On December 17, 2024, Isabela Nardi da Silva successfully defended her doctoral thesis “Design, implementation and evaluation of an architecture for the deployment of hybrid remote laboratories using extended reality technologies.” The defense marked the completion of a joint supervision (cotutelle) between the University of Deusto (Spain) and the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) (Brazil). The thesis was supervised by Professors Javier García-Zubía and Unai Hernández-Jayo at the University of Deusto, and by Professors João Bosco da Mota Alves and Gertrudes Aparecida Dandolini at UFSC.
The dissertation introduces the concept of eXtended Remote Laboratories (XRL) — a term coined by the author to describe laboratories that integrate remote experimentation with extended reality (XR) technologies such as virtual and augmented reality. The research includes a systematic review of XRL developments from 2000 to 2023, the design and implementation of an architectural framework for such systems, and the evaluation of a prototype involving 150 students from a Brazilian public high school. Results demonstrate that, compared with a conventional remote lab, the prototype achieved higher user acceptance in terms of immersion, usability, and perceived utility — confirming the pedagogical potential of XR integration in online experimentation.
This achievement also reflects the IAOE’s strong commitment to supporting early-career researchers and fostering new academic contributions that strengthen the global community in online and remote engineering education. Research efforts like this help advance the field and ensure its continued innovation and academic growth.
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The full thesis is publicly available via
🔗Dialnet and the
🔗Federal University of Santa Catarina repository.
