Featured Projects

Historic Avondale in VR

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Virtual Reality Development for Historic Avondale and Digital Heritage 

Principal Investigator (PI):  Anne Delano Steinert, Co-PI: Ming Tang. ($14,000 allocation to DAAP)
Society and Culture Grant, UC Research Office.  2026. University of Cincinnati. Timeline: 1/13/2026-07/01/2026 


Project Overview

The Historic Avondale Digital Heritage Project aims to create an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) reconstruction of Cincinnati’s historic Avondale neighborhood, focusing on cultural heritage preservation and community engagement. Through a collaborative effort between A&S and DAAP’s XR-Lab, the project will visualize approximately six urban blocks of Avondale as they appeared in a historically significant period in 1950s, enabling users to explore the environment through VR headsets and interact with its digital elements. 

This initiative supports experiential learning, public history dissemination, and digital preservation. The final VR experience will be designed for accessibility on standalone VR headsets (Meta Quest) and optimized for community outreach, classroom education, and museum-style exhibition. 

 

 Scope of Work

The Extended Reality Lab (XR-Lab) will lead the technical development, 3D modeling, and immersive environment creation. 
Specific responsibilities include: 

  • Environment Modeling: Develop a high-fidelity 3D digital model of approximately six blocks of historic Avondale, including building facades, streetscapes, and key landscape features based on historical references. 
  • Visual Assets: Integrate architectural elements, materials, vegetation, street furniture, and atmospheric lighting to accurately represent the period context. 
  • Immersive Interactivity: Configure the scene for full VR immersion, allowing users to navigate and interact using Meta Quest headsets. 
  • Narrative Integration: Collaborate with the A&S team to embed audio narratives, historical commentary, and interpretive storytelling within the VR experience. 
  • Optimization & Testing: Optimize performance for standalone VR headsets, conduct iterative testing, and ensure accessibility and stability for public demonstration. 
  • Deployment: Package and deliver a functional VR build ready for viewing via Meta Quest Browser or as an installable application. 

 Deliverables

  • VR Model of Historic Avondale – A completed, interactive VR environment covering approximately six city blocks. 
  • High-Fidelity Visual Assets – Accurately modeled architecture, landscape, and environmental elements. 
  • Integrated Audio Narratives – Recorded and embedded voiceovers provided by A&S collaborators. 
  • VR-Ready Application – Optimized and deployable version compatible with Meta Quest 3 headsets. 
  • Documentation Package – Summary of technical workflow, file structure, and recommendations for future updates or expansion. 

Figure 1. Coloraization of a historic photo with AI. Reality Capture. By student Edwina Adu Bimpong, Mario Bermejo.

Figure 2. video clips based on historic photo, using AI. 

Figure 3. AI-augmented reconstruction.

Student team: Braxton Xavier Bush, Nicholas R. Lysaght, Logan Aleczander Saylor, Lucas Frank Tereck, Lillian Denise Wick, Mario Bermejo, Edwina Adu Bimpong, Collin Andrew Bradley, Raamprakash Kalaiyarasan, Prize Mathew, and Bozhi Peng. Aayush Kumar as TA. 

THRED

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Technology for Health, Resilience, Equity , and Decision-Making 

Team: A&S: Kelly Merrill, Lauren Forbes, Briana Simms, Paris Wheeler, Diego Cuadros, DAAP: Ming Tang

Funding: Center for Clinical & Translational Science & Training. CCTST. Pilot Grant. $50,000. PI. Merrill, Forbes,  Co-I. Tang, Cuadros, Simms, Wheeler. 2026. University of Cincinnati.

Project Aims: 

Aim 1: Co-design a set of digital data governance policies that reflect Black community preferences, concerns, and expectations around the use of their digital health data.  

Aim 2: Assess the utility of digital twin technology (3D city modeling with VR) for community advocacy and population health-related objectives. 

Aim 3: Co-design and develop a community-driven, population health intervention and participatory planning tool. 

