Hello, there! Welcome to my personal website :) 

I am an Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Postdoctoral Fellow at DEVCOM US Army Research Laboratory (ARL-West). I completed my Ph.D. in Computer Science at Mississippi State University, USA. I was advised by Professor J. Edward Swan II as part of the Spatial Perception And Augmented Reality Lab (SPAAR Lab). I also completed my M.Sc. in Computer Science at Mississippi State University under the supervision of Dr. Ed Swan. I received my bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology (CUET), Bangladesh. I worked as a research intern at the University of Southern California (USC) Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) under the lab of DEVCOM US Army Research Laboratory (ARL WEST).

Research interest: 

• Augmented Reality

• Applied and Visual Perception

• Eye Tracking

• Virtual Reality

• Human-Computer Interaction

Current Research: My current research focuses on estimating perceptual depth changes with human visual system components using eye-tracking technology in real, augmented, and virtual reality. My research also concentrates on developing and validating a perceptual imaging technique to improve the clarity of out-of-focus graphical information in Augmented Reality (AR). Another goal of my research is to explore the impact of context switching, focal distance switching, and transient focal blur on human performance in the AR system. 

News:

• April 2023: I am delighted to share that I will join as a tenure track Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Colorado State University this coming Fall 2023 (August 2023). I will have openings for multiple fully funded Ph.D. positions to join my research group. I will provide detailed information about this later. However, feel free to contact me via email if you are interested in my research! 

• January 2023:  I am going to serve on the organizing committee of the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) 2023, as one of the publication chairs!

• October 2022:

  • BIG NEWS: I am delighted that I defended my Ph.D. dissertation successfully! What a journey! 

  • I have started working as an ORAU Fellow at DEVCOM US Army Research Laboratory (ARL-West)!

• May 2022: I am happy to share that I’m starting a new position as a Summer Research Intern at the University of Southern California (USC) Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT). More specifically, at US DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL West). I am excited to research augmented reality,  human visual systems, and eye-tracking during the internship.

• April 2022:

  •  Excited to share that we (Jens Grubert, Florian Echtler, Verena Biener, Mohammed Safayet Arefin, and J. Edward Swan II) are going to organize the 2nd Workshop on Replication in Extended Reality (WoRXR) at IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), 2022.  

    • Here is the workshop link: https://sites.google.com/view/worxr2022/home 

• March 2022:

  • Conference paper accepted! Our (Mohammed Safayet Arefin, J. Edward Swan II, Russell Cohen Hoffing, Steven M. Thurman) submission "Estimating Perceptual Depth Changes with Eye Vergence and Interpupillary Distance using an Eye Tracker in Virtual Reality" has been accepted in the 14th ACM Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications (ETRA2022). 

    • • This research is the outcome of my Summer 2021 internship and is based on the collaboration with US DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL-WEST). 

• February 2022:

  • Excited to attend the Vision Sciences Society (VSS) conference for the first time! Our (Mohammed Safayet Arefin, J. Edward Swan II, Russell Cohen Hoffing, Steven M. Thurman) abstract “Tracking Perceptual Depth Changes with Eye Vergence and Inter-Pupillary Distance in a Virtual Reality Environment ” has been accepted as an in-person Poster presentation at the 2022 Vision Sciences Society (VSS) Annual Meeting in St. Pete Beach, Florida.  

    • • This research is the outcome of my Summer 2021 internship and is based on the collaboration with US DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL-WEST). 

