WEXR
The 1st International Workshop on
Working Enhancement with Extended Reality
shaping the workspaces of tomorrow
In conjunction with the 24th IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR 2025)
8th October 2025*
Daejeon, South Korea
The date was changed due to a refinement of the ISMAR workshop program
Despite the increasing maturity of Extended Reality (XR) technologies and a growing body of evidence demonstrating their benefits in training, collaboration, and productivity, the widespread adoption of XR in real-world work settings remains limited. This disconnection suggests persistent barriers (technological, organizational, and human-centered) that we aim to identify and address in the workshop.
Bridging Perception and Reality
While XR can offer immersive simulations, more engaging training, and remote collaboration, many enterprises still perceive these solutions as experimental or cost-prohibitive. We aim to explore how to close the gap between the proven potential of XR and its slow uptake in practice.
Enhancing Worker Well-Being
Current XR interfaces primarily focus on task completion (e.g., assembly instructions, remote assistance), often overlooking elements that can support worker comfort, health, and social connection. Given the emerging interest in using XR for mental health, stress reduction, and ergonomic support, we see an opportunity to integrate well-being more holistically into the design of XR workflows.
Preparing for the Metaverse Era
As digital workspace concepts evolve toward “metaverse” experiences, critical questions arise: Which job functions will transition to these environments? How do we ensure that spatial computing, augmented, and virtual experiences align with real-world best practices and accessible design? Exploring these challenges now will help shape responsible policies and designs before “metaverse workplaces” become mainstream.
Addressing Social and Ethical Implications
XR’s transformative potential brings with it profound social and ethical considerations, from data privacy and social isolation to biases in AI-driven XR interactions. By identifying these concerns early, we can propose strategies to safeguard inclusivity, accessibility, and collaboration in XR-driven workplaces.
By unifying technical breakthroughs with user-centric design and systemic considerations, this workshop will lay a foundation for harnessing XR technologies to shape the offices, factories, and laboratories of the future.
Join us to share your work, exchange ideas with top researchers, and help define the XR workplaces of tomorrow.
Boosting Productivity and Efficiency with XR
Use Cases and Best Practices: Concrete examples of XR adoption for workplace tasks and collaboration.
Hybrid and Remote Collaboration: Enhancing virtual offices to support geographically distributed teams.
Integration of Real and Virtual Workplaces
Augmented Virtuality: Methods for incorporating physical tools and data streams into VR environments.
Redesigning Workspaces for XR: Architectural and interior design considerations when integrating XR hardware.
Optimization of XR-Driven Workplaces
Worker Well-Being: Approaches to reduce XR-induced fatigue, eyestrain, and ergonomic issues.
Stress Management and Engagement: Leveraging XR for wellness programs, mental health breaks, and social belonging.
Trends and Forecasts in XR Adoption for the Workplace
Metaverse Offices and Hybrid Models: From concept to reality - where are we now and what’s next?
Integration with AI, IoT, and Wearables: Synergies with intelligent systems for increased situational awareness and automation.
Ethical and Social Considerations in XR Workplaces
Privacy, Security, and Data Ownership: Mitigating risks in continuous monitoring or data collection via XR devices.
Inclusivity and Accessibility: Designing XR experiences that cater to a diverse user population with varied needs.
Societal Impact: Balancing technological innovation with social well-being, group dynamics, and equitable access.
We welcome paper submissions of 2-4 pages, excluding references. Examples of submissions are:
Technical papers: original research with preliminary results addressing one of the workshop topics.
Position papers: essays that present an arguable opinion about a specific issue of building the XR workspaces of the future. The goal of position papers is to convince the audience of the validity of the presented opinion and call for more research effort in the proposed direction.
Short Survey papers: this track asks review papers relevant to the working enhancement through XR technology, which go beyond the usual research paper and present new perspectives that stimulate the ISMAR community to pursue innovative new research directions.
The accepted papers will be included and published in the ISMAR conference proceedings.
Papers must be written in English and formatted using the IEEE Computer Society VGTC format. Accepted papers will be subject to the registration and publication processing policy of ISMAR 2025.
All paper submissions must be in English. All paper submissions must be made through the workshop form.
Paper quality versus length will be assessed according to a contribution-per-page judgment. Papers will be considered in relation to their intended scientific merit and their contribution or adherence to the workshop topics.
Submissions will be reviewed by at least 2 program committee members following a single-blind review process. Accepted papers will be given guidelines for preparing and submitting the final manuscript(s) together with the notification of acceptance.
During the workshop, at least 1 best paper will be announced. The evaluation will consider both the submission and the presentation. Honorable mentions will also be considered.
Paper Submission Deadline: July 12th, 2025 (Saturday) July 29th, 2025 (Tueasday) EXTENDED*
Notification of acceptance: August 1st, 2025 (Friday) August 5th, 2025 (Tuesday)
Camera-ready Deadline: August 15th, 2025 (Friday)
Workshop day: October 8th (Wednesday)
Each deadline expires at 23:59:59 UTC-12 (AoE)
*If the authors wish to make improvements or updates to their submission, they may resubmit it through the Google Form as a new submission and notify the organizers via email.
Through a half-day workshop composed of two Keynotes, paper talks (1 or 2 sessions, depending on submissions), and panel discussions, we aim to chart a path toward more immersive, human-centered, and responsible XR-driven workplaces.
The workshop will be held physically in Daejeon, South Korea; however, we have opted for a hybrid format, allowing authors to present online as well.
