January 28, 2026: Our survey article “Eye-Tracked Virtual Reality: A Comprehensive Survey on Methods and Privacy Challenges” was published in Proceedings of the IEEE February 2, 2026
January 15 2026: Our article “Toward Multimodal Privacy in XR: Design and Evaluation of Composite Privatization Methods for Gaze and Body Tracking Data” was conditionally accepted for presentation at IEEE VR 2026 and selected for publication in a special issue of the IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (IEEE TVCG). Congratulations Azim! January 22, 2026
January 10 2026: Dr. Jain presents “Human-Horse Partnership as a Model for Human-Robot Teaming”, a joint invited talk at Dynamics Days US 2026 and Horse Days: Human-Agent Teaming and Horse-Human Partnerships at the University of Arizona and the Al Marah Equine Center. January 22, 2026
December 1 2025: Dr. Jain starts as Associate Editor, ACM Computing Surveys (2025-28). CSUR is widely recognized as the leading venue for authoritative, comprehensive, and high-quality survey articles in computing, with a 2024 Impact Factor of 28. January 22, 2026
November 30 2025: Our article “Towards Privacy-preserving Photorealistic Self-avatars in Mixed Reality” is recommended with Major Revisions to IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). This article was based on Ethan’s dissertation work! January 22, 2026
November 19 2025: Our survey article “Eye-tracked Virtual Reality: A Comprehensive Survey on Methods and Privacy Challenges” was conditionally accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the IEEE. Congratulations Efe and colleagues! January 22, 2026 Preprint available on arXiv.
Aug 1, 2025: UF researchers making virtual reality accessible to all eyes August 1, 2025 By Paris Carter A recent study led by a University of Florida engineering professor is challenging long-held assumptions in virtual reality design, particularly the belief that all users see the world the same way. The research by UF engineering professor Eakta Jain, Ph.D., highlights practical solutions for comprehensive virtual reality design by discussing how traditional…
Read more: Aug 1, 2025: UF researchers making virtual reality accessible to all eyes May 7, 2025: Ethan successfully defends his PhD dissertation! Congratulations Dr. Wilson! May 7, 2025 Ethan successfully defends his PhD dissertation! Congratulations Dr. Wilson!
April 20, 2025: The manuscript “Opto-diversity and Eye Tracking: Assumptions about ocular alignment in VR eye tracking exclude users with strabismus and amblyopia” has been accepted to ACM TAP 2025. Congratulations to Shaina and Shakthi! April 20, 2025
March 18, 2025: Bryce Grame speaks about eye tracking and transit bus driving on WCJB. March 18, 2025 See more details in the preprint report on Shaina and Bryce and Ethan’s work here https://www.wcjb.com/2025/03/11/university-florida-studies-use-eye-tracking-technology-with-public-transit-drivers/ https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.24131
Sept 1, 2024: Dr. Jain serves ACM SIGGRAPH as Chair of the Executive Committee for the year 2024-25. September 1, 2024 Link: https://www.siggraph.org/news/announcing-the-2024-2025-acm-siggraph-officers/
July 13, 2024: Dr. Jain speaks about human-horse interaction on the “Robots for the Rest of Us” podcast. July 13, 2024 Link: https://robots4therestofus.substack.com/p/to-understand-robots-get-a-horse
June 18, 2024: is a summer visiting researcher at the Boston Dynamics AI Institute. June 18, 2024
May 21, 2024: Dr. Jain speaks about human-horse interaction on the BBC World Service program Unexpected Elements. May 21, 2024 Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct5q1p
May 10, 2024: Karina LaRubbio has accepted a Ph.D. offer at Brown University. Congratulations, Karina! May 10, 2024
May 6, 2024: Dr. Jain is an invited speaker at the AAMAS 2024 workshop RAD-AI on the topic “Rebellion and Disobedience in HRI: Insights from Human-horse interaction” May 6, 2024
