Overview
Background
Dr Nilufar (Nell) Baghaei is an Associate Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at The University of Queensland, and Co-Director of the Mixed Reality Lab. She leads a high-impact, interdisciplinary research group focused on designing immersive technologies and games, and studying their effectiveness in improving health and education outcomes.
Dr Baghaei has built a strong national and international reputation through prolific publications in top-tier venues, editorial and leadership roles in major journals and conferences, securing more than $3M in successful external grants (as lead CI or technical lead CI), and successful supervision of research students (Google Scholar h-index: 28; citations: 2,900+). She is currently supervising 12 HDR students (6 as principal supervisor) and serves on several UQ committees. She was awarded the 2025 Faculty Research Excellence Award in the supervision category.
Dr Baghaei is an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Virtual Reality, and Games for Health Journal, and serves as the Organising Committee Member/Associate Chair for IEEE ISMAR and ACM CHI (A*-ranked conferences in immersive tech and HCI). She also acted as a Program Chair for the International Conference on Persuasive Technology in 2024 & 2022. Her research has been cited in policy and patent documents, and featured in media outlets including Psychology Today, MedicalXpress, and 7NEWS Australia. Prior to joining UQ, she led the Games and Extended Reality Lab at Massey University, New Zealand.
Availability
- Dr Nell Baghaei is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Research interests
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Virtual Reality, Game-based Learning, Digital Health, AI in Education, Persuasive Technology
Research impacts
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I was awarded the 2025 Faculty Research Excellence Award in the supervision category.
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My thesis student, Sarah Abdulkhalek, was named Valedictorian of the Class of 2025.
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EECS 2024 HDR awards: My PhD students, Vibhav Chitale and Achintha Abayasiri, were awarded the Most Innovative Thesis Topic (for a project on mobile games and mental health assessment) and Most Interesting Thesis Topic (for a project on VR visual illusions and balance) respectively.
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My thesis student, Andrew Wong (co-supervised by Dr Yinshu Zhao), won the Most Innovative Use of XR award at 2024 UQ innovation Showcase for his project on "Effects of Customised AI Shopping Assistant in Virtual Reality Shopping".
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Best Paper award - Honorable Mention for "Breaking the Isolation: Exploring the Impact of Passthrough in Shared Spaces on Player Performance and Experience in VR Exergames" IEEE VR (A*-ranked conference) 2024
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My PhD student, Yinshu (Claire) Zhao, won an Honorable Mention for best DC presentation at IEEE ISMAR 2023 (A*-ranked conference) for her project on "Impact of Avatars on Shoppers’ Perception and Behaviour in Immersive Virtual Stores".
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My thesis student, Suki Zhang, won the Most Innovative Use of XR award at 2023 Innovation Showcase for her thesis project on Juiciness in VR Exergames.
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Nominated for Best Paper award "Augmented Reality Applications in the Classroom: Teachers’ Experience", Al Omair, H., Mendoza, A., Boden, M., Baghaei, N., International Conference on Computers in Education (2022)
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Featured in Psychology today for VR and Mental Health project (published in JMIR 2021): New Research Finds Virtual Reality Can Help Treat Anxiety: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/urban-survival/202109/new-research-finds-virtual-reality-can-help-treat-anxiety https://www.massey.ac.nz/about/news/new-research-finds-virtual-reality-could-help-treat-anxiety/
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Nominated for Best Paper award "Persuasive Virtual Reality: Promoting Earth Buildings in New Zealand", Don Samarasinghe, Nilufar Baghaei and Lehan Stemmet, International Conference on Persuasive Technology (2020)
