* 09:30-10:30
Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn - University of Georgia, USA
Talk: The Multiple Dimensions of Social in Social XR
Personal webpage
Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn (Ph.D., Stanford University) is a Professor of Advertising at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia. She is the founding director of the Center for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems (CACHE; www.ugavr.com) and the co-editor-in-chief of Media Psychology. Her main program of research investigates how immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality transform traditional rules of communication and social interactions, looking at how virtual experiences shape the way that people think, feel, and behave in the physical world. Her work is funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency, and published in numerous top-tier outlets in the fields of communication, health, and engineering.

* 11:00-12:00
Aljosa Smolic - Hochschule Luzern, Switzerland
Talk: AI-based Volumetric Content Creation for Immersive XR Experiences and Production Workflows
Personal webpage
Aljosa Smolic is Professor in the Computer Science Department of Hochschule Luzern in Switzerland and Co-Head of the Immersive Realities Research Lab. Before that, he was SFI Research Professor of Creative Technologies at Trinity College Dublin (TCD, 2016-2021), where he was heading the research group V-SENSE. His research interests include immersive technologies such as AR, VR, volumetric video, 360/omni-directional video, light-fields, and VFX/animation, with a special focus on deep learning in visual computing.