Keynote Speakers

Patrick Bourdot

President of EuroXR Association

Research Director at CNRS, the French National Centre for Scientific Research, Dr. Bourdot is the founding leader of the VENISE team (www.limsi.fr/venise), a Virtual & Augmented Reality research group he established in 2001 within the former CNRS/LIMSI lab, now part of the LISN lab at the University of Paris-Saclay.
His primary research interests in eXtended Reality include levels of detail, virtual navigation, 3D reconstruction, multimodal and collaborative XR interactions, and associated user perception and cognition challenges. In terms of XR applications, his work focuses on fields such as Design and Engineering, Bioinformatics, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Science Education, and Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Dr. Bourdot has coordinated scientific partnerships and led numerous research projects funded by the French government (RNTL, ANR) or regional and national research institutes (CNRS, DIGITEO). He is the founding secretary of AFRV, the French association for Virtual & Augmented Reality.
He coordinated the participation of CNRS labs in the INTUITION network on VR/AR under the 6th IST European Framework (2004–2008) and is a founding member of EuroVR. A member of its Executive Committee since its inception in 2009, he served as Vice-President for “Academic Issues & Conferences” from 2016 to 2021. After the association was renamed EuroXR (European Association for eXtended Reality - www.euroxr.org), he became its third President, a position he held for the past three years.
Dr. Bourdot has published extensively in international journals and conferences on Virtual & Augmented Reality and Human-Computer Interaction, contributing significantly to these research domains.

Filip Górski

Poznań University of Technology, Poland

The integration of XR technologies into healthcare has dramatically altered the landscape of medical practice, patient treatment, and medical engineering. This keynote will explore practical applications across three pivotal areas: XR for doctors, where anatomical visualizations help in preparation and smooth realization of complex surgical procedures and training; XR for patients, such as phobia treatment, orthopedic rehabilitation and personalized product configuration; and XR for medical engineers, showcasing the use of digital twins and virtual try-ons for innovative medical solutions. Several case studies will be reviewed, demonstrating the real-world impact of these technologies. The presentation will also address technical aspects of XR application development, particularly the creation of flexible, dynamic content with help of AI, ensuring adaptability and personalization in healthcare settings. This exploration illustrates how XR can transform healthcare into a more intuitive, effective, and patient-centric field.

Filip Górski, DSc., PhD., BEng., serves as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Poznań University of Technology, Poland. He leads the Division of Additive Manufacturing and Virtual Reality and acts as Vice-Dean for Science within the Faculty. His expertise lies in 3D scanning and printing technologies for medical and biomedical engineering, as well as virtual and augmented reality for both industrial and medical applications. He is also proficient in automating design processes in CAD systems and employing reverse engineering techniques.
Dr. Górski has been involved in numerous research projects, often in a managerial role, collaborating with industrial companies and national research centers. His international collaborations extend to scientists from countries like Great Britain, Mexico, Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia, India, and Spain. He has received multiple prestigious grants and awards, notably for his development of the AutoMedPrint technology, which focuses on the automated design of affordable 3D printed prosthetics and orthotics for patients of all ages. He has authored or co-authored nearly 150 publications, including five books, and has developed several software solutions that are now implemented in industries, hospitals, and patient care facilities.

Vartan Piroumian

Independent Consultant, USA

The term digital twins first debuted circa 2002. As the subject has gained exposure and popularity in recent years, so has the volume of predominantly misleading messages about what digital twins are. The mainstream literature promulgates the notion that digital twins is a ‘technology’ whose primary value lies in the creation of advanced visual representations of real world objects. Unfortunately, this message is dangerously misleading.

Visual representations such as those used in augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MX), virtual reality (VR), and extended reality (XR) are indeed vitally important in helping humans comprehend real-world objects and environments. However, the visual components used in XR are simply a view of the underlying information and data models upon which the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) are completely dependent. Moreover, in the case of modeling and simulation of real-world objects, the internal models used by software applications are derived from the empirical observation and theory of science and engineering.

Models are the lynch pin of any software application. The software application’s internal model is the cornerstone of the application’s functionality and capability. This is true of any software tool or application. Notwithstanding, an even more important reality is that software applications today do not exist in isolation as monolithic entities written from scratch. They are complex systems of sub- systems, which are themselves complex aggregations of cooperating components. And here is where digital twins have the most promise.

Digital twins is an idea that can spearhead the creation of standards to achieve interoperability across technologies, domains, industries, and vertical markets. Standards are critical factors in building complex systems across technological domains, informing how we interface systems and how those systems can interoperate.