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Edu-games guru, Dr Baghaei talks to Careers with STEM about some of her research projects, challenges faced along the way and gives some advice to young women who want to learn about and pursue a career in ST (2018)
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Runner-up Award for leading a research project entitled “Feasibility of Diabetic Mario Mobile Game to Improve Diabetes Self-management”, funded by Health Research Council, in collaboration with the University of Auckland - Unitec (2017)
Works
Search Professor Nell Baghaei’s works on UQ eSpace
2024
Conference Publication
Effects of customizable intelligent VR shopping assistant on shopping for stress relief
Wong, Andrew, Zhao, Yinshu and Baghaei, Nilufar (2024). Effects of customizable intelligent VR shopping assistant on shopping for stress relief. 2024 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct (ISMAR-Adjunct), Bellevue, WA, United States, 21-25 October 2024. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/ismar-adjunct64951.2024.00069
2024
Conference Publication
Explorations in designing virtual environments for remote counselling
Cao, Jiashuo, Gao, Wujie, Pai, Yun Suen, Hoermann, Simon, Li, Chen, Baghaei, Nilufar and Billinghurst, Mark (2024). Explorations in designing virtual environments for remote counselling. 2024 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct (ISMAR-Adjunct), Bellevue, WA, United States, 21-25 October 2024. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/ismar-adjunct64951.2024.00070
2024
Conference Publication
AR comfort companions: exploring the role of anthropomorphic animals in alleviating stressful environments
Liu, Yifan, Cordeil, Maxime and Baghaei, Nilufar (2024). AR comfort companions: exploring the role of anthropomorphic animals in alleviating stressful environments. 2024 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct (ISMAR-Adjunct), Bellevue, WA, United States, 21-25 October 2024. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/ismar-adjunct64951.2024.00171
2024
Journal Article
Cyber security and privacy issues in extended reality healthcare applications: scoping review
Lake, Kaitlyn, Mc Kittrick, Andrea, Desselle, Mathilde, Padilha Lanari Bo, Antonio, Abayasiri, Rammuni Achintha Mihiran, Fleming, Jennifer Michelle, Baghaei, Nilufar and Kim, Dan Dongseong (2024). Cyber security and privacy issues in extended reality healthcare applications: scoping review. JMIR XR and Spatial Computing, 1 e59409, e59409-e59409. doi: 10.2196/59409
2024
Journal Article
Exploring the impact of user experience elements on virtual reality for emotion regulation through mVR-REAL app
Hamzah, Irna, Salwana, Ely and Baghaei, Nilufar (2024). Exploring the impact of user experience elements on virtual reality for emotion regulation through mVR-REAL app. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 15 (10), 256-263. doi: 10.14569/ijacsa.2024.0151028
2024
Journal Article
Enhancing emotion regulation through Virtual Reality Design Framework for Social-Emotional Learning (VRSEL)
Hamzah, Irna, Salwana, Ely, Baghaei, Nilufar, Billinghurst, Mark and Arsad, Azhar (2024). Enhancing emotion regulation through Virtual Reality Design Framework for Social-Emotional Learning (VRSEL). International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 15 (10), 264-272. doi: 10.14569/ijacsa.2024.0151029
2024
Journal Article
Receiving self-compassion in the virtual world: testing the potential value of biofeedback
Greig, Lachlan, Coundouris, Sarah P., Randhir, Swaraj, Henry, Julie D. and Baghaei, Nilufar (2024). Receiving self-compassion in the virtual world: testing the potential value of biofeedback. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 180 104596, 104596. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2024.104596
2024
Journal Article
Understanding the relationship between user game preferences and depressive symptoms: a pilot study
Baghaei, Nilufar, Abdulkhalek, Sarah, Moat, Kaitlin, Xu, Wenge and Liang, Hai-Ning (2024). Understanding the relationship between user game preferences and depressive symptoms: a pilot study. Games for Health Journal, 13 (4), 297-304. doi: 10.1089/g4h.2023.0174
2024
Book
Persuasive Technology: 19th International Conference, Persuasive 2024, Wollongong, NSW, Australia, April 10-12, 2024, Proceedings
Baghaei, Nilufar, Ali, Raian, Win, Khin Than and Oyibo, Kiemute eds. (2024). Persuasive Technology: 19th International Conference, Persuasive 2024, Wollongong, NSW, Australia, April 10-12, 2024, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.
