Human-Computer Interaction and Design with Extended Reality (HCID/XR)

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HCID Programme Lead and Academic Coordinator for Aalto: Mika P. Nieminen, mika.nieminen@aalto.fi

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Programme website

Academic Coordinator: Jan Gulliksen, gulliksen@kth.se

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Programme website

Academic Coordinator: Mariët Theune, m.theune@utwente.nl
The master programme is provided by Interaction Technology.

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Programme website

Programme Coordinator: Prof. Elena Villalba Mora

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Academic Coordinator: Maristella Matera

Maristella Matera is full professor in Computer Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano, where she leads the Human-Centric Interactive Technology lab (HINT lab – hintlab.polimi.it/). Her research focuses on aspects at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction and Model-driven Web Engineering, emphasizing design methods and tools for Web application development. She is the author of about 300 papers and four books. For the impact of her research, in 2023 she received the Google award for Inclusion Research.

She has organized several international events related to Web Engineering and Human-Computer Interaction. She is an Associate Editor for the journal ACM Transactions on the Web. She teaches courses on Human-Computer Interaction, Human-centered AI, and Interaction Design.

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Programme website

HCID Programme Lead and Academic Coordinator for Aalto: Mika P. Nieminen, mika.nieminen@aalto.fi

SPECIALISATION: Cross-Device Interaction in XR

Aalto University offers a specialisation in Cross-Device Interaction in XR: a design approach where immersive experiences are shared across different types of devices, allowing XR users to interact seamlessly with participants on desktops, mobile devices, or other platforms. Instead of isolating the XR experience inside a headset, asymmetric systems connect multiple ecosystems into a unified environment where each participant may have a different view, role, or interaction style.

Mika P. Nieminen is a Senior University Lecturer at Aalto University School of Science. He is the Programme Director for the master’s programme in ICT Innovation. Mika also leads the HCID programme for the EIT Digital Master School as a whole and coordinates it locally at Aalto. He also teaching several courses on User-Centred Design. His research interests include UCD at large, and user involvement and user-centred design competencies in particular. In the past he has helped to design and built a TimeMachine(2006), a Holodeck (2010), Design War Room (2012) and a cross-dimensional log cabin (2020) enabling collaboration in and out of VR.

Programme website

Academic Coordinator: Jan Gulliksen, gulliksen@kth.se

Jan Gulliksen is a professor in Human Computer Interaction and a Vice President for Digitalization at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. He is conducting research in usability, accessibility, user-centered systems design, digitalization and digital work environment problems. He has been serving as the chairman of the digital commission of Sweden between 2012-2016 for the minister of Digitalization at the Ministry of the Enterprise and is now a member of the Digitalization Council for the Ministry of Infrastructure. He has also been working as a Digital Champion of Sweden for the European Commission since 2012. He was also a member of the EU High Level Group on the impact of Horizon 2020 and preparing for Horizon Europe, the so called "Lamy group" and as such contributed to the report Fab-Lab-App.

SPECIALISATION: XR and applied business-oriented HCI

Extended Reality (XR)—encompassing Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR)—is reshaping how we interact with digital content across education, entertainment, training, and simulation. This program introduces students to the foundational principles and cutting-edge practices in XR, with a focus on interaction, collaborative design processes, and user-centered development. 

Students will explore the design and implementation of immersive experiences through hands-on projects that emphasize gaming mechanics, training in simulated environments, and real-time user testing. A central component of the curriculum is understanding and applying interaction paradigms unique to XR, such as controller-free input, locomotion techniques, and redirection strategies, which are essential for creating intuitive and accessible virtual experiences. 

Through collaborative workshops, learners will engage in multidisciplinary teams to conceptualize, prototype, and iterate XR applications. The program emphasizes design thinking and agile development methodologies to prepare students for real-world challenges in XR development. Special attention is given to evaluating usability, performance, and human factors, ensuring that the solutions developed are both functional and user-oriented.

Academic Coordinator: Jonas Löwgren

SPECIALISATION: Extended Reality Experiences

The specialization focuses on state-of-the-art XR technologies in public and professional use situations. It involves the design and realization of personal and shared user experiences of extended reality combined with deep learning and hybrid approaches to AI. The teaching and research environment includes a popular public science center focusing on visualization, a range of innovative XR technologies, a 100-seat dome theater, and more. The courses in the specialization cover the full range from XR concept design via prototyping techniques to development. Key application areas include scientific imaging, climate visualization and visual decision support as well as public science communication, cultural heritage, and urban planning.

Jonas Löwgren (b. 1964) is professor of interaction and information design at Linköping University, Sweden. He specializes in collaborative media design, interactive visualization and the design theory of the digital materials. Jonas has taught interaction design in university courses and in companies since the early 1990’s and initiated the influential two-year master’s program and the PhD program in interaction design when he was at Malmö University. Most recently, he co-initiated the two-year master’s program in design at Linköping University, in which he coordinates the Visual Media profile. He has published some 100 peer-reviewed academic papers and four books, including Thoughtful Interaction Design (with Erik Stolterman, published by MIT Press), and a vast range of general-interest and pedagogical material. His design portfolio comprises over 60 projects from explorative research and professional contexts.