April 15, 2024: Ethan accepts an internship offer at Meta Reality Labs Research! Congratulations Ethan! April 15, 2024
March 21, 2024: Ethan, Azim, Karina, Shakthi and Dr. David-John Attended IEEE VR’24 hosted at Disney Contemporary Resort. March 21, 2024
March 21, 2024: Ethan presents “Privacy-Preserving Gaze Data Streaming in Immersive Interactive Virtual Reality: Robustness and User Experience” at IEEE VR 2024 March 21, 2024
March 17, 2024: Dr. Jain presents “Privacy in XR: Perspectives from the Eye Tracking Frontlines” at MASSXR, an IEEE VR workshop, on March 17th. March 17, 2024
March 15, 2024: Dr. Jain presents “Rebellion and Disobedience in HRI: Insights from human-horse interaction” at RAD-HRI, co-located with ACM HRI 2024 March 15, 2024 LINK
March 14, 2024: Dr. Jain presents “Rebellion and Disobedience in HRI: Insights from Human-horse interaction” at the ACM HRI 2024 workshop RAD-HRI. March 14, 2024
March 11, 2024: Ethan to present “Privacy-Preserving Gaze Data Streaming in Immersive Interactive Virtual Reality: Robustness and User Experience” at IEEE VR 24. Preprint now available. March 11, 2024 “Privacy-Preserving Gaze Data Streaming in Immersive Interactive Virtual Reality: Robustness and User Experience”, Wilson, Ethan and Ibragimov, Azim and Proulx, Michael and Tetali, Sai Deep and Butler, Kevin and Jain, Eakta. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (2024). In the Ethics in VR session on March 21st, 2024.
February 1, 2024: Ethan’s paper “Towards mitigating uncann(eye)ness in face swaps via gaze-centric loss terms” is accepted to Computers and Graphics Journal Special Issue: Eye Gaze Visualization, Interaction, Synthesis, and Analysis. February 6, 2024
January 12, 2024: Dr. Jain named ACM Senior Member. January 12, 2024
December 27, 2023: Dr. Jain speaks about human-horse interaction on “my96.7 FM” podcast. December 27, 2023 Link: https://my967.net/horsing-around-12-23/
December 15, 2023: Ethan Wilson successfully defends his thesis proposal. Congratulations Ethan! December 15, 2023
December 15, 2023: Zachary Tenn Yuk has been accepted into the 2024 NSF REU Program! Congratulations, Zachary ! December 15, 2023
December 15, 2023: Ritam Rana has been accepted into the 2024 Emerging Scholars Program! Congratulations, Ritam! December 15, 2023
December 6, 2023: Dr. Jain presents “How human-horse interaction informs human-robot interaction” at John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab December 6, 2023
August 30, 2023: Dr. Jain is an invited speaker at the Boston Dynamics AI Institute on “How human-horse interaction informs human-robot interaction” August 30, 2023 Link to the Boston Dynamics AI Institute.
July 25, 2023: Dr. Jain is an invited speaker at the Army Research Lab (ARL) on “How human-horse interaction informs human-robot interaction” July 25, 2023
June 19, 2023: Dr. Jain is an invited speaker at the Amazon Robotics RoboTalks seminar series on “How human-horse interaction informs human-robot interaction” June 19, 2023
June 15, 2023: See ScienceNews article: How understanding horses could inspire more trustworthy robots June 15, 2023 Link to ScienceNews article
May 23, 2023: Ethan Wilson is invited to attend 2023 S-STEM Scholars Meeting. Congratulations! May 23, 2023 2023 Annual S-STEM REC Scholars Meeting – AAAS S-STEM REC
May 23, 2023: Ethan to present “Introducing Explicit Gaze Constraints to Face Swapping” at ETRA 23. Preprint now available. May 23, 2023 Download the preprint here: ExplicitGaze_ETRA23
April 25, 2023: See ScienceDaily and Equus Magazine Articles: How a horse whisperer can help engineers build better robots April 25, 2023 Link to ScienceDaily Article Link to Equus Magazine Article
April 25, 2023: Dr. Jain presents “Horse as Teacher: How human-horse interaction informs human-robot interaction” at ACM SIGCHI 2023 April 25, 2023 Dr. Jain presents “Horse as Teacher: How human-horse interaction informs human-robot interaction” at ACM SIGCHI 2023 Watch a video on the story of this work. Read coverage by ScienceDaily and Equus magazines.
