Overview
Background
Dr Nilufar (Nell) Baghaei is a Senior Lecturer 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.
She has built a strong national and international reputation through prolific publications in top-tier venues, editorial and leadership roles in major journals and conferences, 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: 2,600+).
Dr Baghaei is currently supervising 12 HDR students (7 as principal supervisor) and serves on several UQ committees. She is an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Virtual Reality, and Games for Health, and serves on the editorial boards and program committees for IEEE ISMAR, ACM CHI, Persuasive Technology, and several other international conferences.
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:
- Not available for supervision
- Media expert
Research interests
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Virtual Reality, Game-based Learning, AI in Education, Persuasive Technology
Research impacts
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EECS 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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Andrew Wong (my thesis student, co-supervised by 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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Yinshu Zhao (my PhD student) 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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Suki Zhang (my thesis student) 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
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
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
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
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
2023
Journal Article
Rehabilitation supported by immersive virtual reality for adults with communication disorders: qualitative study
Vaezipour, Atiyeh, Aldridge, Danielle, Koenig, Sebastian, Burns, Clare L., Baghaei, Nilufar, Theodoros, Deborah and Russell, Trevor (2023). Rehabilitation supported by immersive virtual reality for adults with communication disorders: qualitative study. JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies, 10 (1) e46959, e46959. doi: 10.2196/46959
2023
Conference Publication
Introducing shopper avatars in a virtual reality store
Schnack, Alexander, Zhao, Yinshu and Baghaei, Nilufar (2023). Introducing shopper avatars in a virtual reality store. 30th IEEE Conference Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR), Shanghai, China, 25-29 March 2023. Piscataway, NJ United States: IEEE. doi: 10.1109/vrw58643.2023.00274
2023
Journal Article
Preface to Adjunct Proceedings of the 18th International Persuasive Technology Conference
Koranteng, Felix N., Baghaei, Nilufar and Gram-Hansen, Sandra Burri (2023). Preface to Adjunct Proceedings of the 18th International Persuasive Technology Conference. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 3474.
2023
Conference Publication
Using blockchain to preserve Chain of Custody (CoC): cloud forensics analysis
Grabner, Georg, Ahmed, Ali and Baghaei, Nilufar (2023). Using blockchain to preserve Chain of Custody (CoC): cloud forensics analysis. 35th International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, SEKE, San Francisco, CA, United States, 1-3 July 2023. Skokie, IL, United States: Knowledge Systems Institute. doi: 10.18293/SEKE2023-038
2022
Conference Publication
Tools for animation and shape manipulation: a scoping review
Farzinnejad, Forouzan, Habibi, Jafar, Khezrian, Navid, Afshin Hemmatyar, Ali Mohammad and Baghaei, Nilufar (2022). Tools for animation and shape manipulation: a scoping review. 2022 IEEE Asia-Pacific Conference on Computer Science and Data Engineering (CSDE), Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, 18-20 December 2022. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/csde56538.2022.10089225
2022
Conference Publication
Comparing customer behaviours: immersive virtual reality store experiences versus web and physical store experiences
Erensoy, Aysu, Mathrani, Anuradha, Schnack, Alexander, Zhao, Yinshu, Chitale, Vibhav Sunil and Baghaei, Nilufar (2022). Comparing customer behaviours: immersive virtual reality store experiences versus web and physical store experiences. 2022 IEEE Asia-Pacific Conference on Computer Science and Data Engineering (CSDE), Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, 18-20 December 2022. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/csde56538.2022.10089288
2022
Conference Publication
Virtual reality stores: studies on shopper perceptions and behaviors
Zhao, Yinshu, Schnack, Alexander, Mathrani, Anuradha, Erensoy, Aysu, Chitale, Vibhav and Baghaei, Nilufar (2022). Virtual reality stores: studies on shopper perceptions and behaviors. 9th IEEE Asia-Pacific Conference on Computer Science and Data Engineering (CSDE), Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, 18-20 December 2022. Piscataway, NJ, United States: IEEE. doi: 10.1109/CSDE56538.2022.10089221
2022
Conference Publication
Enhancing customer experience, and brand awareness through familiar gameplay in advergames
Khezrian, Navid, Farzinnejad, F. and Baghaei, Nilufar (2022). Enhancing customer experience, and brand awareness through familiar gameplay in advergames. 9th IEEE Asia-Pacific Conference on Computer Science and Data Engineering (CSDE), Gold Coast, QLD Australia, 14-16 December 2022. Piscataway, NJ United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/csde56538.2022.10089272
2022
Journal Article
Games for mental health
Baghaei, Nilufar, Liang, Hai-Ning, Naslund, John and Porter, Richard (2022). Games for mental health. Games for Health Journal, 11 (6), 337-340. doi: 10.1089/g4h.2022.0199
2022
Conference Publication
Augmented reality applications in the classroom: Teachers' experience
Al Omair, Hajar, Mendoza, Antonette, Bodèn, Marie and Baghaei, Nilufar (2022). Augmented reality applications in the classroom: Teachers' experience. 30th International Conference on Computers in Education Conference, ICCE 2022, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 28 November - 2 December 2022. Jhongli City, Taiwan: Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Nell Baghaei is:
- Not available for supervision
Supervision history
Current supervision
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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
The Impact of AI-enabled Avatars on Body Ownership within Individualised Virtual Reality for Mental Health
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Julie Henry, Dr Jarrod Knibbe
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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
Engaging Senior Citizens with Cyber Safety through Educational Games
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Marie Boden, Dr Hassan Khosravi, Professor Jason Lodge
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Master Philosophy
Experience Saturation: Quantifying Demotivation and Disengagement
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Julie Henry, Dr Alina Bialkowski
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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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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
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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
Assessing prospective memory function in the actual and virtual world.
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Lena Oestreich, Dr Sarah Coundouris, Professor Julie Henry
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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
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
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