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Metaverse of Simpson’s Victory City Reconstruct & Reimaging of Orville Simpson’s Vision of Urban Futures using AI

Ming Tang. $4500. Supported by SAID Simpson Urban Futures Grant Program. UC. 8. 2026-8. 2027

This project works on the AI-creation of an online Metaverse by reconstructing and reimaging Orville Simpson’s visionary “Victory City.” Using archival materials from the Simpson Collection—including drawings, paintings, and manuscripts—the project will generate digital interpretations of Simpson’s future city through AI-assisted visualization and 3D modeling. The platform will allow users to explore a multiplayer virtual city accessible through web browsers, mobile devices, and VR headsets. In addition to a virtual reconstruction of Victory City, the project will include a digital gallery presenting Simpson’s archival works and a digital installation at the Simpson Center, reintroducing Simpson’s ideas as a contemporary dialogue on sustainable urban futures.

The goal of this project is to translate Simpson’s visionary urban concepts into an interactive 3D digital environment that allows the public to experience and interpret his ideas spatially. Although Simpson’s online archive contains extensive drawings and models, these materials remain largely static. This project transforms them into an immersive platform where users can explore the spatial logic of Victory City. The project emphasis: 

  • AI-assisted visualization: generative AI tools will be used to produce architectural imagery, animations, and 3D models inspired by Simpson’s designs.
  • Construction of a Metaverse environment: a browser-based immersive environment will be developed to represent major elements of Victory City, including the central 102-story tower and the larger metropolitan system described in Simpson’s writings.

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.

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Metaverse: Gen-AI + WebXR

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Two UC teams won the second and third place and cash awards of Viverse Spark Global University Challenge ! Metaverse through Web XR, Socical Expereince Category Awards:

2nd  Place, $2,500.  – Restaurant world, University of Cincinnati. Camryn Lansdell, Liv Adkins, Bekah Selent, Morgan Pascarella. 

3rd Place, $1,500 – OTR 12th and Vine, University of Cincinnati. Eian Bennett, David David, Corban McIntosh, Dharma Patel, Erik Mathys

Read more at HTC VIVERSE Hits 1 Million Users, Announces Winners of First Global “Spark” Hackathon: Games, Immersive Storytelling, Social Experiences

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SENSE + AI

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ARCH 4001 studio. Fall 2025. DAAP. University of Cincinnati

SENSE: Spatial Experiences for Narrative and Sensory Emotions with AI-Assisted Design

Museum concept by UC student Dwayne CarterEmma CekCourtney Reese. Fall. 2025

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paper on AI, XR, Metaverse, Digital Twins

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Metaverse and Digital Twins in the Age of AI and Extended Reality

Tang, Ming, Mikhail Nikolaenko, Ahmad Alrefai, and Aayush Kumar. 2025. “Metaverse and Digital Twins in the Age of AI and Extended Reality” Architecture 5, no. 2: 36. https://doi.org/10.3390/architecture5020036

 

This paper explores the evolving relationship between Digital Twins (DT) and the Metaverse, two foundational yet often conflated digital paradigms in digital architecture. While DTs function as mirrored models of real-world systems—integrating IoT, BIM, and real-time analytics to support decision-making—Metaverses are typically fictional, immersive, multi-user environments shaped by social, cultural, and speculative narratives. Through several research projects, the team investigate the divergence between DTs and Metaverses through the lens of their purpose, data structure, immersion, and interactivity, while highlighting areas of convergence driven by emerging technologies in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Extended Reality (XR).This study aims to investigate the convergence of DTs and the Metaverse in digital architecture, examining how emerging technologies—such as AI, XR, and Large Language Models (LLMs)—are blurring their traditional boundaries. By analyzing their divergent purposes, data structures, and interactivity modes, as well as hybrid applications (e.g., data-integrated virtual environments and AI-driven collaboration), this study seeks to define the opportunities and challenges of this integration for architectural design, decision-making, and immersive user experiences. Our research spans multiple projects utilizing XR and AI to develop DT and the Metaverse. The team assess the capabilities of AI in DT environments, such as reality capture and smart building management. Concurrently, the team evaluates metaverse platforms for online collaboration and architectural education, focusing on features facilitating multi-user engagement. The paper presents evaluations of various virtual environment development pipelines, comparing traditional BIM+IoT workflows with novel approaches such as Gaussian Splatting and generative AI for content creation. The team further explores the integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) in both domains, such as virtual agents or LLM-powered Non-Player-Controlled Characters (NPC), enabling autonomous interaction and enhancing user engagement within spatial environments. Finally, the paper argues that DTs and Metaverse’s once-distinct boundaries are becoming increasingly porous. Hybrid digital spaces—such as virtual buildings with data-integrated twins and immersive, social metaverses—demonstrate this convergence. As digital environments mature, architects are uniquely positioned to shape these dual-purpose ecosystems, leveraging AI, XR, and spatial computing to fuse data-driven models with immersive and user-centered experiences.
 
Keywords:  metaverse; digital twin; extended reality; AI

The paper is features in the Architecture journal cover page.