DOE Award: Genesis Mission

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 I am very excited to share that UC grant proposal, “AI-Enabled Prediction of Coupled Hydrologic and Biogeochemical Processes in Heterogeneous Subsurface Systems,” has been selected for the U.S. Department of Energy’s initiative to accelerate scientific breakthroughs through artificial intelligence. 

DOE Phase 1: The Genesis Mission: Transforming Science and Energy with AI.
Award Amount: $574,012
Project Period: 09/01/2026–05/31/2027
PI: Reza Soltanian, Co-I: Ming Tang
Partner Institutions: New Mexico State University (NMSU), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and Certerra Subsurface Imaging.

Quoted from UC News: UC selected for federal initiative to use AI to advance scientific discovery. Project will develop new workflows for energy and environmental applications

The University of Cincinnati has been selected to participate in the U.S. Department of Energy’s new national initiative designed to accelerate scientific discovery through artificial intelligence. 

Led by Reza Soltanian, professor of subsurface energy and hydrogeology in UC’s Department of Geosciences, the multidisciplinary project will develop next-generation AI-enabled scientific workflows and digital twins that integrate geological information, advanced geophysical imaging, field observations, physics-based simulations and AI surrogate models to characterize and predict complex subsurface systems.

The UC-led team brings together expertise in hydrogeology, hydrobiogeochemistry, geophysics, artificial intelligence, numerical and surrogate modeling, advanced subsurface imaging and extended reality. The collaboration includes Ming Tang, professor in UC’s School of Architecture and Interior Design and director of the Extended Reality Lab at UC Digital Futures, along with researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, New Mexico State University and industry partner Certerra Subsurface Imaging.

“The Department of Energy’s selection of this project reflects the strength of UC’s growing artificial intelligence ecosystem,“ Interim Vice President for Research Frank Gerner said.

“Through investments in initiatives such as Digital Futures and the Advanced Research Computing Center, we have created an environment where researchers can combine expertise in AI, data science and domain-specific scholarship to address complex challenges. Professor Soltanian and Professor Tang’s work demonstrate how these capabilities are advancing scientific discovery in ways that can have lasting impact on our energy and environmental future.“

 

paper in Environments Journal

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Toward Sub-Sewershed Spatio-Temporal Wastewater Surveillance: A Critical Review and a Candidate Multimodal Foundation-Model Framework

Cuadros, Diego F., Xi Chen, and Ming Tang. 2026. “Toward Sub-Sewershed Spatio-Temporal Wastewater Surveillance: A Critical Review and a Candidate Multimodal Foundation-Model Framework” Environments 13, no. 7: 382. https://doi.org/10.3390/environments13070382

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has matured into a population-level surveillance complement with operational precedent in poliovirus environmental surveillance, institutionalised systems for SARS-CoV-2, and expanding evidence across respiratory pathogens, substance-use markers, and antimicrobial-resistance targets at uneven maturity. The unresolved problem is specific: sub-sewershed spatio-temporal inference under sewer-network and observational aggregation. Intra-catchment heterogeneity, hydraulic dynamics, and equity-relevant population differences can all be obscured by aggregate-scale modelling. Current artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) methods in WBE can be organised into four threads: temporal forecasting, spatial–statistical localisation, sewer-network and hydraulic transport, and cross-site transfer. These methods solve useful parts of the surveillance problem at the scales they target, but they do not yet supply transferable latent sub-sewershed representations under downstream aggregation. This review proposes a candidate multimodal foundation-model framework that treats place and time as jointly learnable entities, integrates a graph backbone over the sewer-network topology, incorporates physics-informed constraints, and embeds equity-conscious downstream validation as a design requirement. The framework is intended to make sub-sewershed hypotheses explicit, testable, uncertainty-bounded, and accountable to environmental-justice-relevant external validation. Whether those hypotheses survive empirical testing remains an open question.

Figure 1. The aggregation problem at the sub-sewershed scale.

Podcast: episode of Innovation By Design

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Podcast:  Designing with Immersion: Storytelling, Training, and Spatial Understanding

In this episode of Innovation By Design, Evan Troxel and Candace Kitchen talk with architect and educator Ming Tang, director of the XR Lab at the University of Cincinnati, about extended reality and the rapidly changing tools that make immersive experiences more accessible than ever.

Ming breaks down the differences between VR, AR, and mixed reality, shares the origin story of their own journey from early CAD and 3D rendering to immersive media, and explains why embodied, interactive experiences can communicate spatial intent in ways 2D drawings and screens cannot.

The conversation also introduces the D‑I‑C‑E framework (Dangerous, Impossible, Counterproductive, Expensive) for deciding when digital simulation is the right tool. 

  • Defining XR: VR vs AR vs mixed reality, and why the boundaries often blur in practice
  • VR for egress, fire/smoke, and safety training (and how behavior can differ from the real world)
  • Creation workflows: 3D modeling → Unity/Unreal → deploy to headsets
  • Storytelling, memory, and historic reconstruction in immersive media (including generative AI support)

Audio posdcast at Innovation by Design,  a podcast that explores the ideas, people, and technologies shaping the AEC industry. Each episode features conversations with forward-thinking architects, designers, engineers, and industry leaders who are redefining how spaces are imagined, constructed, and experienced.

Thanks Eddie J. Baranek and Michelle M. Bassett at Bassett Strategic Communication and Marketing to organize the recording. Please visit their channels at

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/totaldoorsystems/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TotalDoor1

 

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.