WHO ARE WE?
UCLA XR Initiative (XRI) is a hub for UCLA students, staff, faculty, and industry professionals to experiment with XR and collaborate on research, art, and creative projects.
WHAT DO WE DO?
Our team brings together research technologists, teaching innovators, health practitioners, XR designers, and museum artists, sharing expertise across disciplines to shape the future of immersive technology.
XRI BY THE NUMBERS
276
In the community
25+
Events
15+
Touchpoints Across Campus
READY TO JOIN THE COMMUNITY?
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Get connected with XR colleagues across the UC network to learn about campus-specific XR events
WHERE TO FIND US?
The BRIDGE Innovation Studio encourages students and faculty to explore cutting-edge technology and how one can incorporate them in research and instruction across the Social Sciences. Location: Public Affairs Room 2035 Website: https://computing.sscnet.ucla.edu/services/innovation-studio Contact: Joy Guey (joy@sscert.ucla.edu) The OARC Technology Sandbox is an interdisciplinary computing facility open to UCLA students, researchers Current Location: Math and Sciences Room 4328 Website: https://idre.ucla.edu/technology-sandbox Contact: Lisa M. Snyder (lms@idre.ucla.edu) The UCLA Simulation Center is located across the street from Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center at 700 Westwood Plaza. We share a high-tech facility with the Center for Advanced Surgical & Interventional Technologies (CASIT) in Rosenfeld Hall, which opened in 2023. Location: 700 Westwood Plaza Suite 1106 Los Angeles, CA 90095 Website: https://sim.ucla.edu/ Contact: Executive Director - Yue Ming Huang, EdD, MHS, FSSH (yhuang@mednet.ucla.edu) EliXR is a private place for students, staff, and faculty to experiment with and create XR content. Location: Public Affairs Room 1045 Website: https://humtech.ucla.edu/labs/elixr-lab/ Contact: Thomas Garbelotti (tom@humnet.ucla.edu) or Andrew Jessup (andrew@humnet.ucla.edu) The Digital Archaeology Lab (DAL) is equipped with technology for building and rendering intricate three-dimensional models and environments, run complex statistical analyses on large datasets, and geospatially reconstruct archaeological and cultural sites in GIS. Location: Fowler Room A163 Website: https://ioa.ucla.edu/labs/dal Contact: Deidre Whitmore (dal@ioa.ucla.edu) UCLA Samueli Makerspace is a 9,000-square-foot student makerspace equipped with 3D printers, a virtual reality system, and electronics fabrication tools. Website: https://samueli.ucla.edu/makerspace/ Contact: Jacob Schmidt (schmidt@seas.ucla.edu) The UCLA Makerspace on the Hill specializes in providing support for student projects. Equipped with 3D printers, laser cutters, sewing machines, and woodworking and metalworking tools. Location: Olympic Hall Contact: Steve Greim (steve@orl.ucla.edu) The Bionics Lab at UCLA is a research group aiming to develop science, technology, and human resources at the interface between robotics, biological systems, and medicine. Location: Engineering 4 Building, Rm. 18-111 Website: http://bionics.seas.ucla.edu/index.html Contact: Jacob Rosen Ph.D. (jacobrosen@ucla.edu) The English Digital Media Lab is a collaborative environment to invent new approaches to literary objects and media technologies. Location: Kaplan Hall 211 Contact: Chris Cabrera Thompson (ccthompson@english.ucla.edu) The Lux Lab is a collection of emerging technology services offered by the UCLA Library. Some of these services are 3D printing, mapping and scanning, as well as laser etching and cutting. Locations: Powell Library room 331 & Charles E. Young Research Library Research Commons Website: https://www.library.ucla.edu/use/computers-computing-services/lux-lab Contact: Doug Daniels (dougdaniels@library.ucla.edu) The UCLA Game Lab fosters the production of games and game-related research within an experimental art and design context. Location: Broad Art Center Website: http://games.ucla.edu/ Contact: Tyler Stefanich (tyler@games.ucla.edu) The DMA fabrication lab facilitates physical construction across several different media, including wood, metal, and plastics. The shoot room is a dedicated studio used for professional photography and video production. Location: Broad Art Center Floor 2 Websites: http://support.dma.ucla.edu/fablab/ https://support.dma.ucla.edu/shootroom/ Contact: Jonathan Cecil (jonathancecil@ucla.edu) The Media Arts Research Space (MARS) provides faculty and graduate students access to hard to find audiovisual material and literature from the fields of media arts and design. The UCLA Art|Sci Center is dedicated to pursuing and promoting the evolving “Third Culture” by facilitating the infinite potential of collaborations between (media) arts and (bio/nano) sciences. The Art|Sci Studio Lab is where brainstorming and meeting occurs, and where the Art|Sci team maintains an extensive digital and physical archive. Location: Broad Art Center Room 5250 Website: http://artsci.ucla.edu/home Contact: vesna@arts.ucla.edu The laboratory seeks new ways to treat psychiatric and neurological disorders through invasive and non-invasive neuromodulation techniques. Location: UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Room 48-136. Website: http://lonn.semel.ucla.edu/ Contact: Nanthia Suthana, PhD. (thelnnlab@gmail.com)
Location: Boelter 2808
WHAT’S NEXT?
XRI x LA28
Kinesis 🥎
Transforming elite athletic movement into gold-infused XR motion portraits, using dual mocap pipelines, Houdini, and TouchDesigner to create large-scale, sensor-driven visuals
Station & Scavenger 🍄
Turning LA into a network of narrative “stations” and scavenger clues, prototyping playful, site-specific experiences around the LA28 Olympics.
