Dr. Sharad Sharma, Professor of Data Science and Director of the Data Visualization and Extreme Reality (DVXR) Lab at UNT, currently holds six active grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). This summer, he worked with fourteen students in the DVXR Lab on various research projects, which include Ph.D., master’s, undergraduate, and Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS) high school students.

Current projects include:

• Mobile Augmented Reality Application (MARA) for Emergency Response and Building Evacuation: Students involved: Alwin Prabu, Suruthi Selvam, and Rishitha Reddy Pesaladinne. This project develops an AR application that supports emergency response and navigation both indoors and outdoors. MARA uses feature extraction for indoor location sensing to deliver critical evacuation and navigation information, aiding decision-making during emergencies. MARA applications has been tested on HoloLens 2, Magic Leap2, MetaQuest 3, Smart Phones, and Tablets. More info here.
• Active Shooter Response Modules for Training and Decision Making: Students involved: Pranav Moses and Nanda Gowri Ganta. This NSF funded project incorporates an immersive collaborative virtual environment (CVE), created for UNT’s Discovery Park, utilizes tools like the MetaQuest 3 to provide a fully immersive campus experience. It enhances emergency response training with AI and user-controlled agents and offers cost-effective, stress-free campus navigation and emergency drills. More info here.
• Virtual AI Tutor Using Generative AI: Students involved: Kavya Parvathapuram and Alwin Prabu. This project aims to design and develop an AI tutor for on-demand, interactive tutoring in courses such as Introduction to Data Science and Introduction to Computation with Python. By integrating ChatGPT for voice interaction and realistic VR features, the AI tutor enhances accessibility and effectiveness in educational support. More info here.
• Geospatial Mobile Application for Navigation and Emergency Response: Students involved: Andrew Summitt, Archith Sharma, Jason Sha, and Aditya Udayasekar this project uses Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles and Cesium for Unity to develop an AR application for navigation and emergency response on the UNT campus. It combines Cesium’s 3D geospatial capabilities with the Unity ecosystem. More info here.
• iHARP - NSF HDR Institute for Harnessing Data and Model Revolution in the Polar Regions: Students involved: Alwin Prabu, Andrew Summitt, and Archith Sharma. This project is part of 13 Million dollars NSF HDR institute: iHARP grant. This work develops integrated tool suite for enhancing situational awareness, accessibility, and understanding of science data connected with Arctic science using virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies. This work designs, develops, and evaluates AR/VR tools to explore, label, and annotate, using tablets, mobile devices, Meta Quest 3, and HoloLens. More info here.
• Digital Twin for Exercise Techniques and Rehabilitation: Students involved: Ian Abeyta, Jason Weinstein. The goal of this project is to improve exercise technique and prevent injuries by integrating a human digital twin with a multi-sensor device to monitor human biomechanics. Unity 3D & Mixamo are used to visualize each joint as the rigging set-up for 3D animation. Sensor data is obtained from prototype hardware technology that integrates 3 accelerometers attached to the joint centers of the hip, knee and ankle designed to capture the complex dynamics of human motion in real-time. More info here.
• HoloLens Applications for Spatial Analysis, Building Evacuation, and Crime Analysis: This research, involving students Alwin Prabu and Rishitha Reddy Pesaladinne, explores the use of Microsoft HoloLens for building evacuation and crime analysis. We visualize the crime data for four different cities: Chicago, Baltimore, Dallas, and Denton through the use of mixed reality (MR) devices such HoloLens 2 for data analysis. The work supports data visualization, immersive 3D model viewing, and architectural form visualization, improving spatial awareness and cognitive mapping. More info here.

In conclusion, Dr. Sharad Sharma's research, supported by active NSF grants (Award Numbers: 2319752, 2437481, 2118285, 2321539, 2321574, and 2022981), showcases the innovative work being done in the DVXR Lab at UNT. These projects not only advance emergency response and educational technologies but also enhance spatial awareness and data visualization. For more details about the awarded grants and further information on the DVXR Lab, please visit https://dvxr.unt.edu/.