What’s New

v3.0.0 · 2026-10-27
  • The site menu is shorter: Talks now live on the Publications page and the Team is on the Lab page. Old /talks/ and /team/ links redirect there.
  • New Join the Lab section on the Lab page for prospective D.E. and master's thesis students, covering what makes a good fit and how to apply.
  • Each paper on the Publications page now shows its venue, and talks show their dates and locations, with upcoming talks marked.
  • Pages load much faster: research animations are now short videos, photos are smaller, and YouTube videos load only when you press play.
  • Easier to read and navigate: stronger color contrast, a darker blue accent, visible keyboard focus, a skip-to-content link, and a phone layout that shows the profile card first. Blog posts now appear in site search.
  • New lab news: in the Advanced Robotics (INEN 6301) palletizing challenge, the UR10e stacked six conveyor-fed cubes on a 2 × 3 pallet, and the winning team finished in 71.794 s.
  • Corrected degree names, course titles, award years, and several publication entries.
v2.6.3 · 2026-10-13
  • New lab news: high school researcher Aiden Ma (Westbrook High School) won first place out of 29 entrants at the inaugural AI & Software Pitch Competition at Lamar EXPO 2026 with MOTION, an AR rehabilitation system. The MOTION entry on the Research page now notes the win.
  • The About page and CV now include a High School Research Advisor section, starting with Aiden Ma.
  • New blog post: A Quick Start on User Studies for XR Research, a guide to experimental design, counterbalancing, standard XR questionnaires, sample size, and choosing a statistical test, with a checklist for reading user-study papers.
v2.6.2 · 2026-10-12
  • New grant: the Lamar University 2026–2027 Excellence in Assessment Grant for AI-Resilient Assessment: An LLM-Facilitated Oral Defense Protocol for STEM Graduate Education, now listed on the About page and in the CV.
  • New lab news: in the second Advanced Robotics (INEN 6301) UR10e race, students programmed the robot to work with the conveyor and sensors through I/O, and Group 2 ran the fastest cycle.
  • Two new blog posts on conference skills: Ten Habits for a Better Science Talk, and How to Meet People at a Scientific Conference.
  • Fixed broken links in A Learning Path for Unity and XR Development after Unity and Meta moved several tutorials and docs.
v2.6.1 · 2026-10-01
  • Every piece of equipment on the Lab page now has a Training Guide: step-by-step onboarding posts for the UFACTORY xArm 6, Dobot Magician, Clearpath Husky A300, Clearpath TurtleBot 4, Virtualis MotionVR, Varjo VR-3, HTC VIVE Pro, Meta Quest 3 & 3S, and the Orbbec depth cameras. Each one covers safety, setup, and programming in the order a new student should learn them.
  • New on the Lab page: the Clearpath TurtleBot 4, the HTC VIVE Pro with VIVE Tracker (3.0), Orbbec Astra+ and Gemini 335L depth cameras, and ten Dobot Magician desktop arms for class labs. Equipment cards are now grouped by type: arms, mobile robots, headsets, and cameras.
  • More equipment cards now list the hardware mounted on each robot, such as the Kinova Gen3 lite arm and RealSense camera on the Husky, and the gripper, camera stand, and depth camera on the xArm 6.
  • The Collaborative Robot Operations and Programming (INEN 5301) and Advanced Robotics (INEN 6301) courses on the Teaching page now link the UR Lab Manual, with 37 hands-on activities on the UR10e. The UR10e Training Guide links it too.
v2.6.0 · 2026-09-29
  • Equipment cards on the Lab page are tidier: square photos, with each item's description and accessory list tucked behind click-to-expand headings.
  • The UR10e Training Guide now covers the hardware around the arm: the WINGMAN tool changer, Robotiq screwdriving system, EPick and 2F-85 grippers, wrist camera, UR Academy Hardware Set, and SICK safety laser scanners. Each has a short description, key specs, and a table of manuals, quick start guides, CAD files, and training links.
