(Press-News.org)
Lap Fai (Craig) Yu, Associate Professor, Computer Science, College of Engineering and Computing, and Joel Martin, Associate Professor, Kinesiology, College of Education and Human Development, received funding for the project: “EAGER: TaskDCL: Adapting Mixed Reality Training Programs to Real-World Scenes to enhance Human-AI Teaming in Emergency Responses.”
This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project funds research that intends to speed up the development of mixed reality and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to help first responders, aiming to reduce training-related risks and casualties.
The research team will work with the Fairfax Fire and Rescue Department to explore how AI can be used in mixed reality tools to improve training and effectiveness for first responders. By adding virtual elements like fires, hazards, firefighters, robots, and people in need of rescue to real-life scenes, these mixed reality scenarios help first responders practice handling real-world challenges through interactive training.
The project will also involve a postdoctoral researcher and undergraduate students, including those from underrepresented groups in science and technology fields. The team will share their findings at conferences focused on mixed reality and training.
This EAGER project offers a novel interdisciplinary research perspective by integrating concepts and techniques from mixed reality, AI, human-computer interaction, and movement science to advance first responder training.
The researchers aim to devise a novel optimization-based generative framework for adapting mixed reality training scenarios to real scenes, which will offer ample training opportunities for first responders to practice, accomplishing different first-responder tasks (e.g., firefighting, search and rescue) via human-AI collaboration enabled by mixed reality headsets.
To carry out the research, the team will first investigate how AI techniques could be integrated with mixed reality devices to provide first response assistance. The team will then devise a generative framework based on optimization techniques for adapting mixed reality training scenarios to real scenes. They will conduct user studies to evaluate the performance gain brought about by the advanced mixed reality interfaces and the synthesized training scenarios.
Yu received $299,861 from the National Science Foundation for this research. Funding began in Jan. 2025 and will end in late Dec. 2026.
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ABOUT GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
George Mason University is Virginia’s largest public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., Mason enrolls more than 40,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states. Mason has grown rapidly over the past half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity, and commitment to accessibility. In 2023, the university launched Mason Now: Power the Possible, a one-billion-dollar comprehensive campaign to support student success, research, innovation, community, and stewardship. Learn more at gmu.edu.
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HOUSTON and BEAUMONT, TEXAS ― In an effort to improve public health and reduce cancer risk in East Texas, leaders in Beaumont are working with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to launch Be Well™ Beaumont through a newly announced $10 million gift from ExxonMobil. Community members, collaborators and representatives from MD Anderson kicked off the 10-year initiative today in Beaumont.
Be Well Beaumont aims to promote wellness and to lower cancer risk among community members by providing them with cancer prevention education and tools. ...
The cause of rare diseases is increasingly being detected through genome sequencing, which involves reading the entire human DNA by first breaking it into small pieces—short reads. Christian Gilissen, Lisenka Vissers, and colleagues found that a new technique using long reads is even more effective at detecting complex causes. They report that eighty to ninety percent of cases were detectable, as stated in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
Rare diseases are typically due to genetic causes. These causes are more and ...
One supermassive black hole has kept astronomers glued to their scopes for the last several years. First came a surprise disappearance, and now, a precarious spinning act.
The black hole in question is 1ES 1927+654, which is about as massive as a million suns and sits in a galaxy that is 100 million light-years away. In 2018, astronomers at MIT and elsewhere observed that the black hole’s corona — a cloud of whirling, white-hot plasma — suddenly disappeared, before reassembling months later. The brief though dramatic shut-off was a first in black hole astronomy.
Members of the MIT team have now caught the same black hole exhibiting ...
New research identifies differing trends in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses among adolescents and adults, including an increase among adults from 2020 to 2023. The study, published in the American Psychiatric Association Journal Psychiatric Research and Clinical Practice, found a significant downward trends in ADHD incidence among adults from 2016 to 2020 and adolescents from 2016 to 2018. The ADHD incidence rate remained stable for adolescents in subsequent years.
ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder involving inattention and/or hyperactivity and impulsivity that interferes with a person’s functioning and ability ...
A new study shows that the risk of developing dementia anytime after age 55 among Americans is 42%, more than double the risk reported by older studies.
That dementia risk translates into an estimated half-million cases this year, rising to 1 million new cases a year by 2060, according to the new work. Dementia involves progressive declines in memory, concentration, and judgment. The increasing number of cases is directly tied to the aging of the U.S. population. Beyond aging, a high risk of dementia is linked to genetic factors, as well as high rates of hypertension and diabetes, obesity, unhealthy diets, ...
In brief
In their overview study, the team of researchers led by Russell McKenna identified 14 key impact categories of wind energy.
They provide possible solutions for the identified impacts and suggest research priorities. More than 400 studies were included in the analysis.
The review paper, recently published in the journal Joule, provides guidance for future studies and policy decisions.
What is the study about, and what is its core message?
Russell McKenna: The study looks at the impacts of wind energy on the systems in which it is embedded; whether environmental and climate systems, socio-economic, ...
About The Study: The results of this cohort study suggest that although children and young adults with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) can have severe disease during the acute phase, most recovered quickly and had a reassuring midterm prognosis.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Dongngan T. Truong, MD, email truongd@kidsheart.com.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.5466)
Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, ...
About The Study: The findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis highlight the burden of sexual violence against children worldwide based on current available evidence. There is a pressing need to enhance data collection efforts globally, especially in under-researched regions and for boys.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Antonio Piolanti, PhD, email antonio.piolanti@aau.at.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.5326)
Editor’s ...
HOUSTON ― Smokers undergoing lung cancer screening may have the best chance of quitting if they receive integrated care, which includes medication and comprehensive counseling with tobacco treatment specialists, according to researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The study results, published today in JAMA Internal Medicine, demonstrated that integrated care outperformed other cessation methods with a nearly two-fold improvement in the odds of quitting. In this randomized clinical trial of 630 current smokers who were eligible for lung cancer screening, over ...
“Microplastic particles are currently found almost everywhere – in water, food, fish, and even breast milk,” says Artūras Torkelis, a PhD student at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU). He emphasises that proper waste management is essential for reducing these risks.
The use of plastic in Europe has skyrocketed over the past decade. Recent statistics reveal that in 2021, each person in the European Union (EU) generated an average of 36 kg of plastic packaging waste. Of the more than 16 million tonnes of plastic packaging generated that year, only 6.5 million tonnes were recycled. Plastic recycling remains a serious problem. ...
