Twelve CSUSB students have received the Innovative Media and Technology Graduate Research Award. Administered by the Office of Student Research in collaboration with the Extended Reality for Learning (xREAL) Lab, the award supports graduate students who are conducting research in immersive and emerging technologies, including augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, and related fields.

The recipients completed their research projects during the summer session under the mentorship of their faculty advisors and Mihaela Popescu, faculty director of the xREAL Lab. Each student was awarded up to $1,000 through the Office of Student Research, which coordinates the competitive grant review process.

“We are proud to support graduate students exploring the real-world applications of immersive and intelligent technologies. Their projects reflect not only technological innovation, but a deep commitment to using these tools to address educational, social and creative challenges,” said Popescu.

The award is a significant milestone for CSUSB, demonstrating the university’s growing commitment to innovation and technological advancement. By funding student-led research in cutting-edge areas, CSUSB is actively positioning itself at the forefront of immersive technology and applied research. The initiative reflects the university’s vision of becoming a leader in immersive technology research and application.

These projects go beyond academic inquiry — they are real efforts to improve communities and expand access to new technological solutions. The student researchers are gaining valuable hands-on experience while contributing to the development of tools and ideas that address pressing societal needs. Whether they are designing AI-powered robots, creating accessible virtual environments, or exploring emotion-driven design, these students are shaping technologies with potential for broad societal impact.

The awardees represent a wide range of disciplines, including computer science, communication, business, art and interdisciplinary studies. Their research topics span from robotics and synthetic environments to accessibility in the workplace, emotion-driven artificial intelligence, and interactive art installations.

The 2025 awardees:

  • Alberto Rendon (communication) – “Ghost Trails: An Augmented Reality Exploration of Pennsylvania’s Haunted History” (co-author of project with the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania)
  • Erin Ceballos (studio art) – “Experiments in Immersive, Interactive Installation: Spatial Storytelling, Collective Experience, and New Media”
  • Logan Ashbaugh (computer science) – “Neurodiversity in XR”
  • Laxman Kumar Busetty (computer science) – “Beyond Bounding Boxes: A Survey of Object Detection, Image Segmentation, and Classification Techniques in Computer Vision”
  • Makenna Dykstra (communication studies) – “Ghost Trails: An Augmented Reality Exploration of Pennsylvania’s Haunted History (co-author of project with the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania)”
  • Nikhil Reddy Kasam (computer science) – “Human-Robot Interaction: Language-Guided Quadruped Locomotion via Advanced Multimodal AI, ASR, and NVIDIA Synthetic Environments”
  • Priscilla Jimenez (business administration - management & interdisciplinary) – “Emotion-Driven Insights on AI in Dentistry: A Multimodal Study with AI and XR Visualization”
  • Rakshanda Thakur (computer science) – “Voice-Enabled GO2 Robot for Child-Friendly Educational Interaction”
  • Raymond Moorehead Jr. (entrepreneurship and innovation) – “Brine to Battery: AI-Driven Lithium Recovery for a Cleaner Future”
  • Sakshi Verma (information systems and technology - business intelligence & analytics) – “Virtual Reality as a Tool for Non-Technical Skills Development in Business Analytics Careers”
  • Santos Nunez (studio art) – “Heirlooms of Virtu”
  • Satya Vipul Akarapu (computer science) – “TutorVR: Designing a VR-Based AI Tutor”

The xREAL Lab, housed with CSUSB’s Faculty Center for Excellence (Faculty Affairs and Development), offers faculty, staff and students access to advanced technologies, including virtual and augmented reality systems, Unity and Unreal game engines, 360-degree video production, 3D modeling and printing, motion capture, and machine learning tools. The lab serves as a collaborative hub for exploring how immersive technologies can transform learning and research across disciplines.

For more information on the xREAL Lab and other research opportunities, visit the xREAL Lab  or the Office of Student Research websites.