Exploring extended reality to support human memory at the AI Winter School
Author
Date 28 July 2025
Breeze (Baiyu) Chen, Masters Student at the UNSW node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S), recently participated in the AI for XR Winter School.
Hosted by the University of South Australia from July 14 to 18, the intensive 5 day program brought together a diverse cohort of researchers, students and industry experts to explore the cutting edge of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and eXtended Reality (XR).
The Winter School featured talks and workshops from leading institutions, including Google, Sony Computer Science Laboratories, University of Adelaide, RMIT University, University of Auckland and City University of Hong Kong. The event was designed to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration across AI, XR, cognitive science and human-computer interaction.
The program welcomed researchers and students from across Australia and beyond, offering a rich series of lectures that explored the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and eXtended Reality. Topics ranged from foundational XR principles to emerging areas like human-AI symbiosis, embodied agents, and cognitive augmentation.
Breeze, who is about to begin his PhD in Computer Science at UNSW, said the experience was inspiring.
“It was particularly thought-provoking for me as I prepare to begin my PhD, sparking a lot of reflection.” Breeze said
Breeze had the opportunity to lead a design team to prototype a lightweight augmented reality (AR) assistant that supports human memory in spatial environments.
Breeze’s team developed the mobile AR app prototype in Unity, and designed it explore how XR systems might support human memory in everyday contexts.
“The core idea is to reduce users’ cognitive load, by helping them offload medium-to-long-term spatial memories.” Breeze said.
“The current version runs on smartphones, and we see clear potential for extension to wearable headsets”
The design team included students from psychology, HCI, immersive tech, and computer science:
- Baiyu (Breeze) Chen, incoming PhD in CS, UNSW
- Yang Zhao, Master’s student in Immersive Tech, Uni Adelaide
- Elliot Howard, PhD in Psychology, Uni Adelaide
- Frederik Kalle, PhD in HCI/CS, UNSW
- Ishi Jamdagni, PhD in Psychology, Uni Adelaide
Breeze proposed the concept and spearheaded the Unity and AI development of the functional demo, which the team completed over just a few afternoons.
“It was both challenging and rewarding to quickly turn a research-driven idea into a functional prototype.” Breeze said.
The project group brought together early-career researchers from multiple disciplines, such as Computer Science, Immersive Technology and Psychology.
Beyond the technical workshops and project work, Breeze had the opportunity to connect with leading researchers in the field. such as Professor Mark Billinghurst and Dr. Yun Suen Pai.
“These conversations have really expanded my thinking about where AI and XR research is heading, and I feel more motivated than ever to contribute.” Breeze said.
Breeze received from the ADM+S HDR initiative to attend this Winter School.
