Industry Leaders and Innovators Recognized for Groundbreaking XR Contributions at the World's Leading AR/VR Conference
LONG BEACH, Calif., May 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As Augmented World Expo (AWE) USA 2026 prepares to kick off in Long Beach, California, the global XR community is gearing up to celebrate its most impactful year yet, showcasing innovation, creativity, and traction in spatial computing. Now in its 17th year, AWE is proud to announce the newest inductees to the XR Hall of Fame, the official selection for the inaugural AWE USA 2026 Art Festival, the launch of the AWE Research Poster Track, and the finalists for the 2026 Startup Pitch Competition.
Honoring 8 New XR Hall of Fame Inductees
The future of XR is built on a foundation laid by decades of visionary work. That foundation took physical form in 2024 with the launch of the AWE XR Hall of Fame—a living tribute to the trailblazers whose bold visions, technical breakthroughs, and creative leaps helped shape today's $40 billion XR industry. Following the inaugural class of 101 pioneers in 2024, AWE inducted an additional 10 industry leaders in 2025, further recognizing the individuals who helped define the evolution of immersive technology.
In 2026, the XR Hall of Fame welcomes 8 new inductees who have significantly shaped XR over the past 50 years. Their contributions span immersive art, motion tracking, AR hardware and display innovation, immersive storytelling, digital media, human factors and safety standards, and education, transforming how XR is designed and understood globally. Their visionary work has left a lasting impact on the industry's past, present, and future.
The 2026 XR Hall of Fame inductees are:
- Al Rodgers — Motion Tracking Inventor
- Rebecca Allen — 3D CG and VR Pioneer Artist
- Karl Guttag — Truth-Teller of AR Displays
- Brett Leonard — Director of The Lawnmower Man
- Lance Loesberg — Pioneer in Commercial 360° Video
- Charlie Fink — BattleTech to the Voice of the Metaverse
- Kay Stanney — Leader in XR Safety and Standards
- Kiira Benz — Pioneer in XR Theatre
These distinguished individuals will be honored throughout AWE USA 2026, including a special tribute during the Auggie Awards Ceremony to highlight their achievements and inspire the next generation of XR innovators.
Explore the full XR Hall of Fame at https://www.awexr.com/hall-of-fame.
AWE USA 2026 Art Festival Official Selection Revealed
After receiving an overwhelming number of submissions from visionary creators around the globe, AWE is thrilled to unveil the Official Selection for the inaugural AWE USA 2026 Art Festival.
The selected works—including 9 multi-award-winning projects and 4 world premieres—will be showcased in the heart of the AWE Expo Hall in Long Beach from June 15–18, 2026, highlighting groundbreaking immersive storytelling and interactive art experiences from across the world.
The official selections are:
- Oto's Planet — Skill Lab, Luxembourg
- Crafting Crimes — TARGO, France
- D-Day: The Camera Soldier — TARGO, France
- Codex of the Future — Orgánica Digital, Colombia
- In The End — TACIT, United States
- Wild Sounds of Wales: Life in the Trees — Wild Sounds of Wales, United Kingdom
- Techno Sapiens — Studio PHI, Canada
- Winterover — Blimey VR Studios Inc., Canada
- THE PALACE — INVR.SPACE GmbH, Germany
- Uncanny Lounge: Rifft's Interlude — Ferryman Collective, United States
- A Long Goodbye — Unframed Collection, France
- Year of the Cicadas — XRPediatrics at Yale, United States
- Biophonic — CurioDynamo, United States
- Reality Looks Back — Superposition XR Studio, Denmark
- The Last Stanza — Solo Artist (with Viverse Creator Grant collaboration), Australia
Judges of the Art Festival include:
- Jacki Morie — Founder & Chief Scientist All These Worlds and XR Hall of Famer
- Lori Schwartz — CEO, StoryTech and Curator at Infinity Festival
- Diliana Alexander — Co-Founder and Executive Director of FilmGate
- Jordana Leigh — Senior Vice President of Artistic Programming at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
- Brett Renfer — Senior Project Manager, Emerging Technologies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Shari Frilot — Senior Programmer, Sundance Film Festival
Explore the full list and descriptions here: https://www.awexr.com/blog/official-selection-of-the-awe-usa-2026-art-festival.
To celebrate the announcement, AWE will host a special LinkedIn Live event on Wednesday, May 13 at 1 p.m. ET featuring festival curators, producers, judges, and artists discussing the role of immersive art in an AI-driven world.
The session will include:
- Ori Inbar — Host and AWE Co-founder
- Alex Gerard — Festival Co-Curator
- Sonke Kirchhof — Festival Producer
- Lori Schwartz — Festival Judge
- Diliana Alexander — Festival Judge
- Jacki Morie — Festival Judge
The conversation will explore how immersive art is helping reclaim human agency in an increasingly AI-driven future, aligning with AWE's 2026 theme: "I, Spatial – Humans Empowered by Spatial AI."
Watch the LinkedIn Live here: https://www.linkedin.com/events/7453076841487220736.
