2026

10.07.2026 Jared & the NetGauge Team: "NetGauge Games Platform: Connecting People and Place while Crowdsourcing Broadband Measurements" published in ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI). Read the Paper.

10.01.2026 Jared: "Co-designing Embodied Extended Reality Telehealth for Veteran Mental Health: From Movement Care to Whole Health" published in Frontiers in Digital Health. Read the Paper.

09.28.2026 Jared: "Investigating Variability and Malleability of Speech-Language Pathologists' Responsive Talk With Children: An Early-Efficacy Trial" published in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Read the Paper.

07.27.2026 Jared: NetGauge Games featured on 12 News: "NAU researchers developing Pokémon-style game to gather data necessary for broadband coverage." Watch the Story.

07.23.2026 Jared: The PHT Lab's playtesting with the Hozhoni Foundation is featured in SHERC's Fairness First Blog: "Playtesting Adaptive Health Technologies with Hozhoni Foundation."

07.17.2026 Jared: "Shh! Don't Tell Them I Use GenAI: Exploring How Participants Use Generative AI in Hackathons" published at the ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE 2026). Read the Paper.

07.05.2026 Shelby: Towards a Modular, Offline-First mHealth Template for Translational Reuse: From Sunrise to Farmer Mental Health Literacy, published in ACM Interactive Health. Read the Paper.

06.21.2026 Shelby: Demo: Sunrise - A Community Centered Mindfulness mHealth App for Rural Youth. Published in ACM MobiSys. Read the Extended Abstract. 

06.21.2026 Shelby: Poster: An Offline-First Modular mHealth Platform for Rural Youth Mental Wellness. Published in ACM MobiSys. Read the Extended Abstract. 

06.13.2026 Shelby: "Temporal awareness and ethical reflection: Chronopolitical considerations for HCI research" published at ACM Designing Interactive Systems. Read the Paper.

06.13.2026 Jared and Shelby: Co-organized the workshop "Designing for Dissensus: Arts-Based Methods for Generative Friction in Design" at ACM Designing Interactive Systems. Read the Extended Abstract.

06.13.2026 Shelby: Empowering Engagement: Designing for Sustainable and Playful Community Crowdsensing. Accepted to the ACM DIS Doctoral Consortium. Read the Extended Abstract. 

06.13.2026 Jared and Shelby: Facilitated workshop titled "Chasing Play Potentials in Place for Innovative Mobile Crowdsensing" at ACM's Designing Interactive Systems conference. Read the Extended Abstract. 

05.12.2026 Jared & the PHT Lab: Hosted the inaugural Hozhoni Gameorama with the Hozhoni Foundation, where community members playtested seven lab technologies: SpokeIt, NetGauge, AutMotion Studio, Immergo, CardioCare Quest, Project Sunrise, and Robomoji. Read the Story.

05.08.2026 Jared: Awarded Flinn Seed Grant with $100,000 to advance the mission of SpokeIt

04.24.2026 Jared: The PHT Lab is featured in the NAU Review. Read the Article.

04.09.2026 Shelby: Competed as a finalist in Northern Arizona University's 3-Minute Research Presentation.

04.04.2026 Hunter: Demo'd and presented on SpokeIt and AutMotion at the First-Annual Flagstaff Science On The Square

03.24.2026 Shelby: User Testing an mHealth Behavioral Health App for Hopi/Tewa Youth During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Usability Study. Read the Paper. 

02.20.2026 Jared: Awarded Flinn Faculty Fellowship with $300,000 to advance the mission of the Playful Health Technology Lab

02.19.2026 Hunter & Carly & Devin: Paper Accepted into CHI26 "Understanding Clinician Experiences with Game-Based Interventions for Autistic Children to Inform a Future Game Platform Focused on Improving Motor Skills ".

02.06.2026 Jared: Awarded the Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (OURCA) Research Mentor Professional Development Support Grant

01.30.2026 Jared & Hunter: Hosted NAU's Second Global Game Jam! See the Games Here!

01.08.2026 Hunter: Student Teaching: "IMG 421 - 3D Game Engines"

2025


      11.21.2025 Hunter & Carly & Devin: Win Second place at EGRFest25 with AutMotion

11.17.2025 Shelby: Unveiling and Engaging with the Humans of Networking Research, published in HotNets. Read the Paper. 

11.03.2025 Jared: NAU Immersive Media and Games Team Crowned the First-Ever AZ Game Cup Winner, beating ASU, UofA, GSU, and UAT.

10.27.2025 Alison: Co-Designing Culturally Grounded Mobile Health Games for Hypertension Management in Indigenous Communities, published in ASSETS. 

Read the paper. 

10.13.2025 Shelby: A Scenario-Based Design Pack for Exploring Multimodal Human-GenAI Relations, published in ICMI. 

Read the paper. 

