Dr Nell Baghaei
Dr

Nell Baghaei

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Background

Dr Nilufar (Nell) Baghaei is a Senior Lecturer within the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at The University of Queensland and the Co-Director of the Mixed Reality Lab. Her research interests are Virtual Reality, Game-based Learning, AI in Education and Persuasive Technology (Google Scholar h-index: 26, citations: ~2300). She is an Associate Editor of Int Journal Human-Computer Studies, Virtual Reality and Games for Health, and is on the Editorial Board/Programme Committee of several other journals and international conferences. She was one of the Programme Chairs for the International Conference on Persuasive Technology 2024. Dr Baghaei is supervising a number of HDR students on Games and VR related topics and sits on various UQ committees. Before joining UQ, she directed the Games and Extended Reality Lab at Massey University, New Zealand, and held multiple leadership positions in the ITP sector. Prior to that, she was a researcher at CSIRO.

Availability

Dr Nell Baghaei is:
Available for supervision
Media expert

Research interests

  • Virtual Reality, Game-based Learning, AI in Education, Persuasive Technology

Research impacts

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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)

  • 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/

  • 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)

  • 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)

  • 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)

Search Professor Nell Baghaei’s works on UQ eSpace

135 works between 2004 and 2025
All (135) Journal Article (45) Book Chapter (3) Conference Publication (84) Book (2) Edited Outputs (1)

41 - 60 of 135 works

2022

Journal Article

Extended reality for mental health evaluation —a scoping review

Omisore, Olatunji, Odenigbo, Ifeanyi, Orji, Joseph, Beltran, Amelia, Orji, Rita, Baghaei, Nilufar and Sandra, Meier (2022). Extended reality for mental health evaluation —a scoping review. JMIR Serious Games, 6 e38413, 1-21. doi: 10.2196/38413

Extended reality for mental health evaluation —a scoping review

2022

Journal Article

Ready Player Two: A randomized controlled pilot trial investigating the feasibility of using games to improve healthy lifestyle knowledge in youth (9-16 years) at risk for type two diabetes

Maddison, Ralph, Baghaei, Nilufar, Calder, Amanda Jane, Murphy, Rinki, Parag, Varsha, Heke, Ihirangi, Dobson, Rosie and Marsh, Samantha (2022). Ready Player Two: A randomized controlled pilot trial investigating the feasibility of using games to improve healthy lifestyle knowledge in youth (9-16 years) at risk for type two diabetes. JMIR Formative Research, 6 (6) e33089, e33089. doi: 10.2196/33089

Ready Player Two: A randomized controlled pilot trial investigating the feasibility of using games to improve healthy lifestyle knowledge in youth (9-16 years) at risk for type two diabetes

2022

Conference Publication

PassImg: a secure password generation and management scheme without storing

Yin, Yuhua, Jang-Jaccard, Julian and Baghaei, Nilufar (2022). PassImg: a secure password generation and management scheme without storing. 2022 IEEE 25th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design (CSCWD), Hangzhou, China, 4-6 May 2022. Piscataway, NJ USA: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/CSCWD54268.2022.9776045

PassImg: a secure password generation and management scheme without storing

2022

Journal Article

A systematic and comparative review of behavior change strategies in stress management apps: opportunities for improvement

Alhasani, Mona, Mulchandani, Dinesh, Oyebode, Oladapo, Baghaei, Nilufar and Orji, Rita (2022). A systematic and comparative review of behavior change strategies in stress management apps: opportunities for improvement. Frontiers in Public Health, 10 777567, 1-19. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.777567

A systematic and comparative review of behavior change strategies in stress management apps: opportunities for improvement

2022

Journal Article

Editorial: virtual reality and mental health: opportunities to advance research and practice

Baghaei, Nilufar, Liang, Hai-Ning, Billinghurst, Mark, Naslund, John and Oyekoya, Oyewole (2022). Editorial: virtual reality and mental health: opportunities to advance research and practice. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 3 838036, 1-3. doi: 10.3389/frvir.2022.838036

Editorial: virtual reality and mental health: opportunities to advance research and practice

2022

Conference Publication

Designing and implementing individualized VR for supporting depression

Halim, Ilona, Baghaei, Nilufar, Stemmet, Lehan, Billinghurst, Mark and Porter, Richard (2022). Designing and implementing individualized VR for supporting depression. IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR), Onnline, 12-16 March 2022. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/VRW55335.2022.00052

Designing and implementing individualized VR for supporting depression

2022

Edited Outputs

Persuasive Technology : 17th International Conference, PERSUASIVE 2022, Proceedings

Baghaei, Nilufar, Vassileva, Julita, Ali, Raian and Oyibo, Kiemute eds. (2022). Persuasive Technology : 17th International Conference, PERSUASIVE 2022, Proceedings. 17th International Conference, PERSUASIVE 2022, Online, 29–31 March 2022. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

Persuasive Technology : 17th International Conference, PERSUASIVE 2022, Proceedings

2022

Journal Article

Preface

Baghaei, Nilufar, Vassileva, Julita, Ali, Raian and Oyibo, Kiemute (2022). Preface. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), 13213 LNCS, v-vi.

