The 1st International Workshop on eXtended Reality and Artificial Intelligence for Serious and Critical Applications (XRAI-SCA)

A half-day hybrid workshop @ ISMAR 2025
(Wednesday, October 8th, 2025)

Overview

The 1st International Workshop on eXtended Reality and Artificial Intelligence for Serious and Critical Applications (XRAI-SCA), which will be held as a half-day hybrid workshop at IEEE ISMAR 2025, aims to bring together interdisciplinary researchers, practitioners, and industry experts to explore the intersection of XR and AI in domains where safety, ethics, decision-making, and human performance are paramount. As XR and AI technologies rapidly evolve and are increasingly deployed in mission-critical settings—such as healthcare, defense, emergency response, and industrial operations—there is a growing need to ensure these systems are robust, explainable, and human-centered.

XRAI-SCA offers a unique venue for presenting empirical research, conceptual frameworks, system design, and application case studies focused on high-stakes environments. The workshop invites diverse perspectives from AR/VR/XR, AI, human-computer interaction (HCI), cognitive science, and domain-specific fields to collaboratively address pressing research questions:

How can AI enhance XR-based decision support?
How do we design for user trust, cognitive load, and explainability in critical contexts?
What evaluation strategies best capture system reliability and user performance in XR?

The workshop will feature keynote presentation(s), research paper session(s), and a group discussion, encouraging both academic and applied contributions. By engaging the ISMAR community, XRAI-SCA fosters timely and impactful conversations that help shape the future of responsible innovation in XR and AI for serious applications.

Keynote Speakers

Sarah Goodwin
(Department of Human Centred Computing, Monash University)

Improving Information Visualisation for Control Room Situational Awareness and Critical Decision Making

Abstract:

Control room operators face a constant flow of information. They need to be alert, situationally aware and make time-critical decisions under pressure. Control rooms can be stressful environments as there is high potential for serious consequences from error. Dr. Sarah Goodwin describes her research exploring cognitive load of energy control room operators, where eye tracking and observational studies have helped investigate operator screen and application use, information overload, and alarm fatigue. Dr. Goodwin is currently leading the government funded Australian Research for Power Systems Transformation: 'Control Room of the Future' topic through a human-centred information visualisation and eXplainable AI lens. Her work across energy data communication and visualisation over the years includes the use of various immersive technologies, which there is potential for in control room situations.

Bio:

Dr. Sarah Goodwin is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Engagement in the Department of Human-Centred Computing, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. She is a recognised leader in information visualisation with over 20 years’ experience. Using human-centric approaches, her research focuses on creative visual data solutions to help people and organisations unravel meaning and see new insights from complex data, multi-dimensional and/or geospatial data sets. Dr. Goodwin is lead investigator on the Control Room of the Future project and has led various successful research projects, including driving the development of the opensource eye tracking analysis software, Gazealytics where she continues to add new features and improvements. Her work has a particular focus on a sustainable future, with many applications related to the renewable energy sector as well as communities, health and the environment. She was co-General Chair of the IEEE VIS conference 2023, the top tier international visualisation conference, which was held in Australia for the first time. She leads two international workshop series on urban data visualisation (CityVis) and energy data visualisation (EnergyVis) and has been on various international conference program committees.

Adam Cheng
(Departments of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, University of Calgary | Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute)

Applications of AR in Healthcare: Perspectives from an Emergency Physician

Abstract:

Augmented reality has seen rapid uptake in healthcare, with the potential to shape the future of medicine. In this talk. Dr. Adam Cheng shares his experience leading a large multinational research collaborative which is exploring the application of augmented reality to support emergency physicians and nurses during the lifesaving care of patients suffering from cardiac arrest. He discusses how AR is leveraged to improve efficiency and reduce errors, and highlights key steps in the development process to ensure success. He then shares his vision for how AR can be utilized in the emergency room environment to improve patient care.

