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
2019
Conference Publication
An Adaptive Method for Vein Recognition Enhancement Using Deep Learning
Varastehpour, Soheil, Sharifzadeh, Hamid, Ardekani, Iman, Francis, Xavier and Baghaei, Nilufar (2019). An Adaptive Method for Vein Recognition Enhancement Using Deep Learning. IEEE International Symposium on Signal Processing and Information Technology (ISSPIT), Ajman, United Arab Emirates, 10-12 December 2019. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/ISSPIT47144.2019.9001834
2019
Conference Publication
Increasing self-compassion in young people through virtual reality
Baghaei, Nilufar, Hach, Sylvia, Khaliq, Imran, Stemmet, Lehan, Krishnan, Jamuna, Naslund, John, Liang, Hai-Ning and Sharifzadeh, Hamid (2019). Increasing self-compassion in young people through virtual reality. 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct (ISMAR-Adjunct), Beijing, China, 10-18 October 2019. Piscataway, NJ USA: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/ISMAR-Adjunct.2019.00042
2019
Journal Article
MoodJumper: an exploration of game interface preferences in users with/out mood disorder
Baghaei, Nilufar, Hach, Sylvia, Liang, Hai-Ning and Brucker, Marvin (2019). MoodJumper: an exploration of game interface preferences in users with/out mood disorder. Frontiers in Public Health, 7 220. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2019.00220
2019
Conference Publication
Learning wear patterns on footwear outsoles using convolutional neural networks
Francis, Xavier, Sharifzadeh, Hamid, Newton, Angus, Baghaei, Nilufar and Varastehpour, Soheil (2019). Learning wear patterns on footwear outsoles using convolutional neural networks. 18th IEEE International Conference On Trust, Security And Privacy In Computing And Communications/13th IEEE International Conference On Big Data Science And Engineering (TrustCom/BigDataSE), Rotorua, New Zealand, 5-8 August. LOS ALAMITOS: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. doi: 10.1109/TrustCom/BigDataSE.2019.00067
2019
Journal Article
Engaging children with educational content via Gamification
Nand, Kalpana, Baghaei, Nilufar, Casey, John, Barmada, Bashar, Mehdipour, Farhad and Liang, Hai-Ning (2019). Engaging children with educational content via Gamification. Smart Learning Environments, 6 (1) 6, 1-15. doi: 10.1186/s40561-019-0085-2
2019
Conference Publication
Virtual reality models for promoting learners engagement in construction studies
Samarasinghe, Don Amila Sajeevan, Latif, Suhaimi Abd and Baghaei, Nilufar (2019). Virtual reality models for promoting learners engagement in construction studies. 2019 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 8-11 April 2019. Piscataway, NJ USA: IEEE Computer Society. doi: 10.1109/EDUCON.2019.8725120
2018
Conference Publication
Correlating gamers' brainwaves to their subjective feelings in virtual reality games under different viewing perspectives
Monteiro, Diego, Liang, Hai-Ning and Baghaei, Nilufar (2018). Correlating gamers' brainwaves to their subjective feelings in virtual reality games under different viewing perspectives. 2020 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Connected Health: Applications, Systems and Engineering Technologies (CHASE), Crystal City, VA, United States, 16 - 18 December 2020. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/1234567890
2018
Conference Publication
Designing a virtual reality flight simulator
Halim, Ilona, Casey, John and Baghaei, Nilufar (2018). Designing a virtual reality flight simulator. ICCE 2018 - 26th International Conference on Computers in Education, Manila, Philippines, 26 - 30 November 2018. Taoyuan City, Taiwan: Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.