Prof. Frank Guan Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore
Dr Frank Guan Yunqing currently is an Associate Professor at Singapore Institute of Technology. His research interests include Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Dr Guan had been leading and conducting research in a number of large collaborative research centers and has published dozens of papers in top-tier conferences and journals. His research has often been cited by other publications in top-ranked venues, i.e. Nature. Due to his excellent track record of research, he received the Andrew Fraser Prize from IMechE (UK) in 2006. Dr Guan has served in the programme and organizing committee for a number of international conferences and academic organizations. In particular, he was General Chair of ISMAR 2022. He also has aspirations and passion towards innovation and entrepreneurship and was awarded the SMART Innovation Fellow in 2015 from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology.
Prof. Dieter Schmalstieg University of Stuttgart, Germany
Dr Dieter Schmalstieg currently is Alexander von Humboldt Professor of Visual Computing at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. He is also an adjunct professor at Graz University of Technology, Austria, where he previously headed the Institute of Visual Computing. His current research interests are augmented reality, virtual reality, computer graphics, visualization and human-computer interaction. He received Dipl.-Ing. (1993), Dr. techn. (1997) and Habilitation (2001) from Vienna University of Technology. He is author and co-author of over 400 peer-reviewed scientific publications with over 29,000 citations and over twenty best paper awards and nominations. His current and past organizational roles include associate editor in chief of IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, associate editor of Frontiers in Virtual reality, member of the steering committee of the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, chair of the EUROGRAPHICS working group on Virtual Environments, key researcher of the K-Plus Competence Center for Virtual Reality and Visualization in Vienna and key researcher of the Know-Center in Graz. In 2002, he received the START career award presented by the Austrian Science Fund. In 2008, he founded the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Handheld Augmented Reality. In 2012, he received the IEEE Virtual Reality technical achievement award, and, in 2020, the IEEE ISMAR Career Impact Award. He was elected as Fellow of IEEE, as a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Young Curia), the Academia Europaea, and the IEEE VGTC Virtual Reality Academy.
Michele Gattullo, Ph.D., received his M.S. degree with honors in Mechanical Engineering in April 2012 from the Polytechnic University of Bari and his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical and Management Engineering in April 2016 from the Polytechnic University of Bari. From 2016 to 2022, he was a research fellow at the Polytechnic University of Bari. In 2022, he became an assistant professor and, in 2025, an associate professor. Prof. Gattullo leads the IMRLab (Industrial Mixed Reality Laboratory) and is a key member of the VR3Lab (Virtual Reality and Reality Reconstruction Laboratory). Prof. Gattullo mainly develops his research to look for guidelines for an efficient use of Extended Reality (XR) technologies in industry. With over 60 publications in international journals and conferences, he has made significant contributions to the field. In addition to his research, Prof. Gattullo is actively involved in teaching, offering innovative courses such as "Industrial Augmented Reality" for M.S. students in Mechanical Engineering. From 2024, he serves on the ISMAR full International Program Committee (IPC) and he was Web Chair for ISMAR 2021 and Workshop&Tutorial Chair for ISMAR 2022.
Mariano Alcañiz, Ph.D., is founding director of the Immersive Neurotechnologies Lab (LabLENI) at UPV and Professor (tenure position) of Biomedical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. His general research interests hover around a better understanding and enhancement of human cognition combining insights and methods from computer science, psychology, and neuroscience. His work is centered on using empirical, behavioural science methodologies to explore people as they interact in digital worlds, but he also engages in research geared towards developing new ways to produce Extended Reality (XR) simulations. Towards this end, he has been involved in projects related to clinical psychology, neurodevelopmental disorders, consumer neuroscience, organizational neuroscience, education, and training. He has published more than 370 academic papers (h-index 72) in interdisciplinary journals as well domain-specific journals in the fields of biomedical engineering, computer science, psychology, marketing, management, psychology and education. His work has been continuously funded by the Spanish Research Agency and the European Commission for 30 years. He has been coordinator of several national R&D programs of excellence, program coordinator of the Information Society Technology (IST) of the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain and he has been the Spanish representative for ICT area at the Horizon 2020 European Research Program Committee. He has also founded several spin-off companies related with his research field.
Prof. Michele Gattullo, Politecnico di Bari, Italy
Prof. Mariano Luis Alcañiz Raya, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain
Prof. Michele Fiorentino, Politecnico di Bari, Italy
Prof. Francesco Ferrise, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Prof. Mario Lorenz, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany
Prof. Manuel Roberto Contero, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain
Prof. Eugenio Ivorra Martinez, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain
Prof. Adalberto Simeone, KU Leuven, Belgium
Dr. Mine Dastan, Politecnico di Bari, Italy
Dr. Enricoandrea Laviola, Politecnico di Bari, Italy
Dr. Marina Ricci, CNR-STIIMA, Italy
Dr. Sara Romano, Politecnico di Bari, Italy
Dr. Fabio Vangi, Politecnico di Bari, Italy
Dr. Luana Marangelli, Politecnico di Bari, Italy
Dr. Valerio Pulcini, CNR-STIIMA, Italy
This workshop is supported by the European Union - Next Generation EU, NATIONAL RECOVERY AND RESILIENCE PLAN (NRRP) - MISSION 4 Component 2 Investment 1.1 – "Fund for the National Research Program and for Projects of National Interest (NRP)" - CUP D53D23017380001.
