Valentine’s Day Special! InvestiDate Featured on Channel 8 Local New Haven Evening News!
Dr. Ijeoma Opara speaks live on camera about the importance of representation in games and how InvestiDate can make a difference in the dating lives of Black teen girls: Watch the news spot and read the summary here!
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InvestiDate Project Featured in The New Haven Register
Ed Stannard of the New Haven Register interviewed Dr. Ijeoma Opara and participants in the focus groups that formed the backbone of InvestiDate: Read the New Haven Register Article here!
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InvestiDate Project Featured in Yale News
Yale reporter Dante Motley interviewed our SASH Lab Partners, Dr. Ijeoma Opara and Sydney Hussett-Richardson to find out how InvestiDate can help Black teen girls make healthy dating decisions: Read the Yale News article here!
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InvestiDate Project Featured in Yale News
Yale reporter Rick Harrison wrote a feature on play4REAL’s project InvestiDate detailing the game’s origins as a card game and describing the gameplay: Read the Yale News article here!
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Dr. Weser Gives Cognitive Science Public Lecture at Vassar College
On October 6th, Dr. Weser presented at her alma mater, Vassar College, for an invited public lecture hosted by the Cognitive Science Department. Dr. Weser’s talk, Virtual Reality in Behavioral Science: Basic and Applied Research Applications, discussed her work using VR from her graduate school days through her current work on Invite Only VR.
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Dr. Hieftje Discussed the Invite Only VR Study on BYU Radio
Dr. Hieftje was interviewed about the Invite Only VR study by Julia Rose for the Top of the Mind Segment at BYU Radio. Listen to the interview here and read the publication in the Journal of Addictive Behaviors here!
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InvestiDate Formative Research Study Featured in Yahoo! Life
MadameNoire reporter Natasha Decker wrote a feature on play4REAL’s recent publication regarding the formative focus group work we did for InvestiDate: Read the Yahoo! Life article here and the open access publication in the Social Media + Society Journal here!
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InvestiDate Formative Research Study Featured in Yale News
Yale reporter Brita Belli wrote a feature on play4REAL’s recent publication regarding the formative focus group work we did for InvestiDate: Read the Yale News article here and the open access publication in the Social Media + Society Journal here!
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Invite Only VR Study Featured in Yale News
Yale reporter Isabella Backman wrote a feature on play4REAL’s recent publication evaluating Invite Only VR: Read the Yale News article here and the publication in the Journal of Addictive Behaviors here!
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InvestiDate Formative Research Study Published
In a series of 5 focus groups, the play4REAL Team interviewed 27 Black teen girls from around the country to learn about how they use social media to form romantic relationships. This information served as the backbone for the creation of InvestiDate. The results are now published online open access in the Social Media + Society Journal
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Games for Change Conference
On July 13th, Dr. Weser presented at the annual Games for Change Conference. Dr. Weser presented the lab’s recent work on InvestiDate, the “Multiplayer Dating Game to Empower Black Teen Girls.” As a winner of the Innovative XR laurels through the XR Brain Jam, Dr. Weser also presented her XR Brain Jam project, PowrPosrVR, during the XR Brain Jam Panel.
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Invite Only VR Study Published
The study evaluating Invite Only VR through a non-equivalent control groups design was published in the Journal of Addictive Behaviors: Evaluation of a Virtual Reality E-cigarette Prevention Game for Adolescents
Access the paper for FREE using the link above until 8/22/2021!
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2021 XR Brain Jam
Both Dr. Weser and Mr. Sands participated in the XR Brain Jam, a weeklong event sponsored by Games for Change that is designed to bring teams of game developers together with academics to create a meaningful XR experiences! Brandon Sands’ team created Cafe SerniTEA, an experience that gives users insight into the lived experience of those suffering from panic attacks and provides skills they can use to navigate distressing situations. Dr. Veronica Weser’s team created PowrPosrVR, a brief intervention to increase self-positivity and self-efficacy through an embodied VR experience. PowrPosrVR was selected by the panel of expert judges as the recipient of XR Innovation award.
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Serious Play Conference
On June 25th, both Drs. Weser and Hieftje presented at the annual Serious Play Conference. Dr. Weser presented the lab’s recent work on InvestiDate, the “Multiplayer Dating Game to Empower Black Teen Girls” and Dr. Hieftje presented “Invite Only VR: A Vaping Prevention Game for Teens”
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4th Annual Yale Postdoc Symposium–WINNER!
