We use gaming platforms like Unity and Minecraft Education to create immersive learning experiences that enhance engagement, skill development, and problem-solving. By integrating game-based learning, virtual worlds, and interactive storytelling, we design risk-free environments for training, simulation, and decision-making.
Our lab takes advantage of gaming platforms like Unity or Minecraft Education to create immersive learning experiences for users. Through serious games, the users can learn more effectively whilst having fun. We are also developing a platform that will help educators create interactive courses using Minecraft Education.
Our lab is dedicated to exploring the potential of virtual worlds as immersive environments for training, simulation, and complex problem-solving. Virtual worlds provide a risk-free environment for testing strategies, developing skills, and conducting large-scale experiments that would be costly or impractical in the physical world. We are particularly interested in how virtual worlds can enhance decision-making, foster remote collaboration, and serve as platforms for emergent behaviors and complex system analysis.
By using high-fidelity simulations and real-time physics, we build VR experiences aimed at improving training, decision-making, and operational procedures across multiplier fields. VR offers an immersive setting for users to engage with complex scenarios in a controlled, low-risk environment. Our research focuses on the cognitive and behavioral effects of VR, examining how presence, spatial perception, and user interaction influence outcomes. By integrating empirical data and user-focused design, we seek to develop VR systems that demonstrate measurable benefits in both usability and overall performance.
Related Selected Publications
- Vrettis P., Mallas A., Xenos M., “An Affect-Aware Game Adapting to Human Emotion”, Proceedings of the 6th International Conference, HCI-Games 2024, Held as Part of the 26th HCI International Conference, HCII 2024, pp. 307-322, Washington, DC, USA, June 29 – July 4, 2024.
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-60692-2_21
Best paper award for the 6th HCI-Games track of the HCII 2024 - Fotopoulos A., Vlachogianni P., Xenos M., Tselios N., Theodoropoulos G., Carvalheira M., Meira L., Coelho V., Azevedo H., Machado F., Mallas A., Stamati M., “Enhance Students’ Engagement: A Gamified Environment for Organising and Doing Homework”, 17th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation, ICERI2024, pp. 6139-6145, Seville, Spain, 11-13 November 2024.
DOI: 10.21125/iceri.2024.1489 - Mota M., Xenos M., Sá M.M., Minas D., “Development of a 3D Virtual World Tool for Sustainable Energy Education”, International Conference on Sustainable Energy Education, SEED 2024, pp. 646-654, Valencia, Spain, 3-5 July 2024.
DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2410.10586
Best paper award for the SEED 2024 Conference
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