Luciano Soares is an Associate Professor at Insper (Brazil), where he has been involved in the design and implementation of engineering programs since 2013. He currently coordinates the Engineering Capstone Project and the Virtual Reality and Digital Games Laboratory.
He received his B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of São Paulo (USP), where his thesis focused on immersive multi-projection environments built on clusters of commodity computers. He completed postdoctoral research at Instituto Superior Técnico (INESC/IST) and ADETTI/ISCTE in Lisbon, Portugal, and at INRIA in Grenoble, France.
Before joining Insper, he held positions as a systems engineer at Silicon Graphics Inc. and Alias|Wavefront, project manager at LSI-TEC/USP and Tecgraf/PUC-Rio, and professor in the Department of Informatics at PUC-Rio. From 2015 to 2022 he served as chair and vice-chair of the Special Commit
EDUCATION
MBA in Project Management, Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2008–2009
Postdoctoral Research, ADETTI/ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal, 2006–2007
Postdoctoral Research, INRIA – Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique, Grenoble, France, 2005–2006
Postdoctoral Research, INESC/IST – Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal, 2005
Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil, 2000–2005
Thesis: An Immersive Multi-projection Environment Based on a Cluster of Commodity Computers
B.Sc. in Computer Engineering, Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), Brazil, 1995–1999
RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS
Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
39
Scopus Publications
568
Scholar Citations
14
Scholar h-index
19
Scholar i10-index
Scopus Publications
Enhancing Capstone Program Workflow: A Case Study on a Platform for Managing Academic-Industry Projects Soares, Luciano Pereira, Ferrão, Rafael Corsi International Symposium on Project Approaches in Engineering Education, 2025 Capstone projects are widely adopted by universities around the world as a culminating assessment in bachelor's degree programs. These projects typically involve student teams tackling complex, real-world problems proposed by external stakeholders, such as companies, NGOs, or research centers. Although they offer valuable hands-on experience, managing Capstone projects can be challenging due to their multiple stages and demands. The process typically begins by identifying students' interests, followed by sourcing and selecting potential projects from external organizations. After presenting these options to students, groups must be formed based on various criteria, including academic ranking, GPA, previous experience, and individual skill sets. In this paper, we detail a web-based tool designed to streamline the management of Capstone projects at Insper, with an emphasis on project sourcing and group formation. We also discuss the technological solutions and the challenges encountered throughout development and deployment. Furthermore, we present usage data from recent years, offering insights that may prove valuable for institutions or teams developing similar tools in the future.
Automated Formative Feedback for Short-form Writing: An LLM-Driven Approach and Adoption Analysis Tiago Fernandes Tavares, Luciano Pereira Soares Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, 2025 This paper explores the development and adoption of AI-based formative feedback in the context of biweekly reports in an engineering Capstone program. Each student is required to write a short report detailing their individual accomplishments over the past two weeks, which is then assessed by their advising professor. An LLM-powered tool was developed to provide students with personalized feedback on their draft reports, guiding them toward improved completeness and quality. Usage data across two rounds revealed an initial barrier to adoption, with low engagement rates. However, students who engaged in the AI feedback system demonstrated the ability to use it effectively, leading to improvements in the completeness and quality of their reports. Furthermore, the tool’s task-parsing capabilities provided a novel approach to identify potential student organizational tasks and deliverables. The findings suggest initial skepticism toward the tool with a limited adoption within the studied context, however, they also highlight the potential for AI-driven tools to provide students and professors valuable insights and formative support.
Extended Reality System for Robotic Learning from Human Demonstration Isaac Ngui, Courtney McBeth, Grace He, André Corrêa Santos, Luciano Soares, Marco Morales, Nancy M. Amato Proceedings 2025 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops Vrw 2025, 2025 Many tasks are intuitive for humans but difficult to encode algorithmically when utilizing a robot. Robotic systems often benefit from learning from expert demonstrations, wherein operators move the robot along trajectories. Often, using a physical robot to provide these demonstrations may be difficult or unsafe. Extended reality provides a natural setting for demonstrating trajectories while bypassing safety concerns or modifying existing solution trajectories. We propose the Robot Action Demonstration in Extended Reality (RADER) system for learning from demonstration approaches. We additionally present its application to a state-of-the-art approach and show comparable results between using a physical robot and our system.
