This past summer, the Virtual Embodiment Lab at Cornell University welcomed two undergraduate Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) students—Shayla Reid (’27, Mechanical Engineering) and Nalini Agnirothi (’28, Computer Science and Astronomy)—under the mentorship of Ph.D. student Kevin Martinez. Together, they spent ten weeks investigating how people connect through motion and speech in immersive virtual environments.

Left to right: Nalini Agnihotri, Shayla Reid, and Kevin Martinez pose in the VEL.

Their project, called the social leading study, examined communication between two people in a networked virtual setting. Each pair of participants engaged in a brief debate while connected through VR.

Reid and Agnirothi were deeply involved in designing and running the experiment. “Nalini and I were the coders,” Reid said. “We were modifying the Unity virtual environment that the participants would be in.” They added features such as a color wheel “to make the experience more personable and customizable.” Beyond coding, they recruited participants across campus, helped them get set up in headsets, and later analyzed their movement data. A paper describing the experiment is currently under review, and both Reid and Agnirothi are authors on that paper.

One of the most memorable experiences for both Reid and Agnirothi was attending the XR Access Symposium at Cornell Tech as volunteers. “We got to see other people in the VR accessibility field, try out different equipment, and learn more about how VR can be applied to accessibility. We even got to test a prototype for the virtual conferencing tool to make it more interactive,” said Reid. 

Agnirothi described the unique experiences they had at the conference. “It was really cool learning about new projects like Meta’s ARIA glasses, which are designed for people with low vision. They showed how someone could finally navigate a grocery store independently. Seeing technology aimed at accessibility made me realize how broad this field really is.”

Shayla Reid (first row, center) and Nalini Agnihotri (bottom row, far right) snap a pic with the other XR Access conference volunteers.

For Reid, the REU experience offered a new perspective on design and accessibility. “In one of my mechanical design classes, we talked about human-centered design—how what we build needs to be accessible for everybody,” she said. “Working with VR headsets and controllers helped me see how something that feels intuitive to me might not be for someone else. It changed how I think about designing interfaces.”

“As a mechanical engineer, we usually just sit behind the desk building things,” she said. “So it was nice to actually go out and talk to people.” She also appreciated the creative space the lab provided: “I liked how Professor Won and the grad students gave us room to explore what we liked. It made me feel like an actual researcher, not just an assistant.”

For Agnirothi, the summer marked her first deep dive into research. “I was hoping to get experience with something related to my field and to learn how research is conducted,” Agnirothi said. “Coming into the lab, I was just hoping for experience, but it was actually incredible. I got to see so many different parts of research.” She described the experience as “essentially like interning to be a Ph.D. student,” since she and Reid worked closely with Ph.D. student Kevin Martinez every day. 

Both students agreed that the mentorship and lab culture shaped their experience. “The lab culture is so welcoming and supportive,” Agnirothi said. “Everyone—from Professor Won to the grad students—was kind, understanding, and always willing to help. It made research feel exciting instead of intimidating.”