Curriculum Vitae

Wolfgang Stuerzlinger

Original spelling: Wolfgang Stürzlinger

School of Interactive Arts + Technology
Simon Fraser University, Surrey 2788
250-13450 102 Avenue
Surrey, BC V3T 0A3
Canada
E-mail: w.s@sfu.ca
WWW page: http://vvise.iat.sfu.ca/people/wolfgang-stuerzlinger

Personal Information

Born in Wels, Austria.
Languages: German, English, French.

Education

Dec. 2000: Habilitation (Dr. habil.) in Computer Science, Johannes Kepler Univ. Linz, Austria. Thesis title: Bildgenerierung (in German).
Feb. 1991 - Apr. 1993: Graduate student at the Vienna Univ. of Technology, Austria. Dr. (Ph.D) in Computer Science, Apr. 1993. Advisor: Prof. W. Barth, thesis title: Radiosity with Voronoi Diagrams and Discontinuity Meshes (in German).
Oct. 1985 - Nov. 1989: Student at the Vienna Univ. of Technology, Austria. Dipl.-Ing. (M.Sc) in Computer Science, Nov. 1989. Advisor: Prof. Brockhaus, thesis title: C-Compiler for the VIP-RISC processor (in German).

Professional Positions

Professor, School of Interactive Arts + Technology, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada.
Associate Member, School of Computing Science, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada.
Member of the Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, Canada.
Member of Graduate Program in Computer Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, Canada.

Employment & Sabbatical Visits

Jan - Mar. 2020: Visiting Professor at University College London, UK.
Sep. 2014 - present: Full Professor, School of Interactive Arts + Technology, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada.
Jan. 2011 - Aug. 2014: Full Professor, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, Canada.
May 2012 - May 2012: Visiting Professor at University of Würzburg, Germany
Nov. 2011 - Mar. 2012: Visiting Professor at HITLab New Zealand, Christchurch
July 2003 - Dec. 2010: Associate Professor, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, Canada.
Feb. 2005 - Apr. 2005: Visiting Professor, InSitu, Univ. Paris-Sud, France, AR Group, Technical Univ. of Munich, Germany, Institute for Simulation and Graphics, Univ. of Magdeburg, Germany.
Sep. 1998 - June 2003: Assistant Professor, Dept. of Computer Science, York University, Toronto, Canada.
Apr. 1998 - Aug. 1998: Postgraduate researcher at Dept. of Graphics and Parallel Processing (GUP), Univ. of Linz, Austria.
Jan. 1997 - Mar. 1998: Visiting scholar at Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, USA.
Feb. 1995 - Dec. 1996: Postgraduate researcher at Dept. of Graphics and Parallel Processing (GUP), Univ. of Linz, Austria.
Oct. 1992 - Jan. 1995: Univ. Assistant (research, teaching and administrative duties) at Dept. of Graphics and Parallel Processing (GUP), Univ. of Linz, Austria.
Feb. 1991 - Sep. 1992: Univ. Assistant (research, teaching and administrative duties) at Institute of Computer Graphics, Vienna Univ. of Technology, Austria.
July 1982 - present: Cofounder of RZL Computer Software GesmbH, Austria, producing software for tax consultants. Until 1989 systems programmer, 1989 - 1991 head of programming, and since 1991 consulting activities.

People Supervised

Please refer to the lists of people currently in the VVISE lab and alumni.

