Symposium on Virtual Worlds Research 2025

Friday, 9 May 2025, University of Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom

Virtual World Symposium aims at providing a collective update on the current state of Virtual Technologies across multiple disciplines. This is ranging from Games and Entertainment to Digital Heritage and Product Visualization but not limited to. The Symposium’s goal is to provide an opportunity for knowledge sharing between these communities, discussing the Emerging Media, Transformation of the Creative Industries, and Future Lifestyle.

The event is hosted by the University of Staffordshire Games Institute, and will take place on Friday, 9 May 2025, from 9:00 to 17:00 in the Gallery, Catalyst Building, University of Staffordshire.

Join this event for creative talks and knowledge sharing opportunities. The Symposium speakers are invited from various fields and will provide you with the current state and upcoming updates in their respective fields.

Call for participation

The Symposium invites speakers from various sectors to present their research in form of a 20-minute talk/presentation including a 10-minute Q&A.

Additionally, the speakers have an opportunity to submit an extended version of their work in form a research or project paper. SVWR 2025 seeks high-quality original papers in all relevant areas of Virtual Worlds, including digitization of real-world objects, human interaction, 3D user interface, applications of immersive technologies across various industries such as entertainment, education, culture, production, and similar.

Topics

SVWR 2025 seeks contributions in VR/AR/MR including, but not limited, the following areas:

Paper contribution areas

Research papers should provide contributions covering one or more of the following areas:

• Methodological: should describe advances in methods and theories of Virtual Worlds. This can include areas such as human factors, theories on presence, ethical issues, etc., covered in their research.

• Application: Describing how the authors expand the existing ideas and apply them to solve a Virtual Worlds problem through their unique approaches.

• Technical: Describing technological advancement in Virtual Worlds such as user interaction, input, etc., explored by the researchers.

• System: Describing how they have developed effective systems by implementing relevant Virtual Worlds technologies and techniques.

The papers should provide an evaluation of contributions made. This could include benchmarking, user studies, or comparison with existing techniques, methods, and systems.

Abstract submission

Please send the abstract of your Research, Project or Talk (max 300 words) including a brief bio of yourself and any of your team members to Dr Human Esmaeili by email: human.esmaeili@staffs.ac.uk.

Submission of papers

A selected number of submitted papers will have the opportunity to be published by the Journal of Virtual creativity in the special issue, ‘Impact of Virtual Worlds on Society and Communities’. For details regarding full paper submission, please visit: https://www.intellectbooks.com/virtual-creativity

For further inquiries, please contact Dr Human Esmaeili: human.esmaeili@staffs.ac.uk.

Comittee members

University of Staffordshire Games Institute

• Prof. Christopher Headleand (Head of Staffordshire Games Institute)
• Prof. Catherine Flick (Ethics and Games Technology)
• Dr. Daryl Marples (Games Psychology)
• Dr. Human Esmaeili (Games Art)
• Dr. Kieran Hicks (Game Design)
• Dr. Mathew Dalgleish (Games Design and Games Audio)
• Prof. Esther Maccallum-Stewart (Gender and Representation in Games Design)
• Matthew Novak (Senior lecturer in Games Art and Digital Capturing)
• Dr. Emma Fallows (Games Art)
• Dr. Andrew Wedgbury (Games Design)
• Dr. Sharon Coleclough (Games Design, Representation, and Sound)
• Dr. Chris Payne (Games Design and Games Audio)

Department of Creative Industries, University of Staffordshire

• Dr. Monireh Astani (Animation and Immersive Media)

Department of Art, Design and Media, Sunway University & Sunway Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage

• Delas Santano (Senior Lecturer in Audiovisual Communications and Production)