Poster in Urban Affairs Conference

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Poster: Co-Designing Data Governance Policies for a Neighborhood-Based Digital Health Intervention

Lauren Forbes, ..Ming Tang. Co-Designing Data Governance Policies for a Neighborhood-Based Digital Health Intervention. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON URBAN AFFAIRS 2026.

Digital health innovations (DHI) present important opportunities to improve individual health outcomes and community well-being; however, they are typically developed by private sector innovators who prioritize the novelty of innovation and data-driven value creation over achieving health equity. Resultantly, Black lived experiences and perceptions of digital innovations are regularly overlooked in digital innovation development. This exclusion, exacerbated by the digital divide and place-based structural barriers, perpetuates racialized health inequities and widespread institutional mistrust among Black communities. In our study, we address these complex challenges through the question, “What are the digital data governance preferences of Black communities that should inform DHI development”? This question is the first of a broader study that seeks to generate a gamified DHI using “digital twinning” (3D, GIS based city modeling with virtual reality) for health outcomes improvement by integrating these community-driven data governance policies and fostering institution trust. We use mixed methods consisting of a longitudinal survey, listening sessions and focus groups, demonstration sessions, co-design hubs, and user-contributed Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) data to answer our questions and to test community perceptions of and experiences using the gamified DHI. By the time of this presentation, we anticipate having findings from the first survey, listening sessions, and focus groups along with preliminary community-driven data governance policies and a draft game design architecture. This interdisciplinary study represents a novel opportunity to not only improve health outcomes within marginalized communities, but also to repair institutional mistrust and foster digital literacy and agency through the co-design of digital data governance policies. 

More info on the project is available at THRED: Technology for Health, Resilience, Equity , and Decision-Making.

Poster in Creativity & Cognition

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VR as a Creative Medium for Immersive Storytelling: An Autobiographic Design Exploration

Bozhi Peng, Heekyoung Jung, Ming Tang, and Yoshiko Burke. 2026. VR as a Creative Medium for Immersive Storytelling: An Autobiographic Design Exploration. In Proceedings of the  Creativity & Cognition 2026 conference (C&C ’26,  London. UK. 2026). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1363–1370.  https://doi.org/10.1145/3803784.3816833

This project explores virtual reality (VR) as a creative medium for expressing personal memories through space, movement, and interaction, while evoking shared experiences. Using autobiographic and research through design approaches, three VR scenes were developed through iterative prototyping and first-person inquiry to investigate immersive storytelling. Guided by the framework of immersion, presence, and interactivity, the project examines how design decisions shape immersive experience in VR through the alignment of perception, embodied movement, and responsive interaction. The work demonstrates how personal memory can function as a generative resource for experiential storytelling rather than representational narration. It also reflects on the potential and limitations of autobiographic design as a method of creative inquiry in VR and identifies future directions for engaging collective and cultural memory through audience participation.

Besides the proceeding book, the publication is also included in the ACM Digital Library. 

 

Fourth Year @DF

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We are grateful to be recognized in Office of Research’s Digital Futures’ fourth-year celebration newsletter and honored to have the work of the XR-Lab highlighted alongside so many outstanding researchers and collaborators. Since the opening of the Digital Futures building, XR-Lab has been proud to be part of this vibrant community, which has created countless opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, student engagement, and impactful research that would not have been possible otherwise.

We would like to thank our industry partners—including Gensler, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati Insurance Companies (CIC), GRO Community, P&G, Kao, and Siemens—for their support on past projects and the exciting collaborations ahead. We also sincerely appreciate the support of our colleagues, partners, and the Digital Futures leadership team. We look forward to continuing to contribute to the Digital Futures mission through innovations in XR, Digital Twins, AI, and other emerging digital technologies that help address real-world challenges.

Housing Studio

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2026. Housing Studio. 

SAID, DAAP, UC

This studio will focus on a large-scale housing project on one of two linear sites in Cincinnati. The proposal centers on a 100-unit dense housing intervention integrated with shared amenities serving both residents and the surrounding urban community. Rather than creating a singular tower or landmark, the studio will explore low-rise, high-density housing strategies organized as a continuous “housing-scape” — a mat-building or field-condition approach to multiple dwelling units (MDUs).
In this studio, AI is explored not only as a visualization tool, but also as an analytical design agent for evaluating solar exposure, wind, noise, daylighting, and carbon-neutral strategies during the early stages of design. AI is also used to generate conceptual sketch models that support rapid design exploration and iteration.
 
 

Re-storying Fort Ancient

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Re-storying Fort Ancient: An AI-Augmented Digital Twin Installation for Indigenous Earthwork
PI: Ming Tang, Co-Is: John Hancock, Tianyu Jiang, Samira Sarabandikachyani. $5,000. CDRI Grant, DAAP, UC. 5/23/2026- 8/23/2026

This project proposes the development of an AI-augmented Digital Twin installation for the Fort Ancient Earthworks, a UNESCO World Heritage site in southern Ohio. Using reality capture, spatial computing, and Large Language Models (LLMs), the project will create an interactive web- and mobile-based experience that allows users to explore the site through immersive visualization and natural language conversation.

The project builds upon existing 3D earthwork models previously developed by CERHAS together with earlier XR-Lab spatial computing workflows. This foundation allows the team to focus on AI-driven interaction, interpretation, and public engagement without needing to reconstruct the site from the ground up. The AI system will be developed through a carefully curated Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) workflow using approved scholarly, archival, and Indigenous-informed materials as its knowledge base.

Users will be able to ask questions about the geometry, ceremonial purpose, astronomy, landscape design, and cultural significance of the earthworks while virtually navigating a Digital Twin of the site. The project approaches AI as a tool for interpretation and storytelling that can support more accessible and engaging public experiences with cultural heritage.

At the same time, the project explores broader questions about authorship, representation, historical interpretation, and the role of AI in public humanities and creative practice.