Awards, Fellowships, Honours

Nomination for Best Paper Award for ACM VRST 2025 paper Tunnels vs. Wires: A Comparative Analysis of Two 3D Steering Tasks in Virtual Environments.
Honorable Mention Award for IEEE ISMAR 2025 paper Exploring and Modeling the Effects of Eye-Tracking Accuracy and Precision on Gaze-Based Steering in Virtual Environments.
CAPES Thesis Award for Jorge A. Wagner and his supervisors, Aug. 2025.
Member of the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) Academy, Apr. 2025.
Honorable Mention Award for IEEE VR 2024 paper Analyzing User Behaviour Patterns in a Cross-virtuality Immersive Analytics System.
Inclusion of paper High Dynamic Range Display Systems in ACM's Seminal Graphics Papers: Pushing the Boundaries, vol. 2.
Member of the IEEE Visualization and Graphics Technical Community (VGTC) Virtual Reality Academy, Mar. 2023.
Distinguished Researcher Award in 2020 from the Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology at Simon Fraser University.
Michael J Sweeney Best Student HCI Paper Award for Graphics Interface 2019 paper WiseType: A Tablet Keyboard with Color-Coded Visualization and Various Editing Options for Error Correction.
Best Paper Award for interaction 2017 paper Analysis and modeling of the operation of steering a connected linear route.
Reviewer's Choice Award for Interact 2017 paper Automatic Generation of User Interface Layouts for Alternative Screen Orientations.
Best Demonstration Award for ACM SUI 2016 paper Shift-Sliding and Depth Pop for 3D Positioning.
ACM CHI 2016 Best Paper Honorable Mention Award for User Elicitation on Single-hand Microgestures.
Recognition of Service Award, ACM SIG Governing Board, 2013.
Gitte Lindgaard award (best paper) for OzCHI 2013 paper Pseudo-Pressure Detection and Its Use in Predictive Text Entry on Touchscreens.
Recognition of Service Award, ACM SIG Governing Board, 2012.
Honorable Mention award, for IEEE 3D UI Contest 2012 submission Escape from Meadwyn 4: A Cross-platform Environment for Collaborative Navigation Tasks.
Certificate of Appreciation (for outstanding leadership), IEEE Technical Committee on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2008 and 2009.
Merit Award, York University, Nov. 2005.
Featured on York University's newly redesigned research WWW Site, Oct. 2003.
Junior Faculty Research Award, York University, 1999-2002.
Erwin-Schrödinger Fellowship, Austrian Science Foundation (FWF), No. TEC-J01317, Intuitive Three-dimensional Modeling, Oct. 1996.
Günther Enderle Award (best technical paper) for Eurographics '96 paper Three Dimensional Image Cache for Virtual Reality.

Board Appointments, Steering Committees

Member of SFU Strategic Research Advisory Committee, 2024-current.
Member of the SFU-NRC Steering Committee, 2020-current.
Member of SFU IP Strategy Advisory Board 2020-2023.
Member of the Steering Committee for Visual Computing at Simon Fraser University, 2018-current.
Member of the Vancouver Institute for Visual Analytics (VIVA) Steering Committee, 2014-current.
Member of the ACM Spatial User Interaction Steering Committee, 2019-2026.
Member of NSERC Computer Science Evaluation Group/Panel 1507, 2022-2025.
Member of the SFU Research Ethics Board, 2020-2021.
Acting Director of the Vancouver Institute for Visual Analytics (VIVA) Steering Committee, 2020.
Chair of the ACM Spatial User Interaction Steering Committee, 2013-2018.
Member of the ACM SIGCHI Council of Steering Committee Chairs, 2015-2017.
Member of IEEE 3D UI Steering Committee, 2006-2017.
Chair of IEEE 3D UI Steering Committee, 2012-2013.
Member of the IEEE 3DCVE Steering Committee, 2014-2016.
Member of the GRAND NCE Board of Directors, 2010-2015.

Editorial Boards & Chairing of Scientific Events

Member of editorial board for IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2020-2025.
Member of editorial board for Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 2019-2022.
Member of editorial board for Proceedings of the ACM on Human Computer Interaction, 2017-2020.
Member of editorial board for IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, department editor for Spatial Interfaces 2015-2017.
Member of editorial board for Journal of Computer Graphics Techniques (former Journal of Graphics Tools), 2001-2013.
Member of editorial board for Journal of WSCG, 2001-2005.
Associate chair for ACM CHI 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2026.
General co-chair EuroXR 2025.
Member of the supercommittee for IEEE Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR) 2025.
Scientific program co-chair EuroXR 2023.
Co-chair Workshop on Emerging Novel Input Devices and Interaction Techniques (NIDIT) at IEEE VR 2021, 2022, 2024-2026.
IEEE VGTC VR Best Dissertation Award Selection Committee 2023-2024.
Co-chair Workshop on Computational Methodologies for Understanding, Automating, and Evaluating User Interfaces at CHI 2024.
Co-chair Workshop on The Future of Computational Approaches for Understanding and Adapting User Interfaces at CHI 2023.
Co-chair Workshop on Computational Approaches for Understanding, Generating, and Adapting User Interfaces at CHI 2022.
Scientific program chair for ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST) 2012, 2020.
Associate chair for ACM UIST 2013, 2020, 2021.
Co-chair for Socio-Technical Aspects of Text Entry, Workshop at MobileHCI 2018.
Co-chair for Spatial Interaction in Games, VR and AR, Workshop at ACM Interactive Surfaces and Spaces 2016.
Co-chair for Dagstuhl Seminar on Immersive Analytics, June 2016.
Scientific program chair for ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction (SUI) 2013, 2014, 2015.
Co-organizer for IEEE Vis Workshop on 3DVis 2014: Does 3D really make sense for Data Visualization?
Chair and program chair for IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces (3DUI) 2007.
Scientific program chair for IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces (3DUI) 2006, 2008.
Publicity chair for ACM UIST 2005.
Co-chair for IEEE VR 2005 Workshop on New Directions in 3D User Interfaces.
General chair and program committee chair for Graphics Interface 2002.
Program committee chair for Eurographics Workshop on Virtual Environments 2002.
Posters chair for Graphics Interface 2000.
Member of organizing committee for ACPC Paragraph Workshop 1994.

