ICXR Monthly Recap

April was a bit lighter on ICXR-hosted events as many of our members are wrapping up the semester and preparing for finals.

Even with that, it’s been a strong semester overall for ICXR. We’ve seen continued growth across chapters, more collaboration between schools, and more members getting involved in XR through projects, research, and community.

Good luck to everyone finishing up finals, excited to see what everyone builds over the summer.

Event Highlights

This month, we hosted ICXR Speaker Series #7 featuring Ashton Kennedy, an XR professional at Groove Jones.

She spoke about XR and GenAI in experiential marketing, sharing her pathway into XR as well as how immersive technologies are being used in real-world campaigns and industry settings.

It was a great session and a chance for members to learn more about how XR is applied outside of traditional development spaces.

Over the past weekend, TigerVerse 2026 took place, a three-day immersive XR hackathon hosted by Mizzou VR.

Students built VR, AR, and mixed reality projects, participated in workshops, and connected with mentors and sponsors including Snapchat. Events like this continue to show how fast the student XR ecosystem is growing.

More info: https://tigerverse.org/

Upcoming & Community Events

XR Fest: Bay Area (San Jose State University)

A one-day event bringing together XR clubs across the Bay Area for demos, talks, and community building.

May 2, 2026

San Jose State University

Website: https://xrfest.boscostixs.com/

Community Spotlight – Roshni Muruganandam (Clemson University)

Roshni’s journey into XR began with a mix of science, early tech exposure, and curiosity.

Currently a junior at Clemson University studying Biomicrobiology and Biomedicine, she initially built her technical foundation through robotics, where she won a judges award. She later got introduced to VR during her sophomore year through a connection, applied to a role, and that experience became her entry point into immersive technology.

From there, she began exploring the intersection between healthcare and XR, recognising how impactful these tools could be in real-world applications.

On campus, she serves as President of Clemson Virtual Reality, where she leads efforts to build and expand the XR community. Alongside her academic and community work, Roshni is the Founder of Clear Trace, a startup she is currently building.

VR for Nursing Education

One of her key projects involved leading a VR demo for 200+ nursing students, where she guided them through the human body in an immersive environment.

This allowed students to interact with complex biological systems in a more intuitive way, highlighting how XR can enhance medical education and understanding.

STEM + VR Outreach Experience

She also worked on experiences that reached 300+ middle and high school students, using VR applications to introduce younger audiences to STEM concepts.

This project focused on making immersive technology more accessible while creating engaging, interactive learning environments.

ICXR Involvement

Roshni is actively involved in ICXR (Intercollegiate XR), contributing to outreach and helping grow the broader community.

Her interest in ICXR originally came from wanting to understand how other VR clubs were structured and how she could improve and scale initiatives at her own university. That led to deeper involvement within the ICXR ecosystem.

XR News

Snap & Qualcomm announce AR glasses partnership

Snap partnered with Qualcomm to power upcoming AR glasses with Snapdragon chips, reaffirming a 2026 launch timeline and pushing toward more consumer-ready smartglasses.

MemoMind smartglasses beta testing opens

MemoMind is rolling out early access to its AI smartglasses, showing more companies are moving into real-world testing phases.

Blackmagic announces URSA Cine Immersive camera

Blackmagic introduced a camera built for immersive production with dual 8K sensors and live 100G output, signaling growth in XR media infrastructure..

Meta Quest price increases across devices

Meta raised prices on Quest 3 and Quest 3S due to rising hardware costs, highlighting ongoing challenges around XR affordability.

Opportunities

Conferences

Register for AWE 2026 (Augmented World Expo): June 15–18, Long Beach Convention Center, CA
Immersive Tech Week 2026: June 23–25, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Hackathons

Pacific Portal XR Hackathon (PPXR): May 7–9, Online