Democratizing the Metaverse: Accessibility, Inclusivity, and Human-Centric Innovation

Jyotir Chatterjee presently holds the position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Graphic Era (Deemed to be University) in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. Additionally, he serves as an Assistant Professor (Visiting Faculty) in the Department of Information Technology at Lord Buddha Education Foundation, affiliated with the Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation, Malaysia, located in Kathmandu, Nepal. Before these roles, he held the position of Assistant Professor and Program Leader for the B.Sc. IT program at Lord Buddha Education Foundation. He also served as an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering department at GD-Rungta College of Engineering & Technology, affiliated with Chhattisgarh Swami Vivekananda Technical University in Bhilai, India. Chatterjee earned his M. Tech degree in Computer Science & Engineering from Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, in 2016. He obtained his B. Tech degree in Computer Science & Engineering from Dr. MGR Educational & Research Institute in Maduravoyal, Chennai, in 2013. His research interests primarily lie in the domains of Machine Learning and Deep Learning. Specifically, he concentrates on advancing the fields of Deep Learning and Machine Learning through his research work, contributing to the ongoing developments in these areas.

Pawan Lingras is a graduate of IIT Bombay with graduate studies from the University of Regina. He is currently a Professor and the Director of Computing and Data Analytics at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax. He is also involved with a number of international activities, having served as a visiting professor at Munich University of Applied Sciences and IIT Gandhinagar, as a research supervisor at Institut Superieur de Gestion de Tunis, as a University Grants Commission (India) Scholar-inResidence, and as a Shastri Indo-Canadian scholar. He has delivered more than 35 invited talks at various institutions around the world. He has authored more than 200 research papers in various international journals and conferences. He has also co-authored three textbooks, and co-edited two books and eight volumes of research papers. His academic collaborations/ co-authors include academics from Canada, Chile, China, Germany, India, Poland, Tunisia, the U.K. and USA. His areas of interests include artificial intelligence, information retrieval, data mining, web intelligence and intelligent transportation systems. He has served as a general co-chair, program co-chair, review committee chair, program committee member and reviewer for various international conferences on artificial intelligence and data mining. He is also on the editorial boards of a number of international journals. His fundamental research has been supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada for twenty-five years, and the applications of his research to the industry are supported by a number of funding agencies, including NSERC, the Government of Nova Scotia, NRC-IRAP and MITACS.

Ravi Samikannu is currently working as an Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering Department in Botswana International University of Science and Technology, Palapye, Botswana. Ravi Samikannu obtained his Ph.D. Degree in Electrical Engineering, from Anna University, Chennai, India. He has a total teaching experience of 14 years at under graduate and post graduate levels. At present 5 Ph.D and 4 Master students are doing research under his supervision. Three Ph.D students and 17 Master students completed their research work under his supervision. He has published 60 research papers in International Journals. He has presented 40 Papers in International and National Conferences, and has received the Best Paper Award two times for his presentation.

Sujatha Radhakrishnan completed her Ph.D. degree at Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India, in the area of data mining. She received her M.E. degree in Computer Science from Anna University, India, with ninth rank, and pursued a Master of Financial Management from Pondicherry University, India. She received her B.E. degree in Computer Science from Madras University, India. She has 22 years of teaching experience and has been serving as a professor in the School of Computer Science Engineering and Information Systems at Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore. She served as Assistant Director (Students’ Welfare) from January 2021 to December 2024. She has been actively contributing to institutional development through several academic and administrative roles. Since July 2023, she has been serving as the Member Secretary of Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity at VIT, a Member of Sustainability Initiatives, and In-charge of Service and Support for Differently Abled Learners. From March 2025 onwards, she is serving as the Nodal Officer for the Equal Opportunity Cell. She also served as a Visiting Faculty at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST), Taipei, Taiwan, from November 17 to November 28, 2025. She has organized and attended several workshops and faculty development programs. She actively involves herself in the growth of the institute by contributing to various committees at both academic and administrative levels. She used to guide projects for undergraduate and postgraduate students and currently guides doctoral students. She gives technical talks in colleges for symposiums and various sessions. She acts as an advisory, editorial, and technical committee member in conferences conducted in other educational institutions and in-house. She has published a book titled Software Project Management for College Students. She has published research articles in reputed high-impact journals and can find 119 articles in Google Scholar, 27 book chapters, 24 conference articles, 8 edited books, 32 patents filed and 1 patent granted. The Institution of Green Engineers awarded her IGEN Women Achiever 2021 award in the Future Computing category. Outstanding Researcher Awardee for the year 2022 was awarded by VIT. She is interested in exploring and visiting different places to learn about the culture and people of various areas. She is interested in learning upcoming things and gets acquainted with the student’s level. Her areas of research interest include Information Management and Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Soft Computing, Medical AI, Big Data, Deep Learning, and Blockchain Software Engineering.