From December 13 to 14, 2025, the highly anticipated "20th ACM SIGGRAPH International Conference on Virtual-Reality Continuum and its Applications in Industry" (VRCAI 2025) was held at Macau University of Science and Technology. The conference brought together more than 60 top experts and scholars in the fields of virtual reality and artificial intelligence from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, as well as countries including the United States, Canada, Korea, Singapore, and Norway. Under the theme "Reality Fusion," they jointly explored cutting-edge industry technologies, innovative applications, and development trends, building a high-end platform for global academic exchange and industrial cooperation in related fields.
Since its first edition in Hangzhou in 1993, the conference has developed into a top-tier international academic event under ACM SIGGRAPH focused on the virtual reality continuum field. It has consistently emphasized foundational research and industrial applications in technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. Its academic outcomes hold significant guiding importance for promoting the integration of digital technologies with the real economy and empowering industrial transformation and upgrading. This conference's first landing in Macau, hosted by Macau University of Science and Technology, is both a high recognition of the university's teaching and research strength in computer science and artificial intelligence and a benefit from Macau's locational advantages as one of the core cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area.
Professor Pang Chuan, Vice President of MUST, delivered the opening address. On behalf of the university, he extended a warm welcome to the attending experts and scholars and introduced the disciplinary development of MUST in computer science and artificial intelligence. Professor Pang Chuan pointed out that virtual reality and artificial intelligence technologies are reshaping industrial forms, and he hoped that this conference would build a bridge for cross-regional and cross-disciplinary exchanges, injecting new momentum into the development of the digital economy in Macao and the Greater Bay Area.
Subsequently, Conference Chair Professor Pan Zhigeng, Dean of the School of Artificial Intelligence at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, reviewed the development history of the VRCAI conference in his address and emphasized that current technological innovation is in a period of explosive growth, urgently requiring collaborative efforts from scholars across multiple fields. He stated that this conference received a large number of high-quality academic submissions, which will provide cutting-edge ideas and technical support for industry development.
The keynote speech session of the conference was a major highlight, with five top global experts sharing their latest research achievements and industry insights around core topics in the integration of virtual reality and artificial intelligence. The details are as follows:
First speaker: Professor Nadia Magnenat Thalmann (Director of the Institute for Media Innovation (IMI), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
Title: Pioneering the research in Virtual Humans and Social Robots (1985-2025)
Second speaker: Professor Eugene Ch'ng, Dean of the School of Culture and Creativity, at Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University
Title: PRESENCE AND THE CURRENT LANDSCAPE OF IMMERSIVE MEDIA
Third speaker: Associate Professor Liang Haining, Computational Media and Arts Thrust, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)
Title: Beyond Touch: Reconceptualizing Interaction in the Era of Spatial Interfaces 
Fourth speaker: Professor Sheng Bin, School of Computer Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Title: Personalized VR Fitness Intervention with Deep Reinforcement Learning: REVERIE System for Overweight Adolescents' Physical and Mental Well-being 
Fifth speaker: Assistant Professor Ji Yuhan, Associate Program Director of Master of Arts in FTNM, Beijing Normal Hong Kong Baptist University
Title: Mine is AI and VR Cultural Heritage Learning
On the afternoon of December 14, after completing all presentations, Associate Professor Liang Yanyan hosted the closing ceremony. In the conference summary session, Professor Pan Zhigeng reviewed the academic achievements of this conference. He noted that the event not only showcased cutting-edge progress in virtual reality and artificial intelligence but also reached multiple cooperation consensuses. In the future, through compilation of outcomes, special seminars, and other forms, the conference results will be promoted and transformed into practical application value. The VRCAI 2026 conference will be held next year in Hangzhou, China.