Bio:

Dr. Adam Cheng is Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Canada. As a scientist and researcher at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, he oversees a program of simulation-based research focused on improving outcomes from cardiac arrest. He co-founded the INSPIRE network, an international research simulation collaborative with over 300 institutions that has fostered the global dissemination of simulation-based research. He has served on the Board of Directors and was named to the Academy of Fellows in the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. He has provided leadership for various international simulation conferences and delivered lectures and workshops at conferences around the world. Dr. Cheng conducts research with interests in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and debriefing, and has led numerous multicenter simulation-based research trials. He is a recipient of the King Charles III Coronation Medal, awarded by the Government of Canada for outstanding contributions in healthcare.

Tentative Program (Local Time in Daejeon, Wednesday Morning, October 8th)

[08:30am–08:35am] Greetings and Opening Remarks
[08:35am–09:05am] Keynote: Industry (Sarah Goodwin)
[09:05am–10:20am] Paper Session I (Industry and General Topics)
- [09:05am–09:17am] Towards Automatic Level-of-Detail 2D Interfaces Generation
  Zhenbang He (University of British Columbia)*; Barrett Ens (University of British Columbia)
- [09:17am–09:29am] Context Matters! Social, Spatial, and Semantic Coordination with an Embodied Agent in Immersive Analytics
  Andrew Cunningham (University of South Australia)*; Nicolas Barbotin (University of South Australia); Adam Drogemuller (University of South Australia); Jack Fraser (University of South Australia)
- [09:29am–09:41am] Adaptive Learning in Extended Reality: A Survey on multimodal Interaction and AI-driven Personalization
  Alsu Raianova (Pusan National University)*; Myungho Lee (Pusan National University)
- [09:41am–09:53am] Cooperative Edge Inference and Virtual Simulation for Real-Time 3D Human Pose Estimation in Safety-Critical Applications
  Hyun-Ho Choi (Hankyong National University)*; Kangsoo Kim (University of Calgary); Ki-Ho Lee (Chung-Ang University); Kisong Lee (Dongguk University)
- [09:53am–10:05am] Augmented Reality for Navigation, Team Coordination, and Real-Time Data Visualization in Firefighting Operations
  Konstantinos Charalampakis (Technical University of Crete)*; Ioannis Safranoglou (Technical University of Crete); Alexis Stavroulakis (Technical University of Crete); Marcel Ebel (Paderborn University, Heinz Nixdorf Institute); Iris Graessler (Paderborn University, Heinz Nixdorf Institute); Despina Dimelli (Technical University of Crete); Katerina Mania (Technical University of Crete)
- [10:05am–10:17am] An Immersive Digital Twin with Virtual Agent Interface for Pipeline Leak Simulation and Monitoring
  Mehdi Marzban (University of Calgary)*; Muskan Sarvesh (University of Calgary); Charbel Maroun (University of Calgary); Brody Wells (University of Calgary); Nanjia Wang (University of Calgary); Hyeongil Nam (University of Calgary); Frank Maurer (University of Calgary); Kangsoo Kim (University of Calgary)
[10:20am–10:35am] Bio Break
[10:35am–11:05am] Keynote: Healthcare (Adam Cheng)
[11:05am–11:55am] Paper Session II (4 papers: Healthcare)
- [11:05am–11:17am] Developing a Palliative Care Simulation for the Hindu Cultural Context Using Interactive Virtual Agents: A Work-in-Progress
  Arjun Chatha (University of Calgary)*; Hyeongil Nam (University of Calgary); Kara Sealock (University of Calgary); Kangsoo Kim (University of Calgary)
- [11:17am–11:29am] Innovation as a Bridge: Enhancing Undergraduate Nursing Education through International Collaborations
  Kara Sealock (University of Calgary)*; Ji-Young Yeo (Hanyang University)
- [11:29am–11:41am] Global Embodiment Index: Toward Objective Embodiment Metrics for Upper-limb Prosthetic Training in eXtended Reality
  Emily Ostapiuk (University of Calgary); Jihyun Kim (University of Calgary)*; Junho Park (University of Calgary)
- [11:41am–11:53am] Preliminary Exploration on Timing the VR to AR Transition in Upper Limb Prosthesis Training: A Simulation Study
  Tselmuun Ganbat (University of Calgary); Anna Landry (University of Calgary); Jihyun Kim (University of Calgary); Junho Park (University of Calgary)*
[11:55am–12:25pm] Discussion / Panel
[12:25pm–12:30pm] Closing Remarks and Group Photo