Dr. Mayra Donaji Barrera Machuca
Positions
Assistant Professor
Contact information
Location
Office: ICT755
For media enquiries, contact
For media related inquiries, please contact Colette Derworiz, Senior External Communications Advisor, at colette.derworiz@ucalgary.ca
Background
Educational Background
PhD Human Computer Interaction, Simon Fraser University, 2019
MSc Creative Media Technologies, University of Tasmania, 2014
Biography
Dr. Barrera Machuca is the lead of the Vertex Lab and an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary in Canada. Previously, she was an assistant professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Her current research includes understanding how people think spatially in virtual environments and quantifying the perceptual issues associated with extended reality (XR) technologies. Her research also involves incorporating novel input methods and feedback types into 3D user interfaces and designing innovative XR training systems. Dr. Barrera Machuca's work has generated considerable interest in the community, including winning the 2021 VGTC Virtual Reality Best Dissertation Award and the Faculty of Computer Science's Best Researcher Award at Dalhousie University.
Projects
I study the way people think spatially inside a virtual environment to develop XR user interfaces that reduce the user's spatial thinking cognitive load. I aim to characterize the advantages and disadvantages of working in an environment with 6DOF that users can control entirely.
I study how incorporating novel input methods and novel feedback types to XR user interfaces (UI) improve user experience and performance. We aim to develop novel UI that are useful from users with different skill levels. Current, work focus on designing multimodal interactions for 3D design that use novel input methods, e.g., eye-gaze and hand-gestures or feedback types, e.g., thermal feedback.
I study how people learn within immersive environments. I aim to design better XR training systems for high-accuracy and high-precision tasks.
I study the effects of XR technology on people's sensorimotor actions. I aim to evaluate how user performance is affected by the technology used to access XR, with a focus on perception issues. Current work focuses on the mislearning effect that occurs when people learn motor skills using the wrong perceptual information.
Awards
- Virtual Reality Best Dissertation Award, VGTC. 2021
- Best Researcher Award, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University. 2024
Are you the profile owner?
Login to edit.