing experts explored the technological advances and interdisciplinary collaborations expected to shape the field over the next decade.
“We are excited to continue bringing together researchers, educators, domain experts, artists and industry leaders to shape the future of immersive computing and its impact on society.”
Sarita Adve, director of IMMERSE Center for Immersive Computing
Centered on IMMERSE's three research thrusts — Technologies, Applications and Human Experience — this year's symposium showcased breakthroughs in distributed computing, low-latency wireless communication and artificial intelligence, with their transformative potential for healthcare, storytelling, and learning, driven by a holistic human experience framework, thus emphasizing that the future of immersive computing depends on cross-disciplinary collaboration.
"The next decade of immersive computing will require much more than advances in technology alone," said Adve. "It depends on bringing together expertise across computing, networking, engineering, human-computer interaction, design, visualization, health care, education and the arts to create immersive systems that are meaningful, comfortable and centered on the human experience."
The symposium highlighted several major milestones that helped shape this year's program. Among them were advances in distributed extended reality for remote medicine through the Agora project; recognition from the Laude Institute Moonshot program for research focused on immersive intelligence for anywhere, anytime health care; AI-driven immersive storytelling initiatives; the continued development of a human experience framework for extended reality research; and progress toward establishing a new interdisciplinary Master of Science in Immersive Computing degree.
"These accomplishments reflect how interdisciplinary collaboration accelerates innovation," said Adve. "Whether we are advancing remote medicine, immersive storytelling or educational experiences, the most meaningful progress happens when experts from different disciplines work together to solve complex challenges."
Four internationally recognized pioneers in immersive computing delivered keynote presentations spanning research, industry, storytelling and education: Mahesh Kallahalla, senior director leading Android XR Engineering at Google; Hrvoje Benko, former director of research science at Meta Reality Labs; Nonny de la Peña, widely recognized as the pioneer of immersive journalism; and Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab.
Throughout the symposium, the speakers discussed the challenges and opportunities shaping immersive computing, highlighting the need for technological innovation, collaboration across academia and industry, and continued investment in research.
“It requires a village, definitely, for us to really deliver the promise of immersive computing. I think it’s a question of both industry and academia working together to really make it successful,” said Mahesh Kallahalla.
“I really believe that we have some open gaps, especially in how we apply AI, how we apply the input, and how we solve some of the devices and platforms [challenges] that need to be resolved before they can become mainstream. If you’re looking for inspiration, that’s a good starting point,” said Hrvoje Benko.
“It’s amazing when a university has a dedicated virtual reality center where you bring people from all disciplines together and have great conversations, great projects. I was thrilled to come to the place where VR was born in lots of ways." Jeremy Bailenson, Stanford University.
Alice Delage, executive director of IMMERSE Center for Immersive Computing, said bringing together leaders from multiple disciplines was intentional and reflected IMMERSE's collaborative mission.
"Our keynote speakers represented the breadth of immersive computing," Delage said. "Each brought a unique perspective on where the field is headed, and together they demonstrated why interdisciplinary collaboration is essential to advancing immersive technologies."
Panel discussions expanded on the symposium's central themes by exploring human interaction with immersive systems; the role of AI, distributed computing, and next-generation wireless technologies in XR; immersive applications for education and learning; and a forward-looking discussion focused on developing a decadal vision for immersive computing research.
Breakout sessions motivated participants to help shape the future directions along the symposium themes: developing a holistic framework for human experience in immersive research, assessing learning in XR environments, and envisioning the next decade of XR systems research. Delage said those conversations are intended to continue beyond the symposium and produce lasting resources for the broader immersive computing community.
One of the symposium's signature events was the Posters and Demos session, which featured more than 70 research projects, including 10 live demonstrations from external organizations: Cognixion, Duke University, MediView, OpenBCI, Qualcomm, the University of Illinois Chicago, the University of Michigan and the University of North Texas.
The interactive demonstrations allowed attendees to experience some of the research advances discussed during technical sessions while fostering new collaborations among researchers, students and industry partners.
“It is really nice to see how folks from many different disciplines come together”, Benko said. “I saw demos of medical devices, haptic devices, scene synthesis, of AI solutions and even media and the arts, all together in the same space. And I think that is something really interesting and unique, so many different departments and disciplines working together.”
Among the featured demonstrations were two new interdisciplinary projects developed by IMMERSE researchers. One explored how responsive networking technologies can improve virtual medical simulation, while another, "Dreamtime Real Estate," combined artificial intelligence, language analysis and virtual reality to create personalized immersive environments based on participant interaction.
The symposium's continued growth reflected increasing interest in immersive computing across academia and industry. With more than 280 attendees from 45 organizations, Adve said the event demonstrated the growing momentum behind IMMERSE's collaborative approach.
Looking ahead, Adve said the 2027 IMMERSE Symposium, scheduled for April 27-28, 2027, will continue to build on this year's momentum with new research results, keynote speakers, panels, breakout sessions, and expanded demonstrations.
"Two years ago, we set out to build an ambitious, interdisciplinary agenda to enable the era of immersive computing," Adve said. "This year's symposium showed how much the community and efforts towards that goal have grown.
The symposium ended with a clear takeaway: Progress in immersive computing depends not only on technological advances but also on continued cross-disciplinary collaboration that keeps technologies, applications and human experience together at the center of innovation.
Grainger Engineering Affiliations
Sarita Adve is an Illinois Grainger Engineering director of IMMERSE and a Richard T. Cheng professor of computer science.
Alice Delage is an Illinois Grainger Engineering executive director of IMMERSE center.
Bryan Wang is an Illinois Grainger Engineering assistant director of education.