2024
Journal Article
Breaking the isolation: exploring the impact of passthrough in shared spaces on player performance and experience in VR exergames
Guo, Zixuan, Wang, Hongyu, Deng, Hanxiao, Xu, Wenge, Baghaei, Nilufar, Lo, Cheng-Hung and Liang, Hai-Ning (2024). Breaking the isolation: exploring the impact of passthrough in shared spaces on player performance and experience in VR exergames. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 30 (5), 2580-2590. doi: 10.1109/tvcg.2024.3372114
2024
Conference Publication
Enhancement of co-located shared VR experiences: representing non-HMD observers on both HMD and 2D screens
Guo, Zixuan, Xu, Wenge, Wang, Hongyu, Wan, Tingjie, Baghaei, Nilufar, Lo, Cheng-Hung and Liang, Hai-Ning (2024). Enhancement of co-located shared VR experiences: representing non-HMD observers on both HMD and 2D screens. 2024 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), Bellevue, WA, United States, 21-25 October 2024. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/ISMAR62088.2024.00038
2023
Conference Publication
Creating a customer journey for immersive virtual reality shopping environments: investigating customer touchpoints and purchase phases
Erensoy, Aysu, Mathrani, Anuradha, Schnack, Alexander, Elms, Jonathan and Baghaei, Nilufar (2023). Creating a customer journey for immersive virtual reality shopping environments: investigating customer touchpoints and purchase phases. OzCHI '23: 35th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference, Wellington, New Zealand, 2 - 6 December 2023. New York, NY United States: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/3638380.3638383
2023
Journal Article
Virtual reality technology in the treatment of anxiety – progress and future challenges
Porter, Richard J, Beaglehole, Ben and Baghaei, Nilufar (2023). Virtual reality technology in the treatment of anxiety – progress and future challenges. Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 23 (12), 1-3. doi: 10.1080/14737175.2023.2289574
2023
Conference Publication
Exploring the transformative potential of virtual reality in history education: a scoping review
Zhang, Yalan, Ahmed, Ali, Liang, Hai-Ning and Baghaei, Nilufar (2023). Exploring the transformative potential of virtual reality in history education: a scoping review. 22nd International Conference, Sydney, NSW Australia, 26-28 November 2023. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8385-8_9
2023
Conference Publication
Virtual reality for social-emotional learning: a review
Hamzah, Irna, Salwana, Ely, Billinghurst, Mark, Baghaei, Nilufar, Ahmad, Mohammad Nazir, Rosdi, Fadhilah and Arsad, Azhar (2023). Virtual reality for social-emotional learning: a review. 8th International Visual Informatics Conference, IVIC 2023, Selangor, Malaysia, 15–17 November 2023. Singapore, Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-7339-2_11
2023
Conference Publication
Designing humanoid avatars in individualised virtual reality for mental health applications
Elliott, Thomas C., Henry, Julie D. and Baghaei, Nilufar (2023). Designing humanoid avatars in individualised virtual reality for mental health applications. 2023 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct (ISMAR-Adjunct), Sydney, NSW Australia, 16-20 October 2023. Los Alamitos, CA United States: IEEE Computer Society. doi: 10.1109/ismar-adjunct60411.2023.00069
2023
Conference Publication
Enhancing auditory immersion in interactive virtual reality environments
Kurucz, Peter, Baghaei, Nilufar, Serafin, Stefania and Klein, Eve (2023). Enhancing auditory immersion in interactive virtual reality environments. 2023 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct (ISMAR-Adjunct), Sydney, NSW, Australia, 16-20 October 2023. Piscataway, NJ, United States: IEEE. doi: 10.1109/ismar-adjunct60411.2023.00174
2023
Conference Publication
Visualising physiological cues in individualised virtual reality for mental health
Baghaei, Nilufar, Balakrishnan, Priyamvadha, Greig, Lachlan, Porter, Richard and Henry, Julie D. (2023). Visualising physiological cues in individualised virtual reality for mental health. IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct (ISMAR-Adjunct), Sydney, NSW, Australia, 16-20 October 2023. Piscataway, NJ, United States: IEEE. doi: 10.1109/ismar-adjunct60411.2023.00073
2023
Journal Article
Cheer for me: effect of non-player character audience feedback on older adult users of virtual reality exergames
Yu, Kangyou, Wen, Shaoyue, Xu, Wenge, Caon, Maurizio, Baghaei, Nilufar and Liang, Hai-Ning (2023). Cheer for me: effect of non-player character audience feedback on older adult users of virtual reality exergames. Virtual Reality, 27 (3), 1887-1903. doi: 10.1007/s10055-023-00780-5
2023
Journal Article
Individualized virtual reality for increasing self-compassion: evaluation study
Halim, Ilona, Stemmet, Lehan, Hach, Sylvia, Porter, Richard, Liang, Hai-Ning, Vaezipour, Atiyeh, Henry, Julie and Baghaei, Nilufar (2023). Individualized virtual reality for increasing self-compassion: evaluation study. JMIR Mental Health, 10 (1) e47617, e47617. doi: 10.2196/47617
Funding
Current funding
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Nell Baghaei is:
- Available for supervision
Looking for a supervisor? Read our advice on how to choose a supervisor.