April 24, 2023: See UF News Article: How A Horse Whisperer Can Help Engineers Build Better Robots April 24, 2023 Link to Article YouTube Link
April 18, 2023: Jake accepts a software engineering internship at SLS Fire for Summer ’23. Congrats Jake! April 18, 2023
April 12, 2023: Ethan to present “Introducing Explicit Gaze Constraints to Face Swapping at ETRA ’23. Stay tuned for more details April 12, 2023
April 12, 2023: Karina accepts a Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for Summer ’23. Congratulations Karina! April 12, 2023
April 1, 2023: Dr. Jain is an invited speaker at the 2023 Spring DSI Symposium on the topic “Horse as Teacher: How human-horse interaction informs human-robot interaction”. April 1, 2023
Ethan and Karina attended IEEE VR’23 Satellite Event hosted by Virginia Tech March 29, 2023
Upcoming poster presentation “Give me some room please! Personal space bubbles for safety and performance” at IEEE VR 2023. Congratulations Karina and Ethan! March 15, 2023 Give me some room please! Personal space bubbles for safety and performance
Upcoming presentation on “Privacy-preserving datasets of eye-tracking samples with applications in XR” at IEEE VR 2023. Congratulations Brendan! March 15, 2023 Upcoming presentation on “Privacy-preserving datasets of eye-tracking samples with applications in XR” at IEEE VR 2023. Congratulations Brendan!
Karina LaRubbio awarded a scholarship to do undergraduate research in Jain Lab as a University Scholar (2023-24). Congratulations Karina! March 3, 2023
Dr Jain named to ACM Executive Committee December 15, 2022 Jain Named to ACM Executive Committee – Computer & Information Science & Engineering (ufl.edu)
Joe Marks (CTO (Weta Digital) @ Unity) visits with the Jainlab during colloquium visit November 30, 2022 Making virtual reality burgers!
Karina LaRubbio is accepted to OurCS workshop at Carnegie Mellon. Congratulations Karina! October 24, 2022
Dr Jain is elected to SIGGRAPH Executive Committee September 1, 2022
Ethan Smith has been accepted into the 2022 NSF REU Program! Congratulations, Ethan! August 10, 2022
Eakta Jain is a panelist at SIGGRAPH ’22 – Privacy, Safety and Wellbeing: Solutions for the Future of AR and VR panel August 8, 2022
Field Trip to Horse Teaching Unit (Fall ’21) July 14, 2022
Brendan successfully defends his PhD dissertation! Congratulations Dr. David-John! July 14, 2022 Brendan successfully defends his PhD dissertation! Congratulations Dr. David-John!
Brendan presents at ETRA ’22 June 12, 2022 Brendan Presents his work “For Your Eyes Only: Privacy-preserving eye-tracking datasets” at ETRA ’22.
ETRA ’22 June 12, 2022 Brendan and Dr. Jain attend the 2022 ACM Symposium of Eye Tracking Research & Applications (ETRA).
Eakta Jain is a panelist at ETRA ’22 – Eye Tracking in Healthcare and Medicine panel June 11, 2022
Ethan Passes his Qualifying exam! Congrats Ethan! May 31, 2022
Ethan and Nick present “The Uncanniness of Face Swaps” at VSS ’22 May 17, 2022 Ethan and Nick attended Visual Science Society (VSS) ’22 to present their work “The Uncanniness of Face Swaps”.
Undergrad RA (2019) Garrick Sewsankar graduates with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and Engineering Certificate in Artificial Intelligence. Congrats Garrick! April 29, 2022
Ethan presented “An Introduction to the Metaverse” as a guest lecture for the Legal Environment of Business course at Berry College. April 20, 2022 Ethan presented “An Introduction to the Metaverse” as a guest lecture for the Legal Environment of Business course at Berry College.