  • New lab news: Advanced Robotics (INEN 6301) held its cobot lab session in the renovated XRAI Lab, and Group 1 won the UR10e pick-and-place race in 11.328 s with zero errors.
  • New and updated headshots on the Team page, which now also updates doctoral students.
  • The PI card on the About and Team pages now shows my office and phone number.
v2.5.4 · 2026-09-24
  • The CV's Student Guidance section now also records master's thesis committee service and senior design team mentoring, alongside the doctoral committee and advisee lists that were already there.
  • First senior design entry: MechGenius Creations (INEN 4385), an AI system for identifying and mapping invasive aquatic plants, sponsored by the Lower Neches Valley Authority.
  • Two more doctoral advisees added to the About page's mentoring record, and degree titles across the Team and Alumni listings now name the program rather than just the degree level.
v2.5.3 · 2026-09-24
  • Equipment on the Lab page now links out to what you need to actually use it: a Manual button on every card that has a vendor manual, and — for the Universal Robots UR10e — a Training Guide leading to a full onboarding writeup.
  • New blog post: Getting Started with the UR10e Cobot — a four-step path through the Universal Robots e-learning, the UR10e manual, the Robotiq wrist camera material, and LiDAR-based human-robot collaboration, in the order a new student should work through them.
  • New publication: A Human-Centered AI Task Management System for Cognitive Load Reduction and Decision Support in Industrial Plant Management (AHFE 2026), now on the Publications page, with the accompanying conference talk on the Talks page.
  • The lab's name is now written consistently across the site as the XRAI (Extended Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics) Lab.
  • Advanced Robotics (INEN-6301) and Simulation of Industrial Systems (INEN-4375) added to the teaching record, and the ASME CIE subcommittee role updated to Vice Chair of Virtual and Augmented Reality Environments (VARE).
v2.5.2 · 2026-09-22
  • Add new members on the Team and About pages. Update their headshot and information.
  • Current Students on the Team page is now grouped by degree level (Doctoral, Master's and Undergraduate) instead of one undivided grid.
v2.5.1 · 2026-09-17
  • New blog post: A Learning Path for Unity and XR Development — a staged, curated route through Unity, VR and AR development, 3D assets, XR interaction design, and headset performance, with an eight-week ramp for students starting from zero.
v2.5.0 · 2026-09-17
  • New research project: Predictive and Safe Human-Aware Mobile Robot Navigation — a Lamar University 2026 STEM Research Undergraduate Fellowship project led by Justin Barrera, on mobile robots that anticipate where nearby people are heading.
  • The Advanced Mixed Reality Training for First Responders in Hurricane Scenarios project now has a demo video, on both the Research and Videos pages.
  • Videos are now ordered by when each video came out, rather than by when its project wrapped up — and a project can show more than one video.
  • Long project descriptions on the Research, Projects and Videos pages now show the first three lines with a Show more link, so the cards stay skimmable.
  • New blog post: Presentation Strategy by Venue — what to show and what to hold back for a seminar, a full paper talk, or an extended abstract. The three presentation posts now link to each other.
v2.4.3 · 2026-09-05
  • The Collaborative Robot Operations and Programming course (INEN 5301) is also being taught in Fall 2026.
  • Course video playlists added for INEN 5301 Collaborative Robotics and INEN 4375 Simulation of Industrial Engineering Systems — embedded on the Videos page and linked from the Teaching page.
v2.4.2 · 2026-09-02
  • Two new courses on the Teaching page: INEN 6301 Advanced Robotics and INEN 4375 Simulation of Industrial Engineering Systems, both running Fall 2026.
v2.4.1 · 2026-09-02
  • New Lab News item: the Fall 2025 cohort of INEN-5301 Collaborative Robot Operations and Programming presented their final UR10 cobot projects (pick-and-place, robot writing task) — 10 students enrolled, 7 earned an A. The two student demo videos are embedded in the story.
  • The Videos page has a new Teaching & Student Project Videos section, alongside the research videos.
