II International Congress:
A Metaverse for The Good

Alicante, 11-13 June 2025

Part I

II EMRN Conference: “Exploring the Intersection of AI and the Metaverse” 11-12 June.

In this second edition of the EMRN Conference “A Metaverse for the Good”, we expect that discussions will focus on technical developments in particular in the intersection between the Metaverse and Artificial Intelligence, applications of AR/VR technologies in specific fields, and their societal, ethical and legal implications, in particular in relation with the protection of digital rights in the new technological environment. 

In the two days on the Conference we envisage 6 working sessions including the communications of the papers selected from our call for submissions, and panel discussions. This will be complemented with eight keynote speeches from prominent scholars in the field of Web 4.0 and artificial intelligence. However, the final program will depend on the papers and panels submitted.

 The Congress is organized in the framework of the Project on the Implementation of the Charter of Digital Rights financed by the public entity Red.es» and is part of the activities of the European Metaverse Research Network.

PROGRAM

Wednesday 11 June

11:00 – 11:45​

 Registration

Recurso 2

Registration

Recurso 2

11:45 – 12:00

Opening Remarks

Mel Slater, Researcher at Universitat de Barcelona, Coordinator of EMRN.

Aurelio López-Tarruella, Director of the Chair for the Responsible Development of the Metaverse, University of Alicante

Juan Mora, Vice-Principal for Research, University of Alicante.

12:00 – 13:00

Introductory Panel Discussion. “Inappropriate Social Interaction in the Metaverse”

Recurso 2

Laurynas Adomaitis (RISE), Beatrice de Gelder (Maastricht University), Mel Stater (UB),  Mavi Sanchez Vives (IDIBAPS), Michele Barbier (Inria).

Chair: Michele Barbier

13:00 – 14:15                     Lunch Break and Posters

 

tea

14:15 – 15:00

Keynote Speech

Recurso 2

«The Neuroscience of self-consciousness: Basic research, clinical applications, and contemplative practice«, Professor Olaf Blanke, Center for Neuroprosthetics, Ecole Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland

Chair: Mel Slater

15:00 – 15:45

 Session 1: «Virtual humans: Agents, avatars, and AI-driven personalities»

Recurso 2
  • “Synthetic selves: exploring identity construction through virtual avatars and AI in XR environments” (Mariachiara Tirinzoni)
  • “Extending Human–Co-Bot Interaction through the Smart Factory Metaverse and Embodied AI Assistants” (Giulio Jacucci)
  • “AI-Powered Metaverse Study: AGI and the Path to Ethical Superintelligence” (Christopher Lafayette)


Chair: Xueni Sylvia Pan

15:45 – 16:30                 Panel Discussion: “Living Virtual Machines”

 

Recurso 2

Doron Friedman, Beatrice de Gelder, Jonathan Giron.

Chair: Doron Friedman

16:30 – 17:00                       Coffee Break and Posters​

tea

17:00 – 17:45

Keynote Speech

Recurso 2

“Humans and AI in Virtual Worlds”, Professor Doron Friedman, Sammy Ofer School of Communications, Reichman University, Israel. 

Chair: Mavi Sanchez-Vives

17:45 – 18:45

Session 2: Ethical AI, Responsible and Legal Metaverse Design

Recurso 2
  • The Metaverse as an AI-powered Society of Control: Ethical Concerns on Autonomy, Self-determination and Surveillance (Anastasia Nefeli Vidaki)
  • Inhabiting the Metaverse: AI Agents, Their Risks, and the Quest for Trust (Anselm Küsters)
  • Governance for Web 4.0 and Virtual Worlds (Tom de Koninck).


Chair: Aurelio Lopez-Tarruella

18:45 – 19:30

 Posters Abstracts (Parallel Sessions)

Recurso 2

Room “Rector Ramón Martín Mateo”

  • A VR Application to Foster Prosocial Behavior in the Hospitality Sector (Domna Banakou)
  • The Rise and Fall in Production of Empathy-building Immersive Experiences Over A Decade (2015-2025) (Magdalena Igras-Cybulska)
  • Disability Centred Design and Interactive Machine Learning: A Co-creative Methodology for a more Accessible Metaverse (Clarice Hilton)
  • Keeping collaboration along transitions between places in VR (Majd Bitar)

Chair: Paweł Śniatała

Room “Vicente Gimeno Sendra”.