Dr. Veronica Weser won a top prize for her presentation, “Developing a Multiplayer Dating Game to Empower Black Teen Girls” at the virtual 4th Annual Yale Postdoc Symposium on June 15th.
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Dr. Hieftje presented in the Health Services Research Seminar
On Jun 3rd, Dr. Hieftje presented Extended Reality (XR) in Health and Medicine in the Health Services Research Seminar jointly hosted by the Center for Research on Health Care, The Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, and RAND-University of Pittsburgh Health Institute.
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Invite Only VR featured in award winning podcast
Dr. Hieftje was recently interviewed by CTIS Discovery radio for their special podcast on the Serious Risks of Vaping. The episode won a national Gold Award in the 38th Annual Healthcare Ad Awards! Click here to listen to the award-winning podcast.
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Dr. Heiftje and Invite Only VR Spotlighted in Yale Article
Check out this writeup about Yale researchers using VR to connect with teens featuring Dr. Hieftje.
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Society for Public Health Education 72nd Annual Conference
Dr. Veronica Weser presented the latest on InvestiDate in her talk, Development of A Multi-Player Videogame Intervention to Empower Black Teen Girls Around Healthy Relationships and Partner Communication at virtual SOPHE 2021.
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Dr. Hieftje is the new Editor-in-Chief of the Games for Health Journal
Dr. Hieftje has taken on the new role of Editor-in-Chief of the Games for Health Journal, a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to advancing the impact of game research, technologies, and applications on human health and well-being.
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Dr. Heiftje’s WHRY Funding and Subsequent NIH Grant Recognized in Yale Article
The earliest version of One Night Stan was made possible thanks to the generosity and support from the Women’s Health Research at Yale’s Pilot Project Program. The seed funding they provided allowed us to test a card game prototype that helped us secure funding from NIH to build the digital app version. Check out the wonderful writeup about support from WHRY that appeared in the Yale School of Medicine article here!
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Invite Only VR discussed on Select CT Podcast
Dr. Hieftje and Bernard Francois, head of game prototyping company PreviewLabs, discussed our flagship game Invite Only VR, on episode 9 of the Select CT Podcast. Listen Here!
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Invite Only VR Joins Unity for Humanity 2020 Showcase
Invite Only VR was selected for Unity for Humanity’s Health and Wellbeing Showcase. Check out the game’s page on the 2020 showcase!
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Invite Only VR Pilot Study Published
The pilot feasibility study of Invite Only VR was published in the Journal of Addictive Behaviors: A quasi-experimental test of a virtual reality game prototype for adolescent E-Cigarette prevention
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SIGGRAPH 2020
Dr. Veronica Weser presented preliminary findings from the NCT study of Invite Only VR: A Vaping Prevention Game at virtual SIGGRAPH 2020.
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3rd Annual Yale Postdoc Symposium–WINNER!
Dr. Veronica Weser won a top prize for her presentation, “Feasibility Study of a Virtual Reality Game Prototype for Adolescent E-Cigarette Prevention” at the virtual 3rd Annual Yale Postdoc Symposium on July 16th.
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play4REAL XR Lab takes home GOLD at Serious Play 2020!
Invite Only VR: A Vaping Prevention Game was awarded GOLD in the K12 STEM Education Category!
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Serious Play 2020
Dr. Kimberly Hieftje presented “XR in Health & Education: Are We Ahead of the Game?” on June 25th as part of the virtual conference.
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Virtual Reality and Healthcare Global Symposium 2020
Dr. Kimberly Hieftje presented “Invite Only VR: A Vaping Prevention Game for Teens” and was a panelist in the discussion of “Building Mental Health Interventions in VR: Failures, Successes, and Future Directions” at the VR and Healthcare Global Symposium in Nashville, TN from March 2-3, 2020.
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We made the list! Invite Only VR is a Forbes Top 50 VR Game for 2019!!!
Forbes Top 50 VR Games for 2019
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Blog by Dr. Kimberly Hieftje at #slowchathealth about Invite Only VR and brining VR to the classroom.
https://slowchathealth.com/2019/12/20/invite-only/
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Invite Only VR: 2019 Finalist in the The Serious Games Showcase & Challenge!
Dr. Veronica Weser will be demoing Invite Only VR at The Serious Games Showcase & Challenge in Orlando, FL. Come by and play the game December 2-5!
