Victoria Interrante Earns CSE Distinguished Professorship

Department of Computer Science & Engineering’s (CS&E) Professor Victoria Interrante received the College of Science and Engineering Distinguished Professorship. The award recognizes faculty whose outstanding teaching, scholarly achievements, and sustained commitment strengthen the University of Minnesota College of Science & Engineering and its mission.

“It’s a huge honor,” Interrante said. “I see it as a testament to my lifelong approach in my career, which is investing in trying to improve things, not just for myself, but for everybody around me. I spend a lot of time trying to build community.”

Collaboration, she said, has been a defining feature of her career. 

“I have this wonderful network of people I’ve worked with all over the world,” she said. “It’s been very gratifying and rewarding to have so many diverse collaborations with so many amazing people.”

Interrante’s research focuses on applying insights from visual perception and cognition to create more effective virtual reality (VR) experiences and to communicate complex information through visual imagery. Her current work focuses on how VR can create meaningful nature-immersion experiences, offering individuals who cannot easily go outdoors—such as hospital patients or those living in large cities—the opportunity to connect with nature. 

Interrante joined CS&E in 1998 as an assistant professor and was promoted to full professor in 2015. She received the NSF CAREER Award in 1999. Two years later, she was named University of Minnesota McKnight Land-Grant Professor and, in 2022, she was inducted into the IEEE VGTC Virtual Reality Academy.

She describes teaching as an opportunity to help students become independent, lifelong learners.

“I teach my students facts, but I also teach them how to acquire information,” she said. “For the rest of their career, I want them to be able to be their own professor, so they can continue to increase their knowledge.”

In receiving the Distinguished Professorship, she expressed special thanks to her University of Minnesota colleague Nikos Papanikolopoulos, who directs the Minnesota Robotics Institute on the Twin Cities campus, for nominating her.

“The whole thing was successful because Nikos made me apply,” she said. “It wouldn’t have happened otherwise.”

Learn more about Interrante’s work at her personal website.