Evan Suma Rosenberg

Evan Suma Rosenberg is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Their research concerns virtual reality, human-computer interaction and 3D user interfaces. Their work includes redirected walking, spatial interaction and cybersickness, with an emphasis on how people perceive and move through virtual spaces.

Reviewed 21 October 2026. Official academic history and awards, original redirected-walking and spatial-interface studies, cybersickness results and limits About review dates.

Education and academic career

Suma Rosenberg earned a B.A. in computer science from Ithaca College in 2005 and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2010. Their doctoral adviser was Larry F. Hodges. They subsequently worked at the University of Southern California before joining Minnesota in 2018, where they were promoted to associate professor in 2022.

Period	Appointment
2010-2012	Postdoctoral research associate, USC Institute for Creative Technologies
2012-2013	Senior research associate, USC Institute for Creative Technologies
2013-2018	Research assistant professor, USC Department of Computer Science
2018-2022	Assistant professor, University of Minnesota Department of Computer Science & Engineering
From 2022	Associate professor in the same Minnesota department

The appointment dates are listed in their university-hosted curriculum vitae.

At Minnesota, Suma Rosenberg's Illusioneering Lab studies immersive interfaces, perception and interaction in virtual and mixed reality. Its projects also address motion and gesture interfaces and the capture of real objects and people for virtual environments.

Research

Walking and spatial illusions

Suma Rosenberg was the first author of the 2012 paper Impossible Spaces, which investigated virtual buildings with overlapping rooms. The renderer shows only the appropriate room at a time, allowing different virtual interiors to occupy some of the same physical floor area. A 19-participant experiment tested recognition of the overlap and distance estimates; a second, qualitative experiment involved 17 participants, three of whom had taken part in the first. Detection depended on room dimensions and participants' prior knowledge. The paper did not establish a universal overlap threshold or test the effects on acquiring spatial knowledge formally.

With Jerald Thomas, they developed the Push/Pull Reactive (P2R) algorithm, published in 2019. It derives a steering direction from an artificial potential function, with obstacles repelling the simulated walker. The paper compared P2R with a steer-to-center algorithm in empty spaces and layouts containing obstacles, and investigated reset strategies for reorienting the walker. The evaluation used computer simulations, rather than a human walking experiment; the reported comparisons therefore concern the tested layouts and simulated paths.

The 2020 paper Towards Physically Interactive Virtual Environments, coauthored with Thomas and Courtney Hutton Pospick, extended this work to reactive environmental alignment. Redirection changes the relationship between physical and virtual coordinates, which can leave a virtual object separated from its physical proxy. The proposed algorithm combines obstacle avoidance with attraction toward a desired alignment, seeking to restore that relationship for physical interaction. Its evaluation was simulation-based. Residual alignment error and the need for resets remained practical limitations, particularly for small objects requiring precise contact.

Spatial authoring interfaces

Hutton Pospick and Suma Rosenberg's 2023 research examined creating and editing three-dimensional paths. An initial augmented reality interface used Magic Leap One and was evaluated in a formative study completed by 20 participants. The subsequent experiment used VR to simulate an AR task, with 40 participants completing the study and 36 included in its analysis. It compared waypoint placement methods alongside two editing techniques: manipulating a path with both hands, and drawing a path within a miniature representation of the environment. The latter, called bulldozer, used one hand in its final design. The authors cautioned that results from the VR experiment might change with the more restricted field of view of an AR headset, and that adapting the interfaces to physical robotic systems required further work.

Cybersickness and peripheral teleportation

Suma Rosenberg coauthored the 2025 study Peripheral Teleportation, led by Tongyu Nie. The technique replaces peripheral imagery during controller-driven movement with blended views from cameras that move discretely through the virtual scene while following the user's physical head movement. The central view continues to move continuously. It aims to reduce peripheral optical flow from artificial locomotion while retaining scene content.

In a between-subjects experiment with 90 participants using a Meta Quest 2, the technique produced lower discomfort ratings during exposure and longer task duration than either a black peripheral restrictor or an unrestricted control. Changes in Simulator Sickness Questionnaire scores, visibility ratings and presence measures did not differ significantly. Participants navigated a particular outdoor city scene, and the sample was aged 19-27; the findings do not establish equal benefits across environments or populations.

Teaching, service and recognition

In a September 2025 university interview, Suma Rosenberg described teaching programming for interactive computer graphics and games, and a course on virtual reality and 3D interaction. They also discussed mentoring students in research combining perceptual questions with practical VR interface problems. Their university profile lists the George W. Taylor Career Development Award in 2022.

The 2020 reactive alignment paper received a Best Paper Award at the ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology, shared with Thomas and Hutton Pospick. Suma Rosenberg served as a general chair of IEEE VR in 2017. They were inducted into the IEEE VGTC Virtual Reality Academy in its 2025 class.