Membership in Scientific Program Committees

EuroXR 2026
IEEE Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR) 2001-2002, 2007-2009, 2018, 2020-2023, 2025
Fostering the VR, AR and MR Research Community in Canada Workshop at Graphics Interface 2024
IEEE Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) 2005-2010, 2021, 2023-2024
Workshop TEXT2030 - Shaping Text Entry Research in 2030 at MobileHCI 2022
Workshop for Computational Approaches for Understanding, Generating, and Adapting User Interfaces at ACM CHI 2022
ACM Interactive Surfaces and Spaces (ISS) 2020-2021, journal paper track
ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI) 2020
Workshop of Immersive Analytics (IA): Envisioning Future Productivity for Immersive Analytics at CHI 2020
Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality (SVR) 2019
ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST) 2003, 2007-2010, 2013, 2018-2019
Graphics Interface (GI) 2000-2003, 2017, 2019
IEEE Symposium on Big Data Visual Analytics (BDVA) 2015, 2017-2018
IEEE Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality 2018
SAVR 2017 Software for Augmented and Virtual Reality, Workshop at SPLASH 2017
Immersive Analytics: Exploring Future Interaction and Visualization Technologies for Data Analytics, Workshop at ACM Interactive Surfaces and Spaces 2016-2017
Virtual and Augmented Reality Systems, Session at IEEE Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics 2017
ACM Tangible, Embodied and Embedded Interaction (TEI) 2017
ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction (SUI) 2016
Workshop on Collaborative Virtual Environments (3DCVE) @ IEEE VR 2016
Expressive (Joint Symposium on Computational Aesthetics, Sketch-Based Interfaces and Modeling, and Non-Photorealistic Animation and Rendering) 2014
Workshop on Document Changes: modeling, detection, storage and visualization, at ACM DocEng 2013-2014
ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and Games (i3D) 2001, 2005-2006, 2009-2010, 2012-2013
OzCHI 2012
International Symposium Sketch-Based Interfaces and Modeling (SBIM) 2005-2006, 2011
IFIP Interact 2005, 2007, 2011
ACM Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces (ITS) 2010
IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces (3DUI) 2005-2008, 2010
Foundations of Digital Games 2010
IEEE TIC-STH Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics 2009
ACM Futureplay 2008-2009
IEEE 3-D Imaging and Modeling (3DIM) 2007
Eurographics Symposium on Virtual Environments (EGVE) 2002, 2004, 2006
IEEE Procams 2006
Eurographics (EG) 2005
NordiCHI Short Papers 2004
ACM SIGGRAPH Posters 2004
International Conference in Central Europe on Computer Graphics and Visualization 1996-2000
Eurographics Symposium on Rendering (EGSR) 1998
Compugraphics 1995-1997
Eurographics Workshop on Parallel Graphics and Visualization 1996

Reviewer for many Canadian and international funding organizations as well as international journals and conferences.

Invited Talks, Courses, Presentation in Panels, etc.

