XR Symposium
for GLOBAL SOUTH

The International XR Symposium for the Global South at IIT Madras concluded with powerful insights, hands-on demos and deep discussions on the future of immersive technologies. The day opened with Prof. M. Manivannan, Principal Investigator, XTIC, IIT Madras, who highlighted the Centre’s growing collaborations with PSUs and the need for accessible, inclusive XR solutions for India and beyond.

This was followed by Prof. Steven LaValle, University of Oulu, Finland, who urged a shift toward frugal XR—human-centric, perception-driven systems built on everyday hardware rather than costly, closed platforms.

Chief Guest, Dr. Obijiofor Aginam, UNESCO Director, MGIEP, brought a vital perspective on ethics, empathy and agency in an AI-driven future of education, emphasizing that emerging technologies must complement—not replace—human guidance.

A live product demonstration by Meta showcased Project Aria Gen 2’s potential to accelerate human-centric AI research.

Across the venue, immersive stalls by Qualcomm, Meta and Haptics teams gave participants hands-on access to advanced XR and spatial computing technologies.

Panel discussions explored XR’s impact across automotive design, education, industrial workflows and user experience design—emphasizing contextual innovation, ethical adoption and stronger industry–academia collaboration.

Speaker sessions covered themes including natural interaction design, AI-driven immersive creation, healthcare and safety applications, calibration science, 6G-powered XR, IoT standards and multimodal learning. Together, they painted a cohesive picture of a future where XR and AI enable efficient, inclusive and scalable solutions for the Global South.

Overall, the XR Symposium positioned India as an emerging leader aiming to leverage XR for transformative socio-economic growth, particularly in the Global South, emphasizing frugal innovation and self-reliance in immersive technologies