10.3.2025 Taylen: Presented NetGauge Project at the 2025 American Indian Science and Engineering Society National Conference (AISES).

Read the Abstract.

6.2.2025 Hunter: Video Game-Based Intervention for physical/occupational therapy received the Maxwell-Lutz Community Impact Award.

6.1.2025 Jared: SpokeIt Patent Awarded

4.20.2025 Hunter: Became the President of the Game Design Club at NAU.

4.16.2025 Hunter: Video Game-Based Intervention for physical/occupational therapy received the Pheatt Family Research Award.

4.16.2025 Alison: ASSETS Full Paper for CardioCare Quest Accepted for Publication.

4.7.2025 Hunter & Carly & Cathy & Devin: Video Game-Based Intervention for Physical/Occupational Therapy received the Hooper Undergraduate Research Award.
3.17.2025 Hunter & Cathy: Took 5 members of the Game Design Club to the Game Developers Conference!

3.16.2025 Jared: Presents SpokeIt to RCMI Conference as SHERC Representative.

2.26.2025 Cathy: Game Design Club participated in judging for World Game Development Awards - Best Student Game.

2.20.2025 Jared: Publication on Gaze Entropy to measure focus and attention accepted for publication in ETRA.

2.25.2025 Cathy: Game Design Club announced the Playtester event – a chance for game developers to present their games to an audience, gather feedback, and refine their projects based on player input.

2.12.2025 Cathy: Became the Social Recruitment Event Chair for Game Design Club!

1.16.2025 Jared & Hunter: Hosted NAU's inaugural Global Game Jam

1.15.2025 Jared: Teaching Creative Strategies for Designing Interactive Media and History and Theory of Games

1.8.2025 Tochukwu: Abstract for RCMI Conference Accepted.

All News

2024

11.21.2024 Chaithanya & Varna & Hunter & Pavan: First Place Award In NAU EGR-Fest 24 with SpokeIt11.05.2024 Tochukwu and Jared: CardioCare Quest: Co-Creating a Culturally Sensitive Telehealth Game for Hypertension Management in the Navajo Nation abstract submission accepted for the 2025 Winter Institute on Indigenous Computational Futures.11.05.2024 Tochukwu and Jared: CardioCare Quest: A Co-created Game for Improving Hypertension Treatment Adherence in Arizona abstract submission accepted for the 26th Annual American Indian Studies Association (AISA) Conference. 10.28.2024 Jared: DREEM: Moving from Empathy to Enculturation in Disability Related Human-Centered Design published at ASSETS Conference. Read the paper.10.02.2024 Jared and Tochukwu: CardioCare Quest Grant funded by RCMI ($150,000)10.01.2024 Jared: Application to Host Study Abroad Program in Japan with Visits to Nintendo, Sony, Capcom, and Mount Fuji submitted for Summer 2024!09.28.2024 Jared: New Immersive Media and games course "Creative Strategies for Designing Interactive Media" developed for the General Studies Program09.27.2024 Jared: Official Launch of New Game Design Club at NAU! Join the club!09.25.2024 Jared: New Immersive Media and games course "Indigenous Enculturation for Situated Play Design" developed for the General Studies Program09.26.2024 Jared: Guest Lectures for Health Sciences on Serious Games! 09.20.2024 Jared: Presentation of Games for Social Good at Flagstaff's Festival of Science07.01.2024 Jared: Receives NIH LRP Award from the National Institute of Health’s Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders ($50,000)08.26.2024 Jared: Teaching his IMG 186 Course on the History and Theory of Games08.14.2024 Jared: Visiting Lecture at Tufts University on Games for Health06.29.2024 Jared: Hosts NAU's second Game Jam with the theme "Nothing is Permanent."06.20.2024 Chaithanya and Jared: Host Summer intern through CARE Program for Indigenous students05.24.2024 Playful Health Technology Lab featured in Fairness First Blog! Read the blog.05.13.2024 Jared: Attended Ancestral Knowledge: Braiding Curriculum Seminar 1-week workshop for Indigenous pedagogy05.11.2024 Jared: Virtual Reality for Health and Wellbeing of People with Disabilities Panel Published at CHI Conference. Read the Abstract.05.02.2024 Tochukwu and Jared:  CardioCare Quest: A Co-Created Game for Improving Hypertension Treatment Adherence funded by SHERC ($100,000)04.18.2024 Jared and Tochukwu: Co-Designing Location-based Games for Broadband Data Collection published in DIS. Read the paper.03.05.2024 Jared: Challenging Ableism: A Critical Turn Toward Disability Justice in HCI published in XRDS: Crossroads, the ACM Magazine for Students. Read the article.02.26.2024 Jared: Winter edition of the SIGACCESS Accessible Computing Newsletter published. Read the article. Read the article.02.12.2024 Jared: Removing Algorithmic Bias and Evaluating Cleft Speech Therapy Game published in RCMI Conference. Read the abstract (Page 113)