Virtual Experience Research Accelerator (VERA)
Supported by five collaborative grants from the National Science Foundation, the Virtual Experience Research Accelerator (VERA) project will develop and operate CISE community research infrastructure in the form of a human-machine system for carrying out human subjects research related to extended reality (XR), including Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.
Mission
To serve the community of XR researchers by providing tools to accelerate and improve the quality of their human subjects research, building and sustaining a diverse and inclusive collaborative community of XR researchers, and fostering the next generation of XR researchers.
News
[27 FEB 2024] The VERA Accessibility Survey is out!
News from 2023
Leadership
Principal Investigators
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- Greg WELCH (Lead PI), University of Central Florida
- Shiri AZENKOT, Cornell Tech
- Jeremy BAILENSON (Director of Community Outreach), Stanford University
- Gerd BRUDER, University of Central Florida
- Tabitha PECK, Davidson College
- Valerie Jones TAYLOR, Rutgers University
Investigators
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- Jonathan BEEVER (Ethics and Privacy), University of Central Florida
- Nicholas Alvaro COLES (Big Team Science, Director PSA), Stanford University
- Carolina Cruz-NEIRA (Partnerships, Sustainability), University of Central Florida
- John MURRAY (Systems, Sustainability), University of Central Florida
- Rui XIE (Statistics and Data Science), University of Central Florida
Development and Operations
Additional Support
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- Ryan SCHUBERT, Special Projects Coordinator, University of Central Florida
- Alex MOLINA, Administrative Assistant to Prof. Greg Welch, University of Central Florida
Collaborators
External Advisors
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- Anthony STEED, Senior Technical Advisor, University College London
Student Teams
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- UCF 2023–2024 Computer Science Senior Design Team, "VERA Locomotion Accessibility Toolkit"
- Team: Parsa Baghaie, Corey Clements, Josh Federmann, Adam Lei, Christian Merino, and Oliver Wacker
- Advisors: Greg Welch and Dylan Fox
- UCF 2023–2024 Computer Science Senior Design Team, "VERA Locomotion Accessibility Toolkit"
Community Committees
Outreach and Engagement Committee
The committee focuses on broad community involvement, and building/growing a diverse user community.
DEIA Committee
The committee oversees and advises on project-wide DEIA efforts.
Ethics and Privacy Committee
The committee works with the other committees to identify and offer guidance on potential ethical concerns related to engagement, research participation and data reuse, and platform design.
Participant Pool Committee
The committee oversees all matters related to the participant pool including demographics, payments, IRB approvals, and the inclusion of vulnerable populations.
Systems and Operations Committee
The committee oversees the development and operations of all VERA systems, services, and tools.
Community Advisory Board
The VERA Community Advisory Board (CAB) provides strategic perspectives, critical thinking, and specific advice to the entire VERA organization.
Resources
- VERA mail lists
- VERA on LinkedIn
- VERA on Twitter (X)
Public Planning Activities (2021–2022)
27 FEB 2024
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number 2235066.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.