Nathaniel’s Defence

On June 18th, 2026, Nathaniel Goldstein, co-supervised by Laurie Wilcox and Erez Freud, successfully defended his Master's thesis, titled "The Role of Binocular Vision in Naturalistic Bidirectional Grasping." In addition to his two supervisors serving on his committee, CVR members Richard Murry and Rob Allison served as the committee chair and out-of-department member, respectively.

Now with a Master’s of Arts in Psychology and a Diploma in Neuroscience, Nathaniel’s next steps are to transition from vision research to law school.

We wish him the Best of Luck and Congratulations! 🍀🎉

Centre for Vision Research (CVR) Vision Science Summer School - York University 2026

Post-doctoral student Xue Teng  was one of two TAs assisting with running the Centre for Vision Research (CVR) Vision Science Summer School.

This year, the CVR Vision Science Summer School focused on vision science in the age of AI. Only 20 of the most promising domestic and international undergraduate students in vision science were selected to attend the prestigious week-long session (June 8 to 12, 2026), during which they took specialized classes with York University's world-leading vision science experts and toured state-of-the-art research facilities.

Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science (CS BBCS) - York University, Canada 2026

We are so lucky this year: on June 1-3, 2026, York University hosted the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science (CSBBCS), which enabled us to connect with labs and researchers from across Canada.

Fresh off her trip from VSS, PhD student Iroshini Gunasekera had the opportunity to present a poster on her work on the role of depth cues in the shape constancy of realistic objects (table). This work is being completed as part of her ABC paper, a requirement of the psychology PhD program at York University.

Neuroscience Day and Psychology Graduate Students' Association (PGSA) Research Symposium 2026

These last two and a half weeks have been busy for our new Master’s student, Chris Schiafone, who presented a poster on his upcoming Master’s thesis work at two research showcase events at York University.

On April 27th, 2026, as part of his neuroscience diploma program, Chris, along with other neuroscience students, presented a poster on their research. Chris’s work focuses on his upcoming study of the virtual and non-virtual affordances of neuroanatomical structures in individuals who are blind, visually impaired, or sighted.

On May 12th, 2026, Chris demoed some of the tactical learning tools he has been developing to aid learning and teaching of neural anatomy at the PGSA Research Symposium.

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) VR - Daegu, Korea 2026

On March 21-25, 2026 PHD student Domenic Au travelled with his co-supervisor Dr. Rob Allison to IEEE VR in Daegu, Korea.

Domenic gave a talk on his thesis work on depth-cue conflict between real and virtual objects in augmented reality.

See snapshots of Domenic’s experiences on his travels.

Connected Minds Research Retreat - Toronto, Canada 2026

PDH students Iroshini Gunasekera, Phoebe Ching, and Master’s Student Nathaniel Goldstein attended and presented posters at the Connected Minds Research Retreat. The Retreat highlights interdisciplinary research of trainees from across the fields of Neuroscience and Behaviour, Intelligent Technologies and Society. All three Wilcox Lab members have been awarded the Connected Minds Scholarship.

Iroshini showcased a poster on her new study about the role of 2D and 3D depth cues in shape constancy for everyday objects.

Phoebe presented a poster on her work on interface interaction during free movement in virtual reality.

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Spatial User Interaction (SUI) and Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST) - Montreal, Canada 2025

The week of November 10th, 2025, was a busy one for the Wilcox Lab. Phoebe Ching and Iroshini Gunasekera, along with their co-supervisors, Dr. Laurie Wilcox and Dr. Rob Allison, were in Montreal for two conferences: the ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction (SUI) and the ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST).

Phoebe gave a talk on her work about head-point mechanics in head-mounted displays at ACM SUI. This was developed in part from a course project for EECS 6329 at York University. Phoebe was also selected for the VISTA Travel Conference Award to attend this conference.

Iroshini presented one of her MA thesis experiments on the impact of depth cues and viewing (active vs passive) on 3D size judgments in virtual reality at ACM VRST.