  • The Teaching page now links the two student project demos under the Collaborative Robot Operations and Programming course.
v2.4.0 · 2026-08-29
  • New Lab News section — photo-and-text updates from the XRAI Lab, with a carousel on the Lab page and a full archive at /lab/news/. Separate from the homepage news feed and the blog.
  • First lab news item: Simon Saurbier (KIT / IPEK) visited for an ISE seminar on human-machine symbiosis.
  • The IDETC/CIE 2026 VHI paper now has its talk slides and presentation video — available from the Research, Publications, Talks, and Videos pages.
v2.3.1 · 2026-08-23
  • Attending ASME IDETC-CIE 2026 — chairing the two VARE User Experience and Human-Machine Interaction sessions, with talks from me and from Rezwanul Ashraf Ruddro. See the news feed for links.
  • The homepage news feed now shows the 5 most recent items instead of 3.
v2.3.0 · 2026-08-22
  • New research project: 'Path Planning Using Industrial Robotics for Automation of Route-Based Vibration Data Collection' — an autonomous TurtleBot 4 / ROS 2 robot that runs route-based vibration inspection, with a video demo on the Videos page.
  • Blog posts now show an 'Updated' date when a post has been revised after publication.
  • The Links & Resources post now covers the Cardinal Connect laptop loaner program and how to take LU equipment off campus.
  • Fixed the top navigation menu getting cut off on tablet and portrait-width screens.
v2.2.0 · 2026-08-17
  • Team page update: new mentoring categories and a student photo added.
  • Homepage now shows 4 recent research projects in a 2x2 grid, instead of 3 in a single row.
v2.1.1 · 2026-08-14
  • New blog post: 'Graduate Research Presentation Expectations' — what I look for in a research PPT and common mistakes to avoid.
  • New blog post: 'How to Build a Good Research Presentation' — a general guide to structuring, timing, and formatting a research talk.
v2.1.0 · 2026-08-06
  • Launched a new Projects page showcasing software I've built outside academic research, starting with Wherefold — a bilingual US travel-guide platform.
  • Added a 'Software I've Built' section to the homepage.
  • New blog post: 'Building Wherefold: Curating a US Travel Database and Turning It Into a Map.'
  • Fixed two broken syllabus links on the Teaching page.
v2.0.1 · 2026-08-04
  • Added four new blog posts: quick-reference keyword glossaries for AI/LLM, Robotics, XR (AR/VR/MR), and Human-Robot Interaction.
v2.0.0 · 2026-07-30
  • Refreshed site-wide typography (new heading and name fonts) and switched the accent color to Material Blue, including on the CV.
  • Redesigned the About page's PI info card.
  • The CV now auto-generates from the same data as the site, so it's always in sync — also fixed CV page margins and pagination.
  • Moved the 'What's New' link from the top navigation to the footer.
  • Fixed a layout glitch where page titles had extra empty space below the navigation bar, and a flicker on page refresh.
v1.6.0 · 2026-07-29
  • Launched the blog: guides on LLM skills, Unity version control, and literature search for new researchers.
  • Refreshed avatar and favicon (SVG), improved table-of-contents styling on posts.
v1.5.0 · 2026-07-11
  • Polished the Lab page and updated alumni listings.
  • Added analytics tracking and accessibility/contrast improvements site-wide.
v1.4.0 · 2026-06-21
  • Added a visitor map and a dedicated Videos page.
  • Improved research project layout and links.
v1.3.0 · 2026-06-18
  • Added a full-width banner to the Lab page and expanded the PI bio.
  • Consolidated team/people info and compressed images for faster loading.
v1.2.0 · 2026-06-15
  • Moved to custom domain, refreshed homepage.
  • Added publication search/filter and citation improvements.
v1.1.0 · 2026-06-13
  • Added the Lab page (equipment, alumni table).
  • Expanded research projects: AR, telerobotics, cybersecurity.
v1.0.0 · 2026-06-11
  • Site launched with personal content: publications, academic services, education.