Why are we not working in Extended Reality every day? Keynote at ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST), Montreal, Nov. 12, 2025.
Participant in Panel on Lab Formation and Management in Future Faculty Forum at IEEE VR, Mar., 2025.
Towards Better User Interfaces for 3D and Large Displays, University of Queensland, Australia, Feb. 2025.
Cross-reality Immersive Visual Analytics, VINCI Seminar, Vancouver, Canada, Mar. 27, 2024.
Participant in Panel on Lab Formation and Management in Future Faculty Forum at IEEE ISMAR, Oct. 16, 2023.
Cross-reality Immersive Visual Analytics, Keynote at Visual Analytics in Immersive Environments Workshop at IEEE ISMAR 2022, Singapore, Oct. 21, 2022.
Better User Interfaces for Occasionally Failing Technologies, SFU FCAT Research and Teaching Forum, Vancouver, Canada, May 12, 2022.
Efficient Authoring of Resizable Graphical User Interfaces, Keynote at Computational Approaches for Understanding, Generating, and Adapting User Interfaces Workshop at CHI 2022, New Orleans, Apr. 30, 2022.
Presentation in panel on XR research during COVID-19 at IEEE NIDIT, Mar. 13, 2022.
Current Challenges and Solutions for Virtual and Augmented Reality, Univ. College London, Nov. 2021.
Current Challenges and Solutions for Virtual and Augmented Reality, Keynote at ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction 2021, online event, Nov. 10, 2021.
Digital Twinning, The GovTech Defence Series: Digital Twinning, VR and AR, online event, Oct. 2021.
Towards Better User Interfaces for 3D and Large Displays, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, Nov. 2020.
Evaluating COVID-19 Spread Visualization Methods, BC COVID-19 Research and Collaboration Symposium, Sep. 1, 2020.
Better User Interfaces for Occasionally Failing Technologies, Keynote at Graphics Interface 2019, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, May 31, 2019.
Towards Better Devices and Interaction Techniques for 3D, Keynote at 1st Workshop on Emerging Novel Input Devices and Interaction Techniques (NIDIT) at IEEE VR, Osaka, Japan, Mar. 2019.
Towards Better 3D User Interfaces, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Nov. 2017, McGill University, Montreal, Dec. 2017, UC Merced, Feb 2019.
Immersive Analytics, Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality for Space Science and Exploration at the Keck Institute for Space Studies at JPL, Caltech, Jan. 30, 2018.
Presentation in panel on Spatial User Interaction at ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction, Oct. 17, 2017.
Immersive Analytics, Vancouver Data Visualization Meetup @ Tableau Canada, Feb. 8, 2017.
Towards Better 3D User Interfaces, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, Apr. 2016, Microsoft Research, Redmond, USA, Aug. 2016, SFU School of Computing Science Colloquium Series, Nov. 2016.
Towards Better User Interfaces for 3D, Keynote at Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality (SVR) 2016, Gramado, Brazil, June 2016.
Virtual Reality + Visual Analytics, Keynote at Nii Shonan Seminar on Immersive Analytics, Shonan Village, Japan, Feb. 2016.
Visual Analytics, President's Dream Colloqium on Engaging Big Data, Simon Fraser University, Feb. 2016.
Is 'Iron Man 2' Right? Re-Investigating 3D User Interfaces, Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble, France, Mar. 2015, University of Tokyo, Japan, Apr. 2015.
Interactive Alternatives in Visual Analytics, Keynote at CANVAS 2014, Canadian Visual Analytics School, Vancouver, Canada, July 30, 2014.
Is 'Iron Man 2' Right? Re-Investigating 3D User Interfaces, Keynote at MHCI 2013, International Conference on Multimedia and Human Computer Interaction, Toronto, Canada, July 19, 2013.
Is 'Iron Man 2' Right? Re-Investigating 3D User Interfaces, Keynote at i-Society 2013, International Conference on Information Society, Toronto, Canada, June 25, 2013.
Presentation in panel Great Thinkers at Touch Gesture Motion 2013, May 22, 2013.
