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Australian Research Centre for Interactive and Virtual Environments
Research impact

Research impact

Partnering with organisations worldwide, the Australian Research Centre for Interactive and Virtual Environments (IVE) at the University of South Australia brings together the unique alignment of computer science, engineering, neuroscience, art, architecture, and design to solve challenges for people, society, and industry.

Our research is conducted across a wide variety of industry sectors and we have an outstanding track record of successfully combining our research expertise and facilities in unique and custom ways that meet our partners' needs. We invite you to explore the below case studies to learn more about the impactful outcomes of our research.

For more information or to partner with us please email IVECentre@unisa.edu.au

Case studies

Artistic applications of imaging technologies lead to new discoveries and applications

By pushing the boundaries of fabrication possibilities, the production process for a new artwork has uncovered new digital fabrication solutions with wide-ranging applications.

Advancing Anthropometric Design

Designing spaces that maximise efficiency and improve habitability and functionality, adding value and impact by seamlessly incorporating applied anthropology and ergonomics.

Bolstering military training with cognitive neuroscience

We are examining real-time brain signal information of military personnel to inform new training approaches.

Delivering world-class innovation to the Hunter Class Frigate Program

The future of advanced manufacturing in Defence will be informed by data-driven decision making, facilitated by narrative visualisation and immersive technologies.

Revolutionising building inspections using Augmented Reality

We are bridging the gap between design and outcome in building construction with a bold new approach to detecting defects.

The virtual reality community: Overcoming isolation for older Australians

Tackling social isolation and loneliness with ground-breaking virtual reality (VR) experiences that allow people to feel like they are sharing the same environment.

Escape from the Gaol: AR Game Experience

Bridging the gap between imagination and reality to boost heritage tourism.

Empowering Naval Operations: The Evolution of Operator Combat Consoles

We are enhancing mental resilience and fostering swift response capabilities through refined design.

Providing new platforms for cultural heritage

We are preserving and re-presenting cultural heritage using immersive technologies that highlight how this important intergenerational knowledge can help tackle complex contemporary problems.

Sovereign Space: Maximising Aussie Assets

We are leveraging our unique position at the intersection of design, psychology, perception, and computer science to apply a human-centered design approach to what is traditionally perceived as a data science problem.

Women in Research

Women in Research Wednesday: Over the coming weeks, we will be spotlighting some of our amazing researchers in the Australian Research Centre for Interactive and Virtual Environments (IVE). Our researchers are inspiring, they are leading change, and they are positively changing the world.

Dr Julie Nichols

From Heritage to Futures: Reimagining Vernacular Architecture Through Collaborative Design with Dr Julie Nichols

What if the key to designing regenerative futures lies in the wisdom of human environments shaped by non-architects? Dr Julie Nichols is redefining architectural research by fusing cultural heritage, vernacular knowledge, and community-led design. As leader of the Vernacular Knowledge Research Group (VKRG), she collaborates with First Nations communities in Australia and in Indonesia to reimagine architecture as a responsive, ethical, and creative practice emergent from culture, place, people, and Country.

Her work is innovative, hands-on, and people-centred: blending architectural fieldwork, ethnography, and both digital and manual documentation to uncover the stories and knowledge embedded in buildings, landscapes, and traditions. From Designing on Country and Yarning methodologies to immersive “slow-drawing” cultural design studios, Dr Nichols transforms heritage into a living design tool for resilience and creativity.

Through this approach, she has reshaped disaster recovery and adaptive reuse projects, pioneering new ways of embedding cultural heritage into contemporary practice. Her groundbreaking frameworks — including pyro-vernacular studies and the Aceh Method — are gaining international recognition for showing how architecture can regenerate, heal, sustain, and inspire.

Dr Nichols demonstrates that architecture is more than buildings — it is relational. It is about people, memory, Country, and futures. Her research reveals how curiosity, cultural respect, and innovative methodologies can unlock deep knowledge, amplify community voices, and model new pathways for designing human environments in a changing world.

Dr Susannah Emery

Game Design, Social Change & Women in Research at IVE

Susie’s research explores how games and digital media can communicate across cultural and social divides — making them tools for empathy, education and equity. Driving social change through story and play, her work engages with issues like neurodivergence, gender equality, socio-economic barriers, and more. Intersecting tech, empathy and social justice, Susie is involved in a co-design project aimed at improving post-release outcomes for formerly incarcerated women.

Susie teaches the next generation of game creators and has been recognised for her work: winning the Women in Games Global Awards: Games or Esports Educator Award (2022), an International Women in Games Ambassador, and recipient of UniSA’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Award.

Susie’s journey highlights that you don’t have to follow the conventional path. You can be a researcher, designer, storyteller, advocate – all at once. Your voice, your ideas, your curiosity can disrupt, heal, teach and inspire.

Dr Emery’s journey highlights the power of mentorship, representation, and visibility in STEM. She reminds us that inspiring even one person can create ripples of change — especially in spaces where women have been historically underrepresented.

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Women in Research

Dr Julie Nichols

Dr Susannah Emery

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