People

Director: Andrea Stevenson Won (she/her)

Andrea Stevenson Won directs the Virtual Embodiment Lab. The lab’s research focuses on how mediated experiences change people’s perceptions, especially in immersive media. Research areas include the clinical applications of virtual reality, and how nonverbal behavior as rendered in virtual environments affects collaboration and teamwork. Andrea Stevenson Won completed her Ph.D. in the Virtual Human Interaction Lab in the Department of Communication at Stanford University. She also holds an MS in Biomedical Visualization from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Lab Manager: Isabelle McLeod Daphnis (she/her)

After working in the VEL as an undergraduate, Isabelle McLeod Daphnis took on the role of Lab Manager. She works primarily on the companionship project, studying people’s experience of pain in virtual reality. She is particularly interested in children and VR and VR exposure therapy.

Affiliated PhD Students

Stephanie Belina (Communication)

Stephanie is a PhD student at Cornell University. Her research interests include social virtual reality, virtual environments with clinical applications, and health communication. In her free time, Stephanie enjoys testing new recipes in the kitchen and hiking outdoors.

Ria Gualano (Communication)

Ria is a PhD student at the Cornell Department of Communication. In 2022, she graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a B.A. in Psychology. Her research interests include XR accessibility, therapeutic applications of VR, and the psychological effects of avatar construction and embodiment. She enjoys creative writing, singing, and traveling.

Serena Guo (Information Science)

Serena is a PhD student in Information Science interested in blending the physical world with the virtual world through XR, to create innovative spatial experiences that foster understanding between people and our living environment. She holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Hong Kong and an M.Arch degree from Columbia University with an honor award for excellence in design. In her spare time, she enjoys exploring (cities, nature, books) and creating (design, art, food).

Angel Hsing-Chi Hwang (Communication)

Angel is a a human-computer interaction (HCI) researcher and Ph.D. student at Cornell University. Her research explores the role of ermerging technology in the future of (team)work, culture, and social interaction. She studies, design, and builds technology that can introduce greater creativity and inclusiveness to our future workplaces.

Yeonju Jang (Information Science)

Yeonju is interested in examining how the flexibility that extended reality (XR) provides, such as avatar presentation and spatial interaction, influences users’ perceptions and behavior, by using behavioral data. Born and raised in Korea, Yeonju is excited to experience the culture of the states and experiment with American sports!

Hyunju Kim (Information Science)

Hyunju is a PhD student in Information Science focusing on Extended Reality, human-computer interaction, and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work(CSCW). She earned her undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering, and master degree in Culture Technology. Prior to Cornell, she worked as a research assistant at AI & Robot Institute at Korea Institute of Science and Technology.

Jonathan Segal (Information Science)

Jonathan is an Information Science Ph.D. student at Cornell, working with Dr. Susan Fussell and Dr. Andrea Stevenson Won. Before coming to Cornell, he received his B.S. in Software Engineering at Iowa State University, where he did research under Dr. Michael Dorneich and Dr. Stephen Gilbert. He is interested in building a better understanding of virtual and augmented environments. The broadening of our understanding of the digital and tangible through computer-aided design can allow us to create a more accessible, productive, and fun world. Outside of school he enjoys photography and running.

Cheng Yao (Eric) Wang

Eric Wang is a Ph.D. candidate in Information Science at Cornell University, advised by Prof. Andrea Stevenson Won. Previously, he was a research intern at Autodesk, Microsoft Research, and Facebook Reality Lab. He has a B.S and M.S. in Computer Science from National Taiwan University, advised by Prof. Mike Y. Chen and Prof. Bing-Yu Chen. His research interests lie at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), and Virtual/Mixed Reality (VR/MR).

Current Research Assistants
Heysil Baez
Ava Cohen
Stella Dong
Krisha Jivani
James Koga
Isabella (Izzy) LaHaye
Clara Lee
Ester Li
Chuanrui Liu
Jhovanna Perez
Akshaya Raghavan
Samuel Rodriguez
Krupa Sekhar
Rimjhim Singh
Ke Wu
Yuqing Wu
David Yang
Wei Yang
Yejoon Yoo
Qinyue Yu
Kexin Zhang

Lab Alumni
Brianna Bambic
Julie Cannon (PhD, Communication)
Elif Celikors
Carmen Chan
Melody Chen
Emily Chin
Yejeong Choi
Tomasz Chmielewski
Diya Copra-Malik
Lily Croskey-Englert
Caley Drooff
Dan Gastin
Karen Felix
Carlos Fernandez
Annie Fu
Vera Gaddi
Nahbuma Gana
Irena Gao
Xing Gao
Viridiana Garcia
Selby Garner
Akhil Gopu
Mengjia (Becca) Guo
Ningxuan He
Madison Heck
Benji Hofing
Dana Hsiao
Lauren Hsu
Michael Huang
Julia Joseph
Milos Kartalija (Communication honors thesis)
Shayra Kamal
Alice Kang
Eshaan Kaul
Meredith Keller
Connor Lapresi
Byungdoo Kim (Communication, PhD)
Jane Kim
Kevin Kim
Sang Min Kim
Yun Mi Koh
Kaylee Kruzan (PhD, Communication)
Kevin Lam
Mary Le (MPS in Information Science)
Daniel Lee
Esther Lee
Julie Lee
Kathy Lee
Min Lee
Serena Seo Hyon Lee (MS, Human Factors and Ergonomics)
Clarissa Lee-Ngai
Joshua Levine
Xinhe Lian (MPS in Information Science)
Tongtong Lian
Hank Lin
Kristi Lin
Jing Liu
Elan Loeb
Darra Loganzo
Tao Long
Bradlee Lord
Jack H Madden (PhD, Astronomy)
Anirudh Maddula
Jessica Mandel
Cameron McKee
Oana Mirestean
Tiamen Montgomery
Claudia Morris
Jun Rong Jeffrey Neo (PhD, Human Behavior and Design)
Nayana Palanivel
Swati Pandita
SoYee Park
Amy Perelberg
Elena Piech
Marcus Posey
Daniel Ra
Hal Rives
Frank Rodriguez
Gabrielle Roitman
Natasha Rojas
Piero Salas-Allende
Sebastian Scales
Michael Schwartz
Juliana Silva
Sydney Smith
Rachel Song
Sandhya Sriram
Tristan Stone
Shreya Subramanian
Daphne Sun
Yilu Sun (MPS, Information Science)
Nicole Tan
Neta Tamir
Daniel Tagle
Mariel Terr
Juliane Tsai
Albert Tsao
Dwyer Tschantz
Terrance Vallery Jr.
Aishwariyah Vimal
Janie Walter
Yifei Wang
Jason Wu
Loki Wu
Yutong (Jasmine) Wu
Jessie Yee
Cynthia Yue
Leezel Zamidar
Congcong Zhang
Shuo (Vivien) Zhou
Yutong Zhou
Joshua Zhu (Communication honors thesis)