Is 'Iron Man 2' Right? Re-Investigating 3D User Interfaces, Keynote at Touch Gesture Motion 2013, as part of Displayweek 2013, Vancouver, Canada, May 22, 2013.
Is 'Iron Man 2' Right? Re-Investigating 3D User Interfaces, Univ. of Aalborg, Denmark, May 2012, Univ. of Würzburg, Germany, Univ. of Western Ontario, Canada, June 2012, McMaster University, Canada, Apr. 2013, University of Toronto, Canada, June 2013.
Stereo vs. One-Eyed Cursors and Implications for Touch Interfaces, Dagstuhl Seminar Touching the 3rd Dimension, Germany, Apr. 2012.
Is 'Iron Man 2' Right? Re-Investigating 3D User Interfaces, TEDx Talk, Toronto, Canada, Nov. 2010.
Is 'Iron Man 2' Right? Re-Investigating 3D User Interfaces, TU Munich, Germany, Dec. 2010, SFU, Vancouver, Univ. of Manitoba, Canada, July 2011, Univ. of Waterloo, Oct. 2011, HITlabNZ, New Zealand, Dec. 2011, Univ. of Otago, Univ. of Auckland, New Zealand, Feb. 2012.
Is 'Minority Report' Right? Reflections on 3D User Interfaces, Royal Canadian Institute, Toronto, Canada, Feb. 2010.
Guidelines for Developing 3D User Interfaces, Univ. Stuttgart, Germany, June 2009.
3D User Interfaces: Design, Implementation, Usability, together with 4 others, course at ACM CHI 2009, Mar. 2009.
3D Interaction for Desktops and Games, Invited talk at ACM Futureplay 2008, Toronto, Nov. 2008.
Next Generation 3D Manipulation Techniques, Dagstuhl Seminar on Virtual Realities, Schloß Dagstuhl, Germany, June 2008.
Next Generation 3D Interface Techniques, Presentation at Panel "3D User Interfaces: Present and Future", IEEE 3DUI Symposium, Mar. 2008.
The Future of User Interfaces in Web 2.0, Presentation at CASCON Workshop on User Interface Design for Desktop and Web 2.0 Applications, Oct 2007.
Collaborative Creation of 3D Digital Models, Univ. of York, United Kingdom, June 2006, Univ. of Ontario Inst. of Technology, Apr. 2007.
Gestalt-Based Object Group Selection, Centre for Vision Research, York Univ., Feb. 2007.
Collaborative Creation of 3D Digital Models, Univ. of Paris-Sud, France, TU Munich, Univ. of Munich, Univ of Magdeburg, Univ. of Braunschweig, Univ. of Hamburg, Germany, Univ. of Klagenfurt, Austria, Mar.-Sep. 2005.
Model for non-Expert Text Entry Speed on 12-Button Phone Keypads and High Dynamic Range Display Systems, Microsoft Research, Redmond, April 2004.
Mentor for ThinkTank at Canadian Undergraduate Technology Conference, Toronto, Jan. 2004.
Virtual Lego: A Conceptual 3D Design System, TorCHI (Toronto Region's special interest group on Computer-Human Interaction), Dec. 2002.
Efficient Manipulation of Virtual Environments, Graz University of Technology, Austria, June 2002.
Efficient 3D Manipulation, Knowledge Media Design Institute Lecture Series, Univ. of Toronto, Apr. 2001.
MIVE: Multi-modal Interactive Virtual Environment, Univ. Bonn, June 2000, Univ. Linz, July 2000.
Optimized Image Generation Techniques in Computer Graphics, Centre for Vision Research, York University, Nov. 1998.
Real-time Walkthrough of Massive Models, Univ. Ulm, D, July 1998.
Reconstructing Material Properties from Video Images, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA, Dec. 1996.
Optimizing the Local Pass, Dagstuhl Seminar on Global Illumination, Schloß Dagstuhl, Germany, June 1996.
Computer Graphics Research at the Univ. of Linz, Technical Univ. of Brno, CZ, Apr. 1996.
Multimedia Demo for EXPO 1993 in Seoul, Korea, Hagenberg, A, Oct. 1994.
Realistic Image Generation with Radiosity Methods, Univ. Linz, A, Feb. 1994.
Radiosity with Voronoi Diagrams, Cornell Univ., Princeton Univ., USA, July 1992.

Patents (excerpt)

W. Stuerzlinger, Collaborative Pointing Devices.
L. Whitehead, G. Ward, W. Stuerzlinger, H. Seetzen, High dynamic range display devices.

Several other patents have been filed or are in preparation.

Professional Memberships

ACM, IEEE, CHCCS (Canada)

Research Support

Research projects supported by Adobe, NSERC, NCE, NRC, BC Digital Technology Supercluster, ORDCF, CFI, CRESTech, NSBRI, OGSST, CAE, IMAX, MDR, SGI, SFU, York University, Seneca College, and others.

Publications

Please refer to the separate list of publications.