Research Labs & Initiatives

The XR Access Initiative is a community that engages, connects, and influences the field of XR, in order to build and share knowledge, skills, tools, user experiences, and leading practices to make XR inclusive of all, regardless of abilities. The Initiative aims to modernize, innovate, and expand XR technologies, products, content and assistive technologies by promoting inclusive design in a diverse community that connects stakeholders, catalyzes shared and sustained action, and provides valuable, informative resources.

The XR Collaboratory (XRC) at Cornell Tech works with faculty, researchers, and students from computer vision, computer graphics, and human-computer interaction, as well as practitioners in application areas such as healthcare, education, and architecture. XRC’s objective is to accelerate research & education in XR (augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality) through cross-campus collaborations, hands-on mentoring, and rapid research explorations.

The People-Aware Computing lab develops mobile sensing systems for capturing, learning, and interpreting people's context, activities, and social networks. Led by Dr. Tanzeem Choudhury, the lab focuses on wearable devices, behavior change technologies, and health apps to improve a user’s well-being and quality of life. Funding sources have included NIH, Intel, NSF, Google, Microsoft Research, and Samsung.

The MakerLAB provides easy access to fabrication tools that enable students, faculty, and the campus community to test-build their ideas from initial sketch to refined prototype. The full range of equipment and inclusive atmosphere accommodates everyone from master’s students creating hardware for embedded systems, to Cornell-Weill residents conducting clinical studies in health tech, to K-12 students experimenting with 3D printing for the first time.

As one of the best-equipped participant research labs in academia, this airy, flexible space hosts everything from interviews to design workshops to community engagement sessions and controlled studies. Directed by Tapan Parikh, the lab uses professional recording and lighting equipment, along with networked data storage, to produce high-quality, secure data. A sophisticated participant and recruitment management system also ensures researchers can conduct their work at a higher standard of efficiency.

Cornell Tech’s fully equipped robotics lab allows researchers to go beyond theory and conduct empirical testing and field research of the highest quality. Generous space, including a drone cage, and fabrication equipment give researchers all they need to build robots from scratch. The lab’s high-speed motion capture system facilitates advanced visualization and analysis — while our networked VR systems simulate complex human-robot interactions, including multi-person and cross-cultural studies.

Inspired by the core values of justice, democracy, privacy, responsibility, security, and freedom, DLI supports collaborative research projects that explore ethics, policy, politics, and quality of life within socio-technical systems. Directed by Helen Nissenbaum, DLI’s research has been covered by The New Yorker, CNN, The Washington Post, The Economist, Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, and other media.

In collaboration with the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence, CETA volunteers meet with survivors of intimate partner violence in person to uncover — and end — technology-related abuses they are experiencing. The clinic also facilitates cutting-edge research and advocates for laws that provide protection from technology abuse.

Directed by Wendy Ju, the Car Simulator Lab is one of the world’s leading sources of automotive interaction research and empirical on-road research. Highly advanced simulation equipment and on-site autonomous vehicles enable researchers to study driver and passenger behavior at a new level. Partners have included Toyota, Ford, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Renault, Intel, Panasonic, Accenture, Volkswagen, Volvo, and the World Economic Forum’s Global Autonomous and Urban Mobility Council.