Vartan Piroumian is a global strategy and technology adviser and speaker. His formal training is in computer science and electrical engineering, followed by a lengthy career in software engineering working at all levels of the software stack from OS internals to end-user applications and advanced graphical user interfaces. He’s worked on inertial and celestial navigation software for the US NASA Space Shuttle program, software developer tool suites for several Unix variants, and the development of libraries and services for the Java Developer’s Kit (JDK). Mr. Piroumian has worked as an enterprise architect for a few decades, and holds the industry-standard TOGAF-9 certification in enterprise architecture. He’s also worked on real-time systems and holds a DO-178C certification for real-time systems architecture, design, and software construction. He is the author of two award-winning books on Java software platform technologies, a contributing author to a seminal digital twins book entitled “The Digital Twin,” and the author of digital twins articles published by the IEEE and a seminal digital twins technical report published by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Mr. Piroumian is a member of the IEEE Computer Society, Reliability Society, Sensors Council, and Systems Council.

Sofia Pescarin

ISPC - National Research Council, Italy

Although culture is generally not perceived as a priority, it is recognised as a transformative process, triggering of emotions, that in turn can drive motivation, and motivation can inspire action and behavioural change. Promoting culture is therefore crucial, especially if digital technologies are used to strengthen and support this active process, designing XR applications on three pillars: interaction, embodiment and storytelling. Unfortunately, these elements are not enough to let culture provoke its effects. Users might be too far from the historical and artistic context, moreover, they might find it irrelevant. For this reason, designing Digital Heritage applications, taking as reference cognitive and emotional goals and adopting Universal Concepts as guidelines could reconnect users, providing awareness and motivation. Concepts such as love, death, and similar ideas are called "universal" because they refer to experiences or emotions that transcend cultures and are similarly recognized by people worldwide. Some are stronger, immediately recognized and not only activate curiosity and emotions, but they also solicit action, leading to a behavioural change. Examples of Interactive Applications with and without the adoption of Universal Concepts will be described, demonstrating the potential of this approach for the design of Digital Heritage applications.

Sofia Pescarin is senior researcher at CNR ISPC (Istituto di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale), in Florence, where she is chairing the group of the Digital Heritage Innovation Lab (DHiLab). She has a degree in Humanities (Topography of Ancient Italy), a master in Exhibition Design and PhD in History and Computing. She has been a researcher from 2000 to 2019 at CNR ITABC (Istituto di Tecnologie Applicate ai Beni Culturali) where she has co-chaired the Virtual Heritage Lab (VHlab). She teaches "Interaction Media Design" (INF 01) at the Master "Digital Humanities and Digital Knowledge" of the University of Bologna. She is since 2017 Chief Editor of the Journal Elsevier "Digital Application in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage" (DAACH). She has been the technical coordinator of the project "virtual museum of the Scrovegni Chapel" Padova (2003). She has obtained the e-content award with the open source web3d project "Virtual Rome". Between 2008 and 2017, she was the scientific director of "Archeovirtual", an exhibition of interactive projects applied to Cultural Heritage, within the Mediterranean Expo BMTA in Paestum. She has also chaired the national summer school of "Virtual Archaeology", supported by CNR and University of Padova, until 2017. Between 2011 and 2014 she has been the scientific coordinator of the FP7 Network of Excellence V-MUST.NET, dedicated to Virtual Museums. During V-MUST, she has been curating the international exhibition "Keys To Rome" (Le chiavi di Roma) in 2014, organised parallelly in 4 museums. She has coordinated the Italian research unit of the H2020 REVEAL project, dedicated to Videogames and Game Based Learning, during which she has worked at the game design of "A Night in the Forum" (Una notte nel Foro) for Playsstation VR. Currently she is the scientific coordinator of the EU project PERCEIVE (Perceptive Enhanced Realities of Colored collEctions through AI and Virtual Experiences) and WP leader of the PNRR project CHANGES. She has written more than 100 scientific papers. She has published the books: "Roma. Guida alla città eterna" Whitestar (1997), "Reconstructing ancient landscape" (Ed. Archaeolingua, 2009), "ARCHEOFOSS" (Archeologia e Calcolatori: 2010), 2013 Digital Heritage Congress Expo Vol 3 (ed. CNR 2013), "Keys to Rome: Roman culture, virtual museums" (ed.CNR, 2014), editing the special issues: "Digital Heritage Interactive Applications" (2019), and "Digital Heritage Science and Infrastructures". Her last book "Videogames, Ricerca, Patrimonio culturale" (ed. open access Franco Angeli 2020).