AI symposium, Bearcat AI Award

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AI & Emerging Technology Symposium, UC Bearcat AI Award,  

We are excited to share that two XR-Lab student fellows have been selected for the 2025–2026 Bearcat AI Award to support their cutting-edge research projects:

  • Mikhail Nikolaenko ($4,400) — Integrating Digital Twin and GPT for Sustainable Building Analytics and Green Design Education in DAAP and CEAS

  • Aayush Kumar ($5,000) — INARA (Intelligent Navigation and Autonomous Response Agent): An Adaptive Indoor Navigation Assistant for UC Spaces

These projects reflect the XR-Lab’s ongoing commitment to advancing AI-driven solutions in design, education, and campus experience. Congratulations to both recipients!

Other team memberes: Ming Tang, Semere Abraha, Sid Thatham.

The projects will be presetned at the UC 2026 AI & Emerging Technology Symposium

02/18/2026

AI-Based Spatial Computing with BIM: Performance, Sustainability, and Wayfinding on the UC Campus
This project introduces an AI-enhanced spatial computing framework that integrates building-scale digital twins with intelligent autonomous navigation. Using BIM-derived geometry and utility metadata, the system combines LLM-assisted building-performance analytics with predictive modeling to support sustainable operations across an interactive, campus-scale digital twin environment. In parallel, we present INARA, a ROS 2–based indoor navigation platform that merges BIM-accurate simulation environments with a hybrid deep-reinforcement-learning and classical-control architecture, enabling safe, adaptive mobile-robot navigation within UC facilities.

Together, these systems advance AI-driven spatial computing by unifying building analytics, embodied intelligence, and digital–physical interoperability—laying the foundation for next-generation smart-building management and autonomous robotic applications.

 

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