  • Discovering the Metaverse: New Copyright Challenges for User-Generated Content (Oscar Verdoire) 
  • Virtual Embodiment to Transform Attitudes and Behaviors Toward Gender-Based Harassment in the Metaverse (Isaac Calvin)
  • Your Personalized Spielberg Will See You Now: Authorship and Identity in AI-Generated Cinema (Ernesto Edwards)
  •  AI-Enabled crimes and AI-Empowered investigations: The role of artificial intelligence in metaverse criminal ecosystems (Gian Carlo Bovenzi)
  • Use of immersive data by medical practitioners for mental health prevention (Noah Richert)

Chair: Xueni Sylvia Pan

19:30 – Cocktail Dinner (at the venue)
 

 

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Thursday, 12 June​

09:15 – 10:00    Keynote Speech

Recurso 2

«The Metaverse and AI», Professor Yvonne Rogers, UCLIC, Computer Science Department, University College London, UK.

Chair: Marco Gillies 

10:00 – 11:00

Session 3: «Clinical and well-being applications of the Metaverse»

Recurso 2
  • Immersive Prevention Centers for Mental Health: Secondary and Tertiary Prevention in the Metaverse (Antoine Widmer)
  • Use of immersive data by medical practitioners for mental health prevention (Noah Richert)
  • Towards affective and personalized mixed reality experiences for mental health (Patricia Pons)
  • Kiin Platform: Using Immersive Training to Address Bias and Support Behavior Change (Bernhard Spanlang)

 

Chair: Pablo Cesar

11:00 – 11:30

Coffee Break and Posters

tea

11:30 – 12:15

Keynote Speech 

Recurso 2

“Virtual Humans”, Professor Frank Steinicke, Department of Informatics, Hamburg University, Germany.

Chair: Piotr Skrzypczynski

12:15 – 13:00

Panel Discussion: AI-Enhanced Immersive Environments for Lifelong Education and Career Counselling

Recurso 2

Lorena Gonzalez, Katarzyna Koba, Pablo Sanchez Guardiola

Chair: Ekaterina Prasolova‑Førland

13:00 – 14:30

Lunch Break and Posters

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14:30 – 15:15

Keynote Speech

Recurso 2

“Virtual Worlds and Society: A Science for Policy Perspective”, Miguel Barreda Angeles, Scientific Researcher at Joint Research Center, European Commission.

Chair: Yannick Prié

15:15 – 16:00

 Keynote Speech

Recurso 2

«Clinical and well-being applications of the Metaverse», Professor Mavi Sánchez-Vives, IDIBAPS (ICREA), Barcelona.

Chair: Xueni Sylvia Pan

16:30 – 17:00

Coffee Break and Posters

tea

16:30 – 17:30

Poster Abstracts (Parallel Sessions)

Recurso 2

Room “Rector Ramon Martin Mateo”

  • Building Sustainably on Mars: A Pedagogical Experience with Artificial Intelligence and Immersive Web Environments (Barbara Cleto)
  • Ethnography in the Metaverse (Majd Bitar)
  • Development and Evaluation of a Virtual Reality Training System for Precision Agriculture (Dominik Belter) 
  • A VR Platform for Home Neurorehabilitation with Remote Supervision (Piotr Skrzypczynski)
  • VR-generated illusion as a tool for limbs neurorehabilitation during hyperacute phase of ischemic stroke (Paweł Śniatała)

Chair: Michele di Dalmazi

Room “Vicente Gimeno Sendra”.

  • vER: Virtual Human Companionship for Patients in Preoperative Care (Aditya Pandhare)
  • The Convergence of Artificial Intelligence and the Metaverse in Orthopedic Healthcare: Emerging Applications and Research Directions (Tony Donegan)
  • Embodied AI and Multisensory VR for Skill Acquisition and Rehabilitation in the Metaverse (Yuke Pi)
  • Extended reality technologies for behavioral therapy and cognitive training for people with intellectual disability (Jesús Gutiérrez)

Chair: Raul Ruiz

17:30 – 18:15

Keynote Speech

Recurso 2

«Ethical Issues in the Metaverse», Professor Patrick Haggard, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL, UK.

Chair: Mel Slater

18:15 – 18:45

Conclusions – EMRN looking to the future.

Recurso 2

18:45

Cocktail Dinner (at the venue).

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Information

Registration fee: EUR 40.

Venue: Salón de Actos Ramon Martin Mateo, Facultad de Derecho, Universidad de Alicante.

Pre-registration (without payment) is now open: fill in this form and we will notify you once registration opens

 

The Call for Submissions is open until Friday 25th April 2025.

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