Steve Feiner Elected to the Inaugural Class of IEEE’s Virtual Reality Academy

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) has elected Steven K. Feiner, professor of computer science and director of the Computer Graphics and User Interfaces Lab, to the inaugural class of the IEEE Virtual Reality Academy. The IEEE Visualization and Graphics Technical Community, which promotes research in computer graphics, visualization, and virtual reality together with the application of these topics to science, engineering, business, and the arts, was established this year to recognize significant contributions and accomplishments of leaders in the virtual reality sector.

Feiner’s lab created the first outdoor mobile augmented reality system in 1996 and has pioneered experimental applications of augmented and virtual reality across many fields such as tourism, journalism, medicine, and archaeology. He won the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) 2018 Lifetime Research Award, the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality 2017 Career Impact Award, the IEEE VGTC 2014 Virtual Reality Career Award, and an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award.

The coauthor of two editions of Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice and of Introduction to Computer Graphics (Addison-Wesley), Feiner has also won multiple best paper awards with his students. He is a fellow of the IEEE and the ACM and a member of the Computer-Human Interaction Academy of the ACM.

The Academy’s first class of 49 scholars includes past and current awardees of VR Lifetime Achievement and Technical Achievement Awards. Nomination criteria includes cumulative and significant contribution to virtual reality research and/or developments, broader influence in the field and community, significant service and/or participation in the virtual reality community, and past virtual reality awards.