Brendan presented “AI for Human-Computer Interaction & Implications of Personalization on Privacy” at the UF Mini-Symposia Series: AI and Interactions with Society, organized by Dr. Amelia Winger-Bearskin and the UF Informatics Institute. April 14, 2022 Brendan presented “AI for Human-Computer Interaction & Implications of Personalization on Privacy” at the UF Mini-Symposia Series: AI and Interactions with Society, organized by Dr. Amelia Winger-Bearskin and the UF Informatics Institute.
Brendan presented “Eye-Tracking Applications: Pupillary Light Reflex & Intent to Interact” as a guest lecture in Eye-based Human Computer Interaction course at University of Tübingen taught by Dr. Thomas Kübler. April 8, 2022 Brendan presented “Eye-Tracking Applications: Pupillary Light Reflex & Intent to Interact” as a guest lecture in Eye-based Human Computer Interaction course at University of Tübingen taught by Dr. Thomas Kübler.
Jeremiah and Karina presented “Who do you look like? Gaze-based authentication for workers in VR” at the UF Undergraduate Research Symposium. April 7, 2022 Jeremiah and Karina presented “Who do you look like? Gaze-based authentication for workers in VR” at the UF Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Ethan presented “An Introduction to the Metaverse” to the Gator TeamChild Juvenile Law Clinic at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. March 24, 2022 Ethan presented “An Introduction to the Metaverse” to the Gator TeamChild Juvenile Law Clinic at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.
Brendan is selected to receive an IEEE VR 2022 Diversity Scholarship Award. Congrats Brendan! March 10, 2022 Brendan is selected to receive an IEEE VR 2022 Diversity Scholarship Award. Congrats Brendan!
Karina LaRubbio is selected to receive an IEEE VR 2022 Bridge to VR Scholarship. Congrats Karina on being selected once again after receiving the scholarship in 2021! March 10, 2022 Karina LaRubbio is selected to receive an IEEE VR 2022 Bridge to VR Scholarship. Congrats Karina on being selected once again after receiving the scholarship in 2021!
Brendan presented “Providing Privacy for Eye-Tracking Data with Applications in XR” at the Spring 2022 Cornell Bowers CIS Computer Science Colloquium Series. February 21, 2022 Brendan presented “Providing Privacy for Eye-Tracking Data with Applications in XR” at the Spring 2022 Cornell Bowers CIS Computer Science Colloquium Series.
“The Uncanniness of Face Swaps” accepted to Vision Sciences Society VSS 2022. Congratulations Ethan, Aidan, and Nick! February 7, 2022 “The Uncanniness of Face Swaps” accepted to Vision Sciences Society VSS 2022. Congratulations Ethan, Aidan, and Nick!
Karina LaRubbio’s REU project “Who do you look like? – Gaze-based authentication for workers in VR” is conditionally accepted as a poster to IEEE VR. Congratulations Karina, Jeremiah, and graduate mentor Brendan!. January 31, 2022 Karina LaRubbio’s REU project “Who do you look like? – Gaze-based authentication for workers in VR” is conditionally accepted as a poster to IEEE VR. Congratulations Karina, Jeremiah, and graduate mentor Brendan!.
“Is the Avatar Scared? Pupil as a Perceptual Cue” is accepted to Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds. Congratulations Yuzhu!. January 20, 2022 “Is the Avatar Scared? Pupil as a Perceptual Cue” is accepted to Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds. Congratulations Yuzhu!.
Brendan presented “Providing Privacy for Eye-Tracking Data with Applications in XR” at the Virginia Tech Computer Science Spring 2022 Seminar Series. January 20, 2022 Brendan presented “Providing Privacy for Eye-Tracking Data with Applications in XR” at the Virginia Tech Computer Science Spring 2022 Seminar Series.
Brendan is interviewed by UF Student Life to discuss co-founding UF’s AISES chapter. November 9, 2021 Brendan is interviewed by UF Student Life to discuss co-founding UF’s AISES chapter.
