What’s your job title and how long have you been at Loughborough?

I am a Professor of Digital Creativity and have worked at Loughborough University since August 2023. This is my second stint at Loughborough though, as I worked here as a researcher and part-time PhD student from 1992-2000! In-between I worked at the University of Nottingham.

Tell us what a typical day in your job looks like?

Like most academics, my job is extremely varied throughout the year with different activities happening largely dependent on where we are in the university calendar. At the moment I am spending a lot of my time pioneering with radically different forms of teaching for the University using immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and holograms – as part of the significant Digilabs initiative.

What’s your favourite project you’ve worked on?

My digital creativity team has developed several engaging VR experiences for students. My favourite is a fantastical maze for teaching teamwork skills where students (as colour-coded robot avatars) aim to escape using cues in the maze but also aided by their team leader who appears as a ‘giant’ in the world looking down on teammates as if they were ‘ants’. As you can see in this video, both students and staff have a LOT of fun with this activity!

What is your proudest moment at Loughborough?

One of the first VR teaching sessions I ran at Loughborough sought to enhance the empathy skills of our design students using specific avatars designed to highlight the problems faced by those with specific disabilities. Essentially, in a challenging virtual world, students embodied avatars that simulated visual impairments (such as cataracts, glaucoma, colour blindness) or mobility difficulties (e.g. due to using a wheelchair) to better understand the perspectives of others. I was extremely proud when this collaborative work was recognised by the university recently for a Teaching Best Practice award.

Tell us something you do outside of work that we might not know about?

I have always been a very keen competitive distance runner (this was a big reason for me coming to Loughborough for the first time back in the early 1990s!). Whilst I can’t do what I used to, I’m still (just about) running at a reasonable level and was able to reach the finals of the 1500 in the World Masters (old people) athletics championships a few years ago.

What is your favourite quote?

I am a child of the 1980s plus a big sci-fi nerd, so it has to be quotes from a classic film such as ‘Back to the Future’. Two seem particularly relevant to my current future-oriented work: “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads” or “I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it.”

If you would like to feature in ‘5 Minutes With’, or you work with someone who you think would be great to include, please email Lilia Boukikova at L.Boukikova@lboro.ac.uk