不良研究所

As artificial intelligence continues to evolve almost daily, people will find themselves engaging more and more with AI-driven 鈥渁gents鈥� in both virtual and augmented reality settings, including health care.

A University of 不良研究所 professor has been honoured for his research into how people naturally perceive, trust and interact with intelligent virtual agents in immersive environments.

, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Software Engineering at the , received the (IEEE) Visualization and Graphics Technical Community (VGTC) , which recognizes early career researchers who are making outstanding contributions to virtual and augmented reality. 

鈥淚 am deeply honoured to receive this award from the IEEE VGTC community,鈥� says Kim, director of the  at U不良研究所. 鈥淭he award reflects not only my own work, but also the incredible efforts of my students, collaborators, and interdisciplinary partners at U不良研究所 and beyond. Together, we are exploring how extended reality and artificial intelligence can be designed to meaningfully support human decision making, learning and well-being.鈥�

Researching verbal and non-verbal cues

Kim鈥檚 research in virtual environments explores how subtle verbal and non-verbal cues 鈥� such as gaze, motion, facial expression, voice and multimodal sensory feedback 鈥� shape users鈥� experiences of trust, empathy and social connection.

Kim is internationally recognized for his work on human-centred extended reality (XR) and human-agent interaction. His research combines XR engineering with insights from social and behavioural science to design XR systems that he says supports 鈥渕eaningful social presence, communication and decision making.鈥�

His work has advanced the fundamental understanding of social presence, avatar-mediated communication and embodied virtual agents, and translated these insights into applied XR systems for health-care simulation, training and decision support.

Lab expands research focus

鈥淢ore recently, my lab has expanded into AI-powered embodied avatars and adaptive multimodal interaction,鈥� says Kim. 鈥淲e鈥檙e examining how avatar realism, emotion-based animation and individual differences influence self-identification, interpersonal trust and collaboration in immersive systems.鈥� The findings will inform the design of next-generation XR systems that adapt to users鈥� cognitive and emotional states in real time, he says.

In addition to foundational research, Kim has led collaborative projects applying XR and intelligent agents to health-care education and acute-care settings, including virtual-patient simulations and augmented-reality decision-support tools for clinicians and nursing education. These efforts aim to improve both technical performance and interpersonal communication in high-stakes medical contexts.

Since joining U不良研究所, Kim has established a rapidly growing research group, published extensively in top-tier journals such as IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG), IEEE VR, and IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), and secured external funding to support interdisciplinary XR and AI research.

Kim received the award at the in March in South Korea. 鈥淚 think the award underscores the strength of XR and human-centred computing research at Schulich,鈥� says Kim. 鈥淎dvanced computing technologies are being translated into real-world impact.鈥