New undergraduate course approved! Keep an eye out for CAP 4xxx Generating Expressiveness in Intelligent Agents and Avatars in Fall 2022 or Spring 2023. October 17, 2021 New undergraduate course approved! Keep an eye out for CAP 4xxx Generating Expressiveness in Intelligent Agents and Avatars in Fall 2022 or Spring 2023.
Brendan successfully defends his thesis proposal, “For Your Eyes Only: Providing Privacy for Eye-Tracking Datasets with Applications in XR”. Congrats Brendan! October 15, 2021 Brendan successfully defends his thesis proposal, “For Your Eyes Only: Providing Privacy for Eye-Tracking Datasets with Applications in XR”. Congrats Brendan!
Brendan’s work on eye tracking privacy featured on UF CISE website! September 10, 2021 Brendan’s work on eye tracking privacy featured on UF CISE website!
Dr. Jain joins SIGGRAPH 2021 Technical Papers Chair Sylvain Paris, Chris Bregler (sr. staff scientist, Google AI), and Matthias Nießner (professor, TU München) for a SIGGRAPH Spotlight discussion on deep fakes and implications. September 1, 2021 Dr. Jain joins SIGGRAPH 2021 Technical Papers Chair Sylvain Paris, Chris Bregler (sr. staff scientist, Google AI), and Matthias Nießner (professor, TU München) for a SIGGRAPH Spotlight discussion on deep fakes and implications.
Dr. Jain is an invited panelist at the Berthouzoz Women in Research Event at SIGGRAPH 2021. August 11, 2021 Dr. Jain is an invited panelist at the Berthouzoz Women in Research Event at SIGGRAPH 2021.
Yuzhu Dong accepts a position as Research Engineer at Google DeepMind. Congratulations Yuzhu! August 5, 2021 Yuzhu Dong accepts a position as Research Engineer at Google DeepMind. Congratulations Yuzhu!
Srividya Surampudi, an alumna in Jain Lab, accepted a position as a software engineer at Apple. Congrats Srividya! May 26, 2021 Srividya Surampudi, an alumna in Jain Lab, accepted a position as a software engineer at Apple. Congrats Srividya!
Song Li is on his way to pursue a Masters degree at Johns Hopkins University. Song did his senior project at Jain Lab in Fall 2020 on Residual Attention Networks for recognizing illustrations. Congratulations Song! April 26, 2021 Song Li is on his way to pursue a Masters degree at Johns Hopkins University. Song did his senior project at Jain Lab in Fall 2020 on Residual Attention Networks for recognizing illustrations. Congratulations Song!
“A Privacy-Preserving Approach to Streaming Eye-Tracking Data” is nominated for Best Paper Award at IEEE VR 2021. April 1, 2021 “A Privacy-Preserving Approach to Streaming Eye-Tracking Data” is nominated for Best Paper Award at IEEE VR 2021.
Brendan is selected to receive a L3Harris Corporation Communication Graduate Fellowship. Congrats Brendan! March 29, 2021 Brendan is selected to receive a L3Harris Corporation Communication Graduate Fellowship. Congrats Brendan!
Brendan presented “Locking Eyes” at the Montana State University Gianforte School of Computing Weekly Seminar, hosted by Dr. Sean Yaw. March 22, 2021 Brendan presented “Locking Eyes” at the Montana State University Gianforte School of Computing Weekly Seminar, hosted by Dr. Sean Yaw.
Dr. Jain presents at Human factors research at UFTI: Current Research and Future Directions, STRIDE Webinar. March 10, 2021 Dr. Jain presents at Human factors research at UFTI: Current Research and Future Directions, STRIDE Webinar.
The PrXR workshop submission deadline has been extended to Jan. 26, 2021. January 21, 2021 The PrXR workshop submission deadline has been extended to Jan. 26, 2021.
Dr. Jain presents “Locking Eyes” at an invited seminar for the UCR Computer Science & Engineering Colloquium, hosted by Dr. Tamar Shinar. January 15, 2021 Dr. Jain presents “Locking Eyes” at an invited seminar for the UCR Computer Science & Engineering Colloquium, hosted by Dr. Tamar Shinar.
