Meet the Faculty - Evan Suma Rosenberg

Tell us about your journey to the University of Minnesota.

I began my undergraduate studies at a small liberal arts college in upstate New York, where I initially majored in journalism. My high school did not offer any computing courses, so my exposure to programming had been limited. During my freshman year, I enrolled in a computer science science course out of curiosity, and quickly discovered that I found far greater satisfaction in developing technology myself compared to writing about innovations made by other people.

A turning point came during my sophomore year, when I mentioned to one of my professors that I was dreading a summer spent working a retail job in my hometown. Instead, she invited me to spend the summer working in her virtual reality (VR) research lab, an experience that completely altered my trajectory. During the following academic year, you could often find me tinkering in the lab between classes. Eventually, she brought me to the IEEE VR conference and introduced me to my future Ph.D. advisor, who encouraged me to consider graduate school. I would not be where I am today without these two mentors, who opened my eyes to research and a future career in academia.

After completing my Ph.D., I moved to the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies for a postdoc, eventually becoming a research professor. However, after eight years at USC, I eventually wanted to take on a tenure-track faculty role that combined research with teaching. I applied to the University of Minnesota because I was excited by the opportunity to collaborate with fantastic colleagues in computer graphics, including Professors Victoria Interrante, Dan Keefe, and Stephen Guy. When I visited the university, I was impressed by the collegiality of the computer science department and the culture of the Twin Cities. For these reasons, UMN was my top choice, and I was thrilled to join the department in 2018.

Tell us more about your current research!

My early interest in VR grew out of video games, but I was equally motivated by the potential for VR to improve people’s lives. Over the years, my work has evolved into what is often called use-inspired basic research. I am particularly interested in studies that advance our fundamental understanding of human cognition while also informing real-world applications.

A central thread of my research investigates how people perceive and navigate three-dimensional spaces. As a Ph.D. student, I focused on locomotion interfaces for VR, and this led me to redirected walking: the idea that carefully designed perceptual illusions can convince users they are moving through potentially vast virtual environments while physically walking within a confined physical space. This work is particularly exciting because it merges psychology, perception, and technology in ways that feel almost magical, while also addressing one of VR’s major practical challenges.

More recently, I have concentrated on cybersickness, examining both why it occurs and how it can be mitigated. These studies are motivated by scientific questions as well as the urgent need to make VR more accessible and comfortable for a broader range of users.

What do you hope to accomplish with this work? What is the real-world impact for the average person?

When I first began working in VR, the technology was prohibitively expensive and available only in specialized research labs. Today, consumer headsets are widely available, and VR is used not only for entertainment, but in serious applications including healthcare, training, and education. My research aims to remove remaining barriers to adoption by addressing challenges such as locomotion and cybersickness, thereby enabling more people to benefit from VR’s potential.

At the same time, I want my work, and that of my students, to retain a sense of wonder. VR can be used to replicate and imitate the real world, but it can also be used to transcend mundane limitations and imagine entirely new types of experiences. In the lab, we often joke that a good sign for a potential research project is passing the "Evan thinks it's cool" test.  For me, creating a perceptual illusion in VR is similar to performing a magic trick: it is based on rigorous science, but it also sparks delight. Similarly, a well-designed 3D interaction technique can make the user feel like they have superpowers, while a poorly designed user interface can instantly shatter the illusion and bring the user back to reality.

What courses do you typically teach? What can students expect to get out of your courses? 

I regularly teach CSCI 4611: Programming Interactive Computer Graphics and Games, an advanced undergraduate course that introduces students to the foundations of computer graphics and game programming. This is a programming-heavy course that serves as a gateway to more advanced studies in graphics, VR, and visualization. As a lifelong video gamer myself, this is a very fun course to teach!

At the graduate level, I teach CSCI 5619: Virtual Reality and 3D Interaction, which emphasizes 3D interaction techniques and project-based exploration. I am also currently developing a new 5000-level course on Game Engine Architecture. Undergraduates who have completed CSCI 4611 are also welcome to take these courses.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?

I find it deeply rewarding when students share my enthusiasm for this field. All my programming assignments include bonus challenges for students to express their creativity, and it is always a pleasure to see what they build when given the freedom to experiment. Watching students discover the same excitement that first drew me into VR research is one of the most fulfilling aspects of teaching.

What do you do for fun outside of the classroom?

Quite appropriately, video games are my primary hobby. I have tried to explain to my partner that playing video games every night is necessary to keep myself relevant as a professor, and she just rolls her eyes. However, many of my research insights and teaching examples have come from direct experience as a consumer of video game content. Additionally, as a parent of young children, playing games is now an activity we can share together as a family.

I also enjoy coming up with fun toys and gadgets to 3D print for my kids. And just so I don't sound like a complete homebody, my daughter and I are also frequent visitors to Can Can Wonderland.

Is there anything else you would like students to know?

I encourage students who are curious about research to reach out to me or another faculty member who works in an area they find interesting. My own career began when a professor gave me an unexpected opportunity in her lab, and that experience changed my life. Being able to mentor undergraduate students at the beginning of their own research journeys, and then watching them grow into independent scholars, is among the most meaningful parts of my role as a professor.