Ming Tang’s involvement in the human-centered digital twin can be traced back to his work at the MSU MIND Lab roughly two decades ago, and the THRED project builds directly on that foundation. There is also a clear conceptual link to HomeNetToo project then, where multiple interfaces—a standard web interface, a spatial interface, and an interpersonal interface—were developed to examine how different modes of interaction influence knowledge acquisition across varying cognitive styles. That early work established an important premise: the design of an interface fundamentally shapes how users interpret, understand, and engage with information.

THRED extends this line of inquiry beyond controlled experimental settings into a real-world, system-scale platform by integrating digital twins, and data-driven decision environments. Rather than comparing interfaces in isolation, it synthesizes them—bringing together spatial (3D environments), informational (data visualization and dashboards), and social (community and stakeholder engagement) interfaces into a unified ecosystem. In this sense, THRED represents a shift from experimental interaction design toward an applied, human-centered digital twin framework. It maintains continuity with earlier immersive technology research while significantly expanding its scope, enabling new forms of collective understanding, decision-making, and behavioral insight at urban and societal scales.

Adondale Digtal Twin (ADT) Prototypes

1. DATA VIZ ADT

mobile phone must be put in horizonal orientation in order to see buttons

Embeded example of  “DATA VIZ DT“. Full screen version click here. 

2. Social ADT

Social DT“. Embeded Version below. You can also check out the full screen version Here. 

 

Expalnination

screen shot of earlier versions. 

 

Exhibition: Views of Cincinnati & Ohio Valley

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Exhibition “Views of Cincinnati & Ohio Valley”

Location: Elevar Gallery, 555 Carr St., Cincinnati.
opening hours: May 1- June 27, 2025, Mon-Thu 9-5 pm, Fri 9-6:30 pm

The exhibition is supported by the Creative Asian Society and the ArtsWave Impact grant.

“Infinite Loop” reflects my interpretation of the Ohio Valley—an ever-shifting landscape shaped by both deep geological time and layers of human history. Inspired by the region’s porous limestone caves, exposed rock formations, and the powerful erosive force of the Ohio River, the sculpture evokes the continuous movement and natural evolution embedded in this terrain. The form, looping without a clear beginning or end, draws from the valley’s complex strata—both literal and metaphorical. It echoes the industrial legacy of Cincinnati: a city built along railroads, powered by migration, and continually transformed by waves of innovation, creativity, and technology. Each undulating surface captures a sense of motion and continuity, speaking to the rhythms of the river and the resilience of a city in flux. By blending references to natural erosion, flood, and industrial infrastructure, Infinite Loop invites reflection on how we shape—and are shaped by—the landscapes we inhabit. It is a meditation on flow, transformation, and the unbroken cycles that define both the Ohio River and the city of Cincinnati itself.

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SMAT: Scalable Multi-Agent AI for DT

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SMAT: Scalable Multi-Agent Machine Learning and Collaborative AI for Digital Twin Platform of Infrastructure and Facility Operations.

Principal Investigators:

  • Prof. Sam Anand, Department of Mechanical Engineering, CEAS
  • Prof. Ming Tang, Extended Reality Lab, Digital Futures, DAAP

Students: Anuj Gautam, Manish Aryal, Aayush Kumar, Ahmad Alrefai, Rohit Ramesh, Mikhail Nikolaenko, Bozhi Peng

Grant: $40,000. UC Industry 4.0/5.0 Institute Consortium Research Project: 03.2025-01.2026

Partner: Cincinnati Incorporated

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P&G VISM

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Project VISM (Virtual Interactive Simulation for Material customization)
Interactive Visualization with User-Controlled, Procedural-Based, and Physical-Based Material Customization.

PI. Ming Tang.

P&G Team: Kim Jackson, Andrew Fite, Fei Wang, Allison Roman

UC Team: Ming Tang, Aayush Kumar, Yuki Hirota

Sponsor: P&G. 12/01/2024 – 5/31/2025

Amount: $28,350

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