Preface

2022

Book

Persuasive Technology: 17th International Conference, PERSUASIVE 2022, Virtual Event, March 29–31, 2022, Proceedings

Nilufar Baghaei, Julita Vassileva, Raian Ali and Kiemute Oyibo eds. (2022). Persuasive Technology: 17th International Conference, PERSUASIVE 2022, Virtual Event, March 29–31, 2022, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-98438-0

Persuasive Technology: 17th International Conference, PERSUASIVE 2022, Virtual Event, March 29–31, 2022, Proceedings

2021

Journal Article

Persuasion via gamification: Supporting positive behaviour for learning (PB4L) school-wide pedagogy

Reddy, Lou, Baghaei, Nilufar, Reinders, Hayo, Ahmed, Ali and Sardareh, Sedigheh Abbasnasab (2021). Persuasion via gamification: Supporting positive behaviour for learning (PB4L) school-wide pedagogy. Set: Research Information for Teachers (2), 20-25. doi: 10.18296/set.0200

Persuasion via gamification: Supporting positive behaviour for learning (PB4L) school-wide pedagogy

2021

Conference Publication

Designing games for stealth health and healthy lifestyle education

Baghaei, Nilufar, Halim, Ilona, Casey, John, Marsh, Samantha and Maddison, Ralph (2021). Designing games for stealth health and healthy lifestyle education. 29th International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE), Online, 22-26 November 2021. Taoyuan City, Taiwan: Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.

Designing games for stealth health and healthy lifestyle education

2021

Journal Article

Contact tracing: ensuring privacy and security

Leeuwen, Daan Storm van, Ahmed, Ali, Watterson, Craig and Baghaei, Nilufar (2021). Contact tracing: ensuring privacy and security. Applied Sciences, 11 (21) 9977, 1-17. doi: 10.3390/app11219977

Contact tracing: ensuring privacy and security

2021

Journal Article

Effects of an immersive virtual reality exergame on university students’ anxiety, depression, and perceived stress: pilot feasibility and usability study

Xu, Wenge, Liang, Hai-Ning, Baghaei, Nilufar, Ma, Xiaoyue, Yu, Kangyou, Meng, Xuanru and Wen, Shaoyue (2021). Effects of an immersive virtual reality exergame on university students’ anxiety, depression, and perceived stress: pilot feasibility and usability study. JMIR Serious Games, 9 (4) e29330, 1-9. doi: 10.2196/29330

Effects of an immersive virtual reality exergame on university students’ anxiety, depression, and perceived stress: pilot feasibility and usability study

2021

Journal Article

Virtual reality for supporting the treatment of depression and anxiety: scoping review

Baghaei, Nilufar, Chitale, Vibhav, Hlasnik, Andrej, Stemmet, Lehan, Liang, Hai-Ning and Porter, Richard (2021). Virtual reality for supporting the treatment of depression and anxiety: scoping review. JMIR Mental Health, 8 (9) e29681, 1-14. doi: 10.2196/29681

Virtual reality for supporting the treatment of depression and anxiety: scoping review

2021

Journal Article

Games for Mental Health (Special Issue)

Baghaei, Nilufar, Liang, Hai-Ning, Naslund, John and Porter, Richard (2021). Games for Mental Health (Special Issue). Games for Health Journal, 10 (4), 205-206. doi: 10.1089/g4h.2021.7021.cfp

Games for Mental Health (Special Issue)

2021

Conference Publication

Playbook: an animation-based game for improving children's creativity and problem solving skills

Farzinnejad, Forouzan, Habibi, Jafar and Baghaei, Nilufar (2021). Playbook: an animation-based game for improving children's creativity and problem solving skills. EICS '21: ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems, Virtual, 8-11 June 2021. New York, NY USA: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/3459926.3464748

Playbook: an animation-based game for improving children's creativity and problem solving skills

2021

Conference Publication

Designing individualised virtual reality applications for supporting depression: a feasibility study

Baghaei, Nilufar, Stemmet, Lehan, Khaliq, Imran, Ahmadi, Atefeh, Halim, Ilona, Liang, Hai-Ning, Xu, Wenge, Billinghurst, Mark and Porter, Richard (2021). Designing individualised virtual reality applications for supporting depression: a feasibility study. ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems, Virtual (Netherlands), 8-11 June 2021. New York, NY, United States: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/3459926.3464761

Designing individualised virtual reality applications for supporting depression: a feasibility study

2021

Conference Publication

Effect of gameplay uncertainty, display type, and age on virtual reality exergames

Xu, Wenge, Liang, Hai-Ning, Yu, Kangyou and Baghaei, Nilufar (2021). Effect of gameplay uncertainty, display type, and age on virtual reality exergames. CHI '21: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Yokohama, Japan, 8-13 May 2021. New York, NY USA: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/3411764.3445801

Effect of gameplay uncertainty, display type, and age on virtual reality exergames

2021

Conference Publication

Assessing telepresence, social presence and stress response in a virtual reality store

Zhao, Yinshu, Baghaei, Nilufar, Schnack, Alexander and Stemmet, Lehan (2021). Assessing telepresence, social presence and stress response in a virtual reality store. IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct (ISMAR-Adjunct), Bari, Italy, 4-8 October 2021. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/ISMAR-Adjunct54149.2021.00020

Assessing telepresence, social presence and stress response in a virtual reality store

2021

Conference Publication

Individualised virtual reality for supporting depression: feedback from mental health professionals

Baghaei, Nilufar, Ahmadi, Atefeh, Khaliq, Imran and Liang, Hai-Ning (2021). Individualised virtual reality for supporting depression: feedback from mental health professionals. IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct (ISMAR-Adjunct), Bari, Italy, 4-8 October 2021. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/ISMAR-Adjunct54149.2021.00022

Individualised virtual reality for supporting depression: feedback from mental health professionals

Availability

Dr Nell Baghaei is:
Available for supervision

Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.

Available projects

  • Virtual Reality & 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

  • 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

Enquiries

Contact Dr Nell Baghaei directly for media enquiries about:

  • AI in Education
  • Persuasive Technology
  • Serious Games
  • User Modeling
  • Vitual Reality

Need help?

For help with finding experts, story ideas and media enquiries, contact our Media team:

communications@uq.edu.au