• January 2022: 

  • • Journal paper accepted! Our paper has been ACCEPTED into the IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG) Special Issue on the 2022 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR).   [Pre-Print] 

    • Our First Child! I and my wife (Farzana Alam Khan) are blessed with a baby boy at 12:16am on January 1! What a great start of the new year, 2022! Best moment our life! Our baby boy is already featured as "New Year's Baby" in the Starkville Daily News! Check this out [Link]  

• December 2021: 

  • I am going to serve on the organizing committee of the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), 2022 as one of the publication chairs! [Conference Link]

• October 2021:

  • • 1st Workshop on Replication in Extended Reality (WoRXR) at ISMAR 2021 is a success, and presented a tutorial on "Replication Typologies and Studies in XR: Current Scenario of Replication in Human computer Interaction, Replication studies in XR research". Check out my presentation material [PDF]

    • Our conference paper is presented by Farzana Alam Khan. Check out the paper [Paper Link]

    • Presented a workshop paper at PERCxR - Perceptual and Cognitive Issues in XR  in IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) 2021. [Paper Link]

• September 2021: 

  • • Featured in the Newsroom of Bagley College of Engineering of Mississippi State University, USA. [LINK]

    • Featured on the Facebook page of Mississippi State University Department of Computer Science and Engineering. [LINK]

    • Featured on the LinkedIn page of Mississippi State University Department of Computer Science and Engineering. [LINK]

• August 2021: 

  • A big news for me! I am the winner of the Graduate Oral Competition of the 2021 CCDC – US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Summer Student Symposium for my summer internship work.  I was selected out of 10 fellow graduate student interns to represent the Human Research and Engineering Division (HRED) at this symposium. Every summer, the Army Research Lab hosts hundreds of student interns, but only the best in each division are given slots to orally present their internship research.  Considering all of the ARL divisions, I won first place over approximately 100 summer graduate interns of the DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory! I am really thankful to my ARL mentors; the research scientists of ARL; Dr. Russell and Dr. Steven. They are totally amazing. I learned many things from them this summer. It was totally a team effort. Still can't believe this! What a wonderful summer I had! 

• July 2021: 

  • • Workshop paper accepted! Our (Mohammed Safayet Arefin, Nate Phillips, Alexander Plopski, J. Edward Swan II) paper entitled “Effects of a Distracting Background and Focal Switching Distance in an Augmented Reality System” has been accepted at PERCxR - Perceptual and Cognitive Issues in XR  in IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) 2021.

    • Conference paper accepted! Our (Farzana Alam Khan, Veera Venkata Ram Murali Krishna Rao Muvva, Dennis Wu, Mohammed Safayet Arefin, Nate Phillips, J. Edward Swan II) paper entitled “Measuring the Perceived Three-Dimensional Location of Virtual Objects in Optical See-Through Augmented Reality” has been accepted as a conference paper at the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) 2021.

• June 2021:

  •  Excited to share that we (Jens Grubert, Florian Echtler, Mohammed Safayet Arefin, J. Edward Swan II) are going to organize the 1st Workshop on Replication in Extended Reality (WoRXR) at ISMAR 2021. Here is the workshop link: https://sites.google.com/view/replicationinxr/ 

• May 2021: 

  • I am going to serve on the organizing committee of the IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR 2022) as one of the publication chairs! [Conference Link]

• April 2021:  

  • I got a summer research internship at the University of Southern California (USC). More specifically, at USC's Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), under US Army Research Laboratory (ARL West). I am excited to research the human visual system, eye-tracking, and cognitive neuroscience during the internship.  

• March 2021: 

  • For the first time, I am going to serve on the organizing committee of the IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR 2021) as one of the publication chairs! [Conference Link]

• February 2021: 

  • For the first time, I am going to serve on the organizing committee of the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), 2021 as one of the publication chairs! [Conference Link]

• January 2021: 

  • • Tutorial Accepted! Our (My advisor: Ed Swan and I) tutorial entitled “The Replication Crisis in Empirical Science: Implications for Human Subject Research in Mixed Reality” has been accepted for presentation at the IEEE VR 2021 Conference! 

    • My doctoral research has been accepted at the Doctoral Consortium of the IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR - 2021).

• December 2020: 

  • Officially, PhD Candidate! Successfully passed the PhD Preliminary/Comprehensive Exam. 

• November 2020: 

  • Conducted Tutorial with my Advisor (Dr. Ed Swan) at IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), 2020.

• May 2020: 

  • Completed my M.Sc. in Computer Science. (see Education)

• March 2020: 

  • Best Poster: Honorable Mention Award at IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR - 2020).