AWE USA 2026 — the Augmented World Expo, the world’s largest and longest-running gathering for the XR and spatial computing community — takes place June 15–18 in Long Beach, California. This year’s theme, I, Spatial: Humans Empowered by Spatial AI, is a deliberate call to keep people at the center of the technology we build. It is a framing the College of Arts, Media and Design knows well, and one our researchers will help define on stage, on the expo floor, and in the research poster track. 

Across talks, roundtables, demos, and posters, CAMD’s presence at AWE 2026 reflects a throughline that runs through much of our XR scholarship: that the most meaningful immersive systems are body-aware, emotionally attuned, and built around human care and learning. Our researchers are asking how biosignals can make XR responsive to the people using it, how games and play can drive rehabilitation and education, how immersive media can foster empathy, and how universities can move XR from promising prototypes to lasting practice. 

Here is where to find CAMD — and Northeastern — at AWE 2026. 

Bodies, biosignals, and emotionally responsive XR

A cluster of CAMD work this year treats the human body itself — its movement, brain activity, gaze, and facial expression — as both input and feedback for immersive experiences.

• Recently graduated PhD student Nathan Miner presents “X-RAI Vision: Bio-Interactive XR for Objective Functional Assessment” on Tuesday, June 16 (4:25–4:50 PM, Room 102B, Healthcare & Wellness track), exploring how bio-interactive XR can turn subjective clinical assessment into something more objective and measurable. 
• PhD student Mahsa Nasri presents “Tangible Intangibles: How Biosignals Are Shaping the Future of Mixed Reality Art Therapy” on Thursday, June 18 (1:50–2:15 PM, Builders Stage, Expo Hall, Creator track), examining how physiological signals can be woven into mixed reality as a medium for therapeutic, expressive practice.
• And in the AWE Research Poster Track, PhD student Hector Fan demonstrates “Rekindle: Fostering Emotional Perspective-Taking Through Face-Tracking-Based Affective Interactions in VR Interactive Narratives,” a VR experience that connects a player’s facial expressions to narrative progression, turning emotion recognition into a mechanic for empathy and engagement.

Games, play, and learning

CAMD’s long-standing belief that games are a serious design lens — for health, education, and human performance — is well represented. 

• Faculty members Leanne Chukoskie and Erica Kleinman co-lead the roundtable “Gaming and Esports: Positive Synergy with Education and Research” on Tuesday, June 16 (3:45–4:45 PM, Room 103B, Gaming & LBE track), connecting competitive play to learning outcomes and research practice. 
• In the poster track’s highlighted lightning talks, PhD student Binyan Xu presents “Designing Embodied AR Games Through Physical Therapy Movement” (Thursday, June 18, 1:00–1:40 PM, Builders Stage, Expo Hall), reframing physical therapy reasoning as a design framework for motion-based AR gameplay — a direct extension of her wearable AR rehabilitation research. 

Students from the MS in Extended Realities on the floor

AWE is also a stage for the next generation of XR makers. Students from the MS in Extended Realities are presenting their work in the research poster track, including the team behind Code Blue Simulation — an XR training system that helps hospital teams rehearse high-pressure emergency response, sharpen team communication, and build confidence through realistic, hands-on practice. The project, presented by Yunbing Han, was created by Nandita Venkat, Sahil Mayenkar, Hannah Yunbing Han, Jasmine Yiming Sun, Hunter Harris, Christopher Robinson, Steven Max Patterson, and Y. Jenny Wang.

From prototype to practice: XR across the university

Northeastern’s broader XR community is present as well. Mallesham Dasari (College of Engineering) joins the roundtables “XR Success Stories from Universities,” Parts 1 and 2, on Thursday, June 18 (1:15–2:15 PM and 2:30–3:30 PM, Room 103B, Research & Education track), sharing how university research moves into real-world deployment.

A Northeastern presence on the expo floor, powered by EXCITE

Beyond the program, Northeastern will have a booth presence on the AWE expo floor, supported by the EXCITE Institute — Northeastern’s institute for experiential and immersive technologies. It is a fitting home base: much of the work above grows out of the kind of cross-disciplinary, human-centered experimentation EXCITE was built to support. Stop by to try the prototypes, meet the researchers and students, and talk through where these systems might go next.

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Taken together, CAMD’s contributions at AWE 2026 echo the question that animates so much of our research — and the spirit of this year’s I, Spatial theme: not simply what spatial computing can do, but how we keep people, their bodies, their emotions, their learning, and their care at the center of it. 

CAMD and Northeastern at AWE 2026

Talks & roundtables 

• X-RAI Vision: Bio-Interactive XR for Objective Functional Assessment — Nathan Miner (CAMD PhD student) — Tue, June 16, 4:25–4:50 PM, Room 102B 

• Gaming and Esports: Positive Synergy with Education and Research — Leanne Chukoskie & Erica Kleinman (CAMD faculty) — Tue, June 16, 3:45–4:45 PM, Room 103B 

• Tangible Intangibles: How Biosignals Are Shaping the Future of Mixed Reality Art Therapy — Mahsa Nasri (CAMD PhD student) — Thu, June 18, 1:50–2:15 PM, Builders Stage, Expo Hall 

• XR Success Stories from Universities (Parts 1 & 2) — Mallesham Dasari (Northeastern, Khoury College) — Thu, June 18, 1:15–2:15 PM and 2:30–3:30 PM, Room 103B 

Research posters & demos 

• Designing Embodied AR Games Through Physical Therapy Movement — Binyan Xu (CAMD PhD student) — highlighted lightning talk, Thu, June 18, 1:00–1:40 PM, Builders Stage, Expo Hall 

• Rekindle: Fostering Emotional Perspective-Taking Through Face-Tracking-Based Affective Interactions in VR Interactive Narratives — Hector Fan (CAMD PhD student) 

• Code Blue Simulation — presented by Yunbing Han, with Nandita Venkat, Sahil Mayenkar, Hannah Yunbing Han, Jasmine Yiming Sun, Hunter Harris, Christopher Robinson, Steven Max Patterson, and Y. Jenny Wang (MS in Extended Reality) 

On the expo floor 

• Northeastern booth, supported by the EXCITE Institute