Sooraj K Babu

Sooraj K Babu

Doctoral Student

Games Engineering Group Julius-Maximilians-Universität

Hello there!

I am a Ph.D. student in Human-Computer Interaction at the Games Engineering Group, University of Würzburg. My research interests span across extended reality and user experience design. 

I served as a software engineer at AMMACHI Labs, Amrita University where much of my work was in virtual reality and serious games, haptics, social robotics, and computational thinking.  

Interests

  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Immersive Technologies
  • Serious Games
  • 21st Century Skills
  • Human-Robot Interaction

Education

  • Ph.D. student in HCI, 2020 - Present

    Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU), Würzburg

  • M.Tech. in E-Learning Technologies, 2014 - 2016

    Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, India.

  • B.E. in CS&E, 2010 - 2014

    Coorg Institute of Technology, Visvesvaraya Technological University, India

Projects

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All Virtual Reality Human-Robot Interaction Haptics Computational Thinking

Kappa: The Tangible Electronic Prototyping Kit to promote Tinkering among school children

Kappa is an Arduino shield developed on the theory of capacitance. It was used to enable real objects to interact with the computer.
Video

The Bar Bending Simulator

The flagship haptic simulator developed completely at AMMACHI Labs to train construction workforce on rebar bending reducing material wastage and efficiency

Virtual Motorbike Maintenance Course

Virtual reality based course to teach users various motorbike maintenance tasks

Pepe: The robot that encourages children to wash their hands

Pepe was a social robotic experiment to see how a robot encouraged students of rural India to wash their hands prior to having food and after using toilet.
Video

Virtual Reality for Communication Skills Training

The project investigated the possibility of using VR as a tool to train university students in improving their communication skills.

Featured Publications

Design and Perception of a Social Robot to Promote Hand Washing among Children in a Rural Indian School

We introduce ‘Pepe’, a social robot for encouraging proper handwashing behaviour among children. We discuss the motivation, …
R. Unnikrishnan, Amol Deshmukh, Shanker, Sooraj K. Babu, Parameswari Anitha, Rao R. Bhavani
DOI

Virtual reality learning environments for vocational education: A comparison study with conventional instructional media on knowledge retention.

Immersive learning environments are increasingly being adopted as modern alternative presentation modes in training scenarios. …
Sooraj K. Babu, Sooraj Krishna, R. Unnikrishnan, Rao R. Bhavani
DOI

Collaborative Game Based Learning of Post-Disaster Management: Serious Game on Incident Management Frameworks for Post Disaster Management

In the face of technological advancements, serious games are becoming more widely recognized as effective educational tools. This paper …
Sooraj K. Babu, Marcia L. McLain, Kamal Bijlani, R. Jayakrishnan, Rao R. Bhavani
DOI

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