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Forum on the Impact of Youth Vaping
Dr. Veronica Weser represented the play4REAL XR Lab as a panelist on youth vaping prevention forum hosted by the city of Milford, CT. Check out this clip of the event that aired on local news stations.
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Upswell Chicago
The play4REAL team will be demoing Invite Only VR at Upswell Chicago 2019! Come by our both and check out our game November 13-16!
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Invite Only VR Now Live on Oculus Go Store
As of November 12th, 2019 Invite Only VR is now LIVE on the Oculus Go Store! It is free to download, so check it out!
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2nd Place in GALA Serious Game Competition!
Invite Only VR was awarded second place in the 2019 GALA Serious Game competition!
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XRDC
Dr. Kimberly Hieftje presented “Bringing VR into the Classroom: Beyond the Research” in the Health Care track at XRDC in San Francisco, CA on October 14th, 2019.
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Oculus Education Summit
Dr. Kimberly Hieftje presented “A Virtual Reality Videogame Intervention for JUUL/E-cigarette Prevention in Teens” at the Oculus Education Summit in San Jose, CA on September 24th, 2019.
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Oculus Launch Pad
Dr. Veronica Weser was invited to participate in Oculus Launch Pad 2019! Veronica attended a 2-day VR boot camp from 9/22 to 9/23 as a lead up to Oculus Connect 6. Next up, Veronica will work to create a VR game demo to showcase to the Oculus team in January 2020.
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Article in Yale Daily News
What’s in your Juul? More than you think, Yale scientists find, is a new report about the dangers of JUUL that appeared in Yale Daily News on September 3, 2019, and features comments from our own Dr. Hieftje!
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Gamasutra Article
Check out the new article in Gamasutra: “Come to XRCD and learn how VR can have a positive impact in classrooms”, posted on August 27, 2019, and make sure your join us at XRCD in October!
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Games in Education Conference
Dr. Veronica Weser attended the 13th Annual Games in Education Symposium August 19th and 20th, 2019 to demo smokeSCREEN and an early preview of Invite Only VR!
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Revolutionary Learning Blog
Read Dr. Kimberly Hieftje blog’s for Revolutionary Learning entitled “Bringing VR games to the classrooms – are we ready?”, posted on August 6, 2019.
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Serious Play Conference
Dr. Kimberly Hieftje presented “A Virtual Reality Videogame Intervention for JUUL/E-cigarette Prevention in Teens” at the Serious Play Conference in Montreal, CA on July 10th, 2019.
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IEEE-GEM Dr. Kimberly Hieftje was a keynote speaker at the IEEE-GEM conference in New Haven, CT on June 22, 2019. Her talk was entitled, “Virtual Reality and Health Promotion: A Unique Opportunity to bring Virtual Reality to Schools”.
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Games for Change
Dr. Kimberly Hieftje presented “smokeSCREEN VR: A Partnership for Social Change” at the Games for Change Festival on June 17, 2019.
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GDC
We will be at GDC from March 17 – March 23. Please reach out if you would like to meet up!
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VR World Tech
March 4, 2019 – A great write up about smokeSCREEN VR and our play4REAL XR Lab!
SmokeSCREEN VR: Using VR to help teens make better choices
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Yale News
January 23, 2019 – Yale announces our newest project with Oculus Education!
Yale lab receives gift to develop virtual reality tools targeting vaping among teens
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XRDC
We are also excited to be presenting at XRDC on October 29th! Please reach out to us if you would like to learn more about smokeSCREEN VR or try a demo. @play4rlab XRDC’s Innovative AR/VR Showcase
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Oculus Connect 5
We will be at OC5 on Sept 25-28th. Please reach out if you would like to meet up or see a demo of smokeSCREEN VR! @play4rlab
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CNBC
May 3, 2018 – Facebook’s Oculus backs VR game to help teens kick e-cigarette habit
Terrific write up about smokeSCREEN VR. Read here!
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Yale News
March 20, 2018 – Yale videogame research lab receives grant to tackle smoking among teens
Our sister lab, play2PREVENT Lab, is soon to launch the tobacco use prevention videogame, smokeSCREEN.
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Yale press release!
November 15, 2017 – New Yale lab uses virtual reality games to reduce risk in teens Read all about our partnership with Oculus and the launch of our play4REAL XR Lab here!
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Oculus Blog
Great write up by Oculus about our project and other projects/research teams partnering with Oculus Education. Read their blog here!