2018
Journal Article
A refinement of an iterative orthogonal projection method
Jamil, Noreen, Mirza, Farhaan, Naeem, M. Asif and Baghaei, Nilufar (2018). A refinement of an iterative orthogonal projection method. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, 341, 31-41. doi: 10.1016/j.cam.2018.02.025
2018
Journal Article
Train-for-life (T4L): an interactive learning platform for logistics, safety and security professionals
Barmada, Bashar and Baghaei, Nilufar (2018). Train-for-life (T4L): an interactive learning platform for logistics, safety and security professionals. Smart Learning Environments, 5 (1) 21, 1-15. doi: 10.1186/s40561-018-0072-z
2018
Conference Publication
Evaluating engagement of virtual reality games based on first and third person perspective using EEG and subjective metrics
Monteiro, Diego, Liang, Hai-Ning, Abel, Andrew, Bahaei, Nilufar and De Cassia Monteiro, Rita (2018). Evaluating engagement of virtual reality games based on first and third person perspective using EEG and subjective metrics. 2018 IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (AIVR), Taichung, Taiwan, 10-12 December 2018. Piscataway, NJ United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/AIVR.2018.00015
2018
Conference Publication
MoodRush: Designing a language-free mobile app for mood self-assessment
Hach, Sylvia, Baghaei, Nilufar, Jauny, Ray, Hayward, Christian and Sarrafzadeh, Abdolhossein (2018). MoodRush: Designing a language-free mobile app for mood self-assessment. 7th International Conference, MobiHealth, Vienna, Austria, 14-15 November 2017. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.
2018
Conference Publication
Improving students' performace through gamification: a user study
Nehring, Natalia, Baghaei, Nilufar and Dacey, Simon (2018). Improving students' performace through gamification: a user study. 10th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, Funchal, Portugal, 15-17 March 2018. Setubal, Portugal: SciTePress. doi: 10.5220/0006687402130218
2017
Conference Publication
Train-for-life: on-line interactive training for industry learners
Barmada, Bashar and Baghaei, Nilufar (2017). Train-for-life: on-line interactive training for industry learners. Unknown, Unknown, Unknown. Taoyuan City, Taiwan: Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.
2017
Conference Publication
Engaging children in diabetes education through mobile games
Baghaei, Nilufar, Casey, John, Nandigam, David, Sarrafzadeh, Abdolhossein and Maddison, Ralph (2017). Engaging children in diabetes education through mobile games. International Conference on Mobile Learning 2017, Budapest, 10-12 April 2017. IADIS.
2017
Conference Publication
Providing regular assessments and earlier feedback on moodle in an introductory computer science course: A user study
Nehring, Natalia, Dacey, Simon and Baghaei, Nilufar (2017). Providing regular assessments and earlier feedback on moodle in an introductory computer science course: A user study. 25th International Conference on Computers in Education, Christchurch, New Zealand, December 4-8. Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.
2017
Conference Publication
Designing mobile applications for improving positive behaviour for learning (PB4L) pedagogy
Reddy, Lou, Baghaei, Nilufar, Vermeulen, Gerhard, Hilton, Craig and Steinhorn, Gregor (2017). Designing mobile applications for improving positive behaviour for learning (PB4L) pedagogy. 25th International Conference on Computers in Education, Christchurch, New Zealand, December 4-8. Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.
2017
Conference Publication
Designing a novel educational game for teaching C# programming
Hinds, Matthew, Baghaei, Nilufar, Ragon, Pedrito, Lambert, Jonathon, Rajakaruna, Tharindu, Houghton, Travers, Dacey, Simon and Casey, John (2017). Designing a novel educational game for teaching C# programming. 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, Porto, Portugal, April 21-23. SciTePress. doi: 10.5220/0006242000810086
2017
Conference Publication
Runjumpcode: An educational game for educating programming
Hinds, Matthew, Baghaei, Nilufar, Ragon, Pedrito, Lambert, Jonathon, Rajakaruna, Tharindu, Houghton, Travers and Dacey, Simon (2017). Runjumpcode: An educational game for educating programming. 13th International Conference Mobile Learning, Budapest, Hungary, 10-12 April 2017. Lisbon, Portugal: IADIS.
2016
Journal Article
Diabetic Mario: designing and evaluating mobile games for diabetes education
Baghaei, Nilufar, Nandigam, David, Casey, John, DIreito, Artur and Maddison, Ralph (2016). Diabetic Mario: designing and evaluating mobile games for diabetes education. Games for Health Journal, 5 (4), 270-278. doi: 10.1089/g4h.2015.0038
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Nell Baghaei is:
- Not available for supervision
Supervision history
Current supervision
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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
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
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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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
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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