Available projects
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Virtual Reality & Serious Games projects
- Virtual Reality and Mental Health - The goal of this project is to enhance self-compassion in people with depression using individualised virtual reality. Example (built in Unity): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po3GpcDLUpQ
- Virtual Reality and Education - The goal is to enhance people's education (in Construction, Australian history, maths or other fields) using virtual reality. A sample project (built using Unity): https://youtu.be/axpDf1d4X5k
- Games for Health - The goal of this project is to create mobile games (or build further on top of existing ones) to support people with different health conditions. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4zk6M3Ec5U
- Virtual Reality and shopping habits - The idea of this project is to use virtual reality to examine and experiment with people's shopping habits. Example (built in Unreal engine): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K32qXuUrE8Y
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
The Impact of AI-enabled Avatars on Body Ownership within Individualised Virtual Reality for Mental Health
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor James Kirby, Professor Julie Henry, Dr Jarrod Knibbe
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Doctor Philosophy
Enhancing Auditory Immersion in Interactive Virtual Reality Environments
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Eve Klein
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Doctor Philosophy
Effects of Virtual Perturbations and Visual Illusions on Gait and Balance
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Taylor Dick, Dr Antonio Padilha Lanari Bo
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Doctor Philosophy
Artificial Intelligence for Educational Feedback
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Marie Boden, Dr Hassan Khosravi, Professor Jason Lodge
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Doctor Philosophy
Experience Saturation: Quantifying Demotivation and Disengagement
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Julie Henry, Dr Alina Bialkowski
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Doctor Philosophy
Augmented Reality applications in the classroom
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Marie Boden
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Doctor Philosophy
NAVIGATEVR. Understanding age-related differences in hazard perception by leveraging insights from the virtual world.
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor James Kirby, Dr Sarah Coundouris, Professor Julie Henry
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Doctor Philosophy
The Use of Ethnochemistry Based Augmented Reality to Integrate Multiple Representations in Chemistry Classes and Its Influence on Indonesian Students' Mental Models
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Jack Wang, Professor Gwendolyn Lawrie
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Doctor Philosophy
Assessing prospective memory function in the actual and virtual world.
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Julie Henry, Dr Lena Oestreich, Dr Sarah Coundouris, Associate Professor James Kirby
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Master Philosophy
Influence of Healthcare Message Framing on Self-Directed Ageism and Emotional Wellbeing
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Sarah Grainger, Dr Sarah Coundouris, Professor Julie Henry
Completed supervision
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2025
Doctor Philosophy
The Impact of Avatar Design on User Experience and Shopping Behaviour in Immersive Virtual Stores
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Marie Boden
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2025
Doctor Philosophy
Exploring Mobile Games as Tools for Screening Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression: A Game Analytics Approach
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Ben Matthews, Professor Julie Henry
Media
Enquiries
Contact Dr Nell Baghaei directly for media enquiries about:
- Games for Health
- Immersive Technologies for Education
- Immersive Technologies for Health
- Persuasive Technology
Need help?
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