Doug Bowman delivers keynote at I/ITSEC ‘23

Doug Bowman, Frank J. Maher Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech delivered the "industry keynote" at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), held from November 27 to December 1 in Orlando, Florida.

I/ITSEC is the world's largest modeling, simulation, and training event. It consists of peer-reviewed paper presentations, tutorials, special events, professional workshops, a commercial exhibit hall, a serious games competition, and STEM events for teachers and secondary students. The conference is organized and sponsored by the National Training & Simulation Association (NTSA), which promotes international and interdisciplinary cooperation within the fields of modeling and simulation (M&S), training, education, analysis, and related disciplines at this annual meeting.

Bowman is the principal investigator of the 3D Interaction Group, focusing on three-dimensional user interfaces, VR/AR user experience, and the benefits of immersion in virtual environments. His talk was "Lessons Learned from 15 Years of Basic Research on Immersive Training and Tactical AR." In the talk, he reflected on research and scholarship funded by grants from the Office of Naval Research since 2009. The work has focused on two main themes: the benefits of immersion in AR/VR for training systems and the user experience design of AR systems that can be used in actual military operations. All of the ONR grants have been in collaboration with his colleague Tobias Höllerer at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).

Bowman expressed gratitude and enthusiasm for the event and mentioned, "I am honored to be selected as this year's keynote speaker at I/ITSEC. I'm also excited to share the findings and lessons learned from years of fruitful research on AR/VR systems, which are highly relevant not only for military training and operations but also in many other industries and even for everyday consumer use. It's great to represent academia at this venue and show how basic research leads to a significant long-term impact."