Programme website

Academic Coordinator: Mariët Theune, m.theune@utwente.nl

The master programme is provided by Interaction Technology.

SPECIALISATION:  Intelligent Interaction in XR

The University of Twente (UT) will offer a specialisation in “Intelligent Interaction in XR”, focusing on the development and study of immersive environments that adapt, reason, and perceive in real time. The goal is to prepare professionals who can design, prototype, and evaluate rich human-computer interactions in extended reality (XR) by leveraging AI capabilities.

AI, currently popular in the form of Large Language Models (LLMs), but encompassing many other forms of automated learning, reasoning, and decision making, plays an increasingly important role in the evolution and enrichment of XR experiences. AI capabilities can enhance XR across several dimensions. LLMs enable more human-like natural language interactions between users and virtual characters (NPCs), which in traditional XR are usually scripted and limited. Multi-agent systems can be used to generate emergent and adaptive behaviours by groups of actors in virtual environments, while individual intelligent agents are indispensable for XR training simulations (e.g., medical or military), where they can act as for example simulated patients but also as coaches or assistants.

In short: Intelligent Interaction brings XR and intelligent systems together to create experiences that are interactive, adaptive, and meaningfully human-centred; with applications in healthcare, training & education, emergency response, gaming, and entertainment.

Mariët Theune is assistant professor at the University of Twente, working in the Human Media Interaction research group. She has a background in computational linguistics and her main research interest is interaction with technology (including robots, chatbots, virtual characters) through natural language

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Programme Coordinator: Prof. Elena Villalba Mora

Dr. Eng. Elena Villalba Mora is a Professor (Associate) at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain, in the Computer Science field, concretely in Human Computer Interaction; with more 20 years’ experience in User Experience, Universal Design and Digital Health. She holds a master’s degree in Telecommunications Engineering and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering, both from the Technical University of Madrid (Spain).

Specialization: Accessible and Adaptive Interaction in XR

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) offers as specialization Accessible and Adaptive Interaction in XR, designed to prepare students to develop inclusive, ethical, and human-centered technologies for Extended Reality (XR) environments.

In the context of interactive systems, accessibility is defined as the usability of a product or service by people from the widest possible range of characteristics and abilities, including persons with disabilities and older adults. This specialization equips graduates with the knowledge and skills to design future XR experiences that are not only technologically advanced but also inclusive, adaptive, and socially responsible.

UPM offers this specialization within the field of Universal Design of Interactive Systems for XR, focusing on accessibility, adaptability, and digital inclusion. Students will explore topics such as Accessible Design and XR, learning to create immersive systems that are usable by people with a wide range of abilities and needs. The course on Adaptive Interactive Systems delves into intelligent interfaces that personalize user experiences in XR. Assistive Products and XR introduces emerging technologies that enhance autonomy and participation for individuals with disabilities when using ICT and, morse specifically, XR.

The specialization also includes Digital Health: Promoting Healthy Ageing, which examines how XR and interactive technologies can support wellbeing and functional independence in older adults.

Finally, Ethics in HCI addresses responsible innovation, data privacy, and the ethical implications of designing human-computer interactions in immersive environments.

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Academic Coordinator: Luca Turchet, luca.turchet@unitn.it

SPECIALISATION: Multisensory and Affective Interactions in Immersive Media

University of Trento offers a specialisation in “Multisensory and Affective Interactions in Immersive Media”. It focuses on the study of design, development, and evaluation methods for advanced XR applications that leverage the interplay between the senses of vision, audition, and touch, as well as on affective computing techniques for emotion tracking and emotion rendering in XR environments.

Luca Turchet is an Associate Professor at the Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Trento, Italy, where he directs the Creative Intelligent and Multisensory Interactions Laboratory (https://www.cimil.disi.unitn.it/). He received master’s degrees (summa cum laude) in Computer Science from University of Verona, in classical guitar and composition from the Music Conservatory of Verona, and in electronic music from the Royal College of Music of Stockholm. He received the Ph.D. in Media Technology from Aalborg University Copenhagen. His scientific, artistic, and entrepreneurial research has been supported by numerous grants from different funding agencies including the European Commission, the European Innovation Council, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, the European Space Agency, the Italian Ministry of University and Research, and the Danish Research Council. He is co-founder of the music-tech company Elk Audio. He is the Chair of the IEEE Emerging Technology Initiative on the Internet of Sounds (a technical committee of the IEEE Communications Society) and the founding president of the Internet of Sounds Research Network. He is author and co-author of more than 200 papers focusing on music technology, extended reality, Internet of Things, human-computer interaction and multisensory perception. He served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems, IEEE Access and the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, and has been guest editor for the IEEE Transactions on Haptics, IEEE Communications Magazine, IEEE Technology and Society, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, Frontiers in VR, and Digital Creativity. In 2025 was awarded the position of IEEE Distinguished lecturer for the IEEE Communications society.