Introducing the AWE USA 2026 Research Poster Selections
AWE USA 2026 will also debut its first-ever Research Poster Track, creating a dedicated space for academic researchers, students, industry labs, and independent innovators to present cutting-edge XR research directly on the expo floor.
The initiative was developed to bridge the gap between academic research and the broader XR ecosystem by bringing interactive research demonstrations into the center of industry conversation.
This year's inaugural track received 40 submissions spanning healthcare, interaction design, neuroscience, AI-enabled spatial computing, education, collaboration, digital twins, and immersive storytelling. Following a peer review process, 15 posters were selected for presentation at AWE USA 2026, representing a 37.5% acceptance rate.
Accepted posters:
- Designing Embodied AR Games Through Physical Therapy Movement — presented by Binyan Xu
- Augmented Reality for Hands-On Education — presented by Elizabeth Childs
- Real-Time Spatial Digital Twin of a Beef Cattle Production System — presented by Ruhee Nagulwar
- Rekindle: Fostering Emotional Perspective-Taking Through Face-Tracking-Based Affective Interactions in VR Interactive Narratives — presented by Hector Fan
- AlphaRise: A Compassionate Neurofeedback Game for MS Fatigue Management — presented by Ned Shoaei
- From Clinical Practice Needs to XR Design: Developing Immersive Virtual Reality for Nursing Education — presented by Cynthia Bradley
- Supporting 3D Design Conflict Resolution in Collaborative Mixed Reality — presented by Niloofar Sayadi
- Neural Correlates of Visual Form and Texture: EEG Responses in Immersive VR — presented by Shabnam Salehi
- Civic Becoming in the Age of Simulation — presented by Tracie Yorke
- Code Blue Simulation — presented by Yunbing Han
- Stakeholder-Driven Co-Design of Embodied XR Telehealth for Physical Rehabilitation — presented by Aviv Elor
- A Haptically-Enabled Extended Reality Platform for Neurovascular Telesurgery — presented by Jared Scott
- Eye Tracking on XR and AI Smart Glasses — presented by Majd Khalaf
- WordPlay Party: Collaborative XR Game for Parkinson's Rehabilitation — presented by Hanting Ye
- 2D and XR Mind Mapping Apps: A Comparative Study of Cognitive Load, Motivation, and Usability Using Physiological and Questionnaire-Based Insights — presented by Amir Mohideen Basheer Khan
Accepted projects will be featured in a dedicated Expo Hall section showcasing research posters and demos, alongside networking opportunities with senior researchers and industry leaders. Three selected posters will also be highlighted through lightning talks on the expo stage.
The Research Poster Track emphasizes interactivity and hands-on engagement, encouraging attendees to experience prototypes, simulations, and XR systems firsthand.
See the full list of posters here: https://www.awexr.com/blog/spotlight-on-awe-2026-posters.
2026 Startup Pitch Competition Finalists Announced
The AWE Startup Pitch Competition continues to spotlight the next generation of XR innovation by showcasing emerging companies developing transformative AR and VR technologies.
This year's finalists were selected for their originality, technical innovation, and potential to shape the future of immersive computing. During AWE USA 2026, finalists will present their technologies live before a panel of leading XR investors and industry experts.
The winner will be announced during the Auggie Awards Ceremony (June 17th at 6pm Pacific) on the AWE USA 2026 Main Stage and will receive the prestigious "Startup to Watch" Auggie Award.
Finalists are as follows:
Explore the full finalist list and descriptions here: https://www.awexr.com/usa-2026/startup_pitch.
Join the World's Largest XR Community at AWE USA 2026
Media passes are available now to both journalists and creators for AWE 2026—sign up for one here: https://www.awexr.com/media.
Tickets to AWE 2026 are on sale now: https://events.awexr.com/usa-2026.
About AWE
Since 2010, AWE has been the world's #1 XR and AI community, helping connect, educate, and enable commercial growth and market adoption across the ecosystem. The organization supports the industry through major events in the USA, Europe, and Asia, the prestigious Auggie Awards, global educational programs, and local meetups in over 30 cities.
AWE events feature the latest in personal AI, physical AI, and robotics, alongside the full spatial spectrum from AI smartglasses to Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Virtual Reality (VR). The programming covers Fortune 500 case studies, digital twins, reality capture, XR gaming, location-based entertainment, immersive video, a narrative art festival, and the latest academic research.
The community brings together a diverse audience of top platforms, solution providers, enterprises, and governments. AWE also serves as a central hub for startups, investors, builders, developers, manufacturers, gaming studios, artists, academia, and global media.
The 2026 theme, "I, Spatial – Humans Empowered by Spatial AI," offers a human-centric alternative to giving unchecked responsibility to AI. It serves as a call to action to restore human agency in an AI world and a commitment to building a future that is responsible, ethical, and equitable. AWE remains dedicated to its mission: Advance XR to Advance Humanity. For this year's event AWE expects more than 250 exhibitors, 5,000 attendees and 400 speakers.
Contact: alyssa@lightspeedpr.com
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