“PrXR: Towards a roadmap for privacy and security research for mixed reality applications”, a workshop organized by Dr. Jain, Brendan David-John, Dr. Kevin Butler, and Diane Hosfelt will be held virtually at IEEE VR 2021. We are now accepting submissions for position papers. Please see the webpage for submission details January 7, 2021 “PrXR: Towards a roadmap for privacy and security research for mixed reality applications”, a workshop organized by Dr. Jain, Brendan David-John, Dr. Kevin Butler, and Diane Hosfelt will be held virtually at IEEE VR 2021. We are now accepting submissions for position papers. Please see the webpage for submission details
Yuzhu Dong graduates with a PhD in Human-Centered Computing. Congratulations Yuzhu! December 19, 2020 Yuzhu Dong graduates with a PhD in Human-Centered Computing. Congratulations Yuzhu!
Dr. Jain is a panelist for the CISE Virtual Junior Preview panel organized by Dr. McMullen and the CISE Graduate Recruitment Committee. November 6, 2020 Dr. Jain is a panelist for the CISE Virtual Junior Preview panel organized by Dr. McMullen and the CISE Graduate Recruitment Committee.
Dr. Jain presents “Locking Eyes” at the Facebook Reality Labs: Research seminar, hosted by Dr. Tanya Jonker. November 2, 2020 Dr. Jain presents “Locking Eyes” at the Facebook Reality Labs: Research seminar, hosted by Dr. Tanya Jonker.
Ethan Wilson is selected as a 2020-2021 Generation Next Scholar. Congrats Ethan! October 19, 2020 Ethan Wilson is selected as a 2020-2021 Generation Next Scholar. Congrats Ethan!
Yuzhu Dong presents “Adult2child: Motion Style Transfer using CycleGANs” at MIG2020. Congratulations Yuzhu! October 17, 2020 Yuzhu Dong presents “Adult2child: Motion Style Transfer using CycleGANs” at MIG2020. Congratulations Yuzhu!
Brendan is recognized as first place winner of the the Graduate Student Oral Research Presentation Competition at 2020 AISES National Conference for “The Security-Utility Trade-off for Iris Authentication and Eye Animation for Social Virtual Avatars”. Congrats Brendan! October 17, 2020 Brendan is recognized as first place winner of the the Graduate Student Oral Research Presentation Competition at 2020 AISES National Conference for “The Security-Utility Trade-off for Iris Authentication and Eye Animation for Social Virtual Avatars”. Congrats Brendan!
Dr. Jain is a panelist for the Interdisciplinary Research session in Research and Creativity HUM2930 along with Drs. Ralf Remshardt, Dietmar Siemann, Walter Lee Murfee, and Christine Miller. September 29, 2020 Dr. Jain is a panelist for the Interdisciplinary Research session in Research and Creativity HUM2930 along with Drs. Ralf Remshardt, Dietmar Siemann, Walter Lee Murfee, and Christine Miller.
Brendan John is awarded prestigious Google PhD Fellowship. Congratulations Brendan! September 25, 2020 Brendan John is awarded prestigious Google PhD Fellowship. Congratulations Brendan!
Dr. Jain presents “ISTREET-Initiative: Evaluation of Intelligent School Zone Beacon and Vehicle-Cyclist Detection and Warning System at the STRIDE Webinar”. September 16, 2020 Dr. Jain presents “ISTREET-Initiative: Evaluation of Intelligent School Zone Beacon and Vehicle-Cyclist Detection and Warning System at the STRIDE Webinar”.
Dr. Jain presents “User Security and Privacy in Pursuit of Compelling Virtual Avatars” at CMU Graphics Seminar. September 3, 2020 Dr. Jain presents “User Security and Privacy in Pursuit of Compelling Virtual Avatars” at CMU Graphics Seminar.
Heting Wang and Ethan Wilson join the lab as PhD students. Welcome! August 17, 2020 Heting Wang and Ethan Wilson join the lab as PhD students. Welcome!