Machine Learning Applied to Locomotion in Virtual Reality Fernando Kenji Sakabe, Fabio José Ayres, Luciano Pereira Soares ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 2024 The objective of this research project is to recognize a user’s walking pattern on a treadmill-like platform for navigation in Virtual Reality (VR) environments. To achieve this, a walking recognition software solution was developed using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), a type of Machine Learning (ML) architecture. The ML model was trained on a dataset collected from users’ movements in a virtual simulation, tracking the positions and rotations of their feet as they walked in various directions and orientations. Tracking was accomplished using 6 degrees of freedom (6DoF) trackers placed on the users’ feet. The neural network achieved a 94% accuracy rate during testing. Due to the network’s lightweight configuration, the response time is, on average, 0.1 seconds, demonstrating its potential as an efficient natural controller for real-time user navigation in multiple directions.
Shared Reconstructed Environments in Extended Reality André Vital Tavernaro, Matheus Freitas Sant’Ana, Henrique Mualem Marti, João Guilherme Cintra de Freitas Almeida, Luciano Pereira Soares ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 2024 Modern extended reality headsets can identify the geometry of the physical surrounding space, which can be shared and synchronized with remote users, allowing them to view the space through their own extended reality headsets from different points of view. Conversely, remote users can augment this shared space with additional virtual geometry. For instance, imagine wearing an augmented reality (AR) headset that identifies and shares your surrounding space with a remotely located interior designer. This interior designer can then virtually teleport into your environment and suggest furniture placements, which you can see in real-time through your AR glasses. Moreover, you can interact with each other via avatars representing each user. This research project demonstrates how two people in different locations can experience one’s real physical environment in real-time and interact with each other. The strategies used to share geometry and user poses are discussed, along with the limitations of the hardware used for the prototype. The developed prototype involves one user wearing a Magic Leap 1 headset to scan their space, enabling a second user to remotely explore this space using an HTC Vive virtual reality (VR) headset. The VR user can also add virtual objects that both users can see.
Augmented Reality Support for Oncological Neurosurgery Ana Clara Carneiro de Freitas, Beatriz Muniz de Castro e Silva, Beatriz Rianho Bernardino, Gabriela Moreno Boriero, Marcio Tiago de Oliveira Barbosa, Rubens Chojniak, Luciano Pereira Soares ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 2024 This project aims to enhance oncological neurosurgery by displaying brain tumors using Augmented Reality (AR) as an overlay image during surgical procedures. Its purpose is to assist neurosurgeons in tasks such as brain biopsies by providing a clear and precise visualization of the affected area, thus enabling faster and less invasive surgeries, ultimately offering a more comfortable experience for patients. Currently, medical procedures achieve this through neuronavigation systems, which display two-dimensional images of the patient’s brain on a screen, typically positioned beside the patient or in separate imaging support rooms. By utilizing AR, surgeons can directly visualize the tumor on the patient’s body through a virtual 3D model, eliminating the need to frequently refer to external images. This project was developed using Microsoft HoloLens, a specialized AR headset, and Unity, a game engine widely used for 3D environment development. The system uses DICOM files as input, which are converted into 3D objects displayed through the AR headset.
Navigating Engineering Capstone Strategies Soares, Luciano P., Lima, Luciana C., Silva, Raul I. G. International Symposium on Project Approaches in Engineering Education, 2024
WELCOME TO PAEE/ALE'2023 International Symposium on Project Approaches in Engineering Education, 2023
Game development learning with PBL approach as a tool to assess computer engineering competences International Symposium on Project Approaches in Engineering Education, 2023
Spatial Ambient Remapping Henry Furquim Rocha, Gustavo Beltrão Braga, Pedro Luiz da Costa Braga, Vitor Grando Eller, Luciano Pereira Soares ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 2022
Pair Teaching in Computer Graphics Luciano Soares, Fabio Orfali International Symposium on Project Approaches in Engineering Education, 2022
Continuous integrated team learning International Symposium on Project Approaches in Engineering Education, 2018
From design thinking to front-end development: Applying a set of course principles over its own redesign International Symposium on Project Approaches in Engineering Education, 2018
Disassembling computer engineering education International Symposium on Project Approaches in Engineering Education, 2018
Context awareness in computer engineering: Designing a course with algorithms and sociology International Symposium on Project Approaches in Engineering Education, 2018
Simulation Training in Oil Platforms Ismael Santos, Peter Dam, Pedro Arantes, Alberto Raposo, Luciano Soares Proceedings 18th Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality Svr 2016, 2016
A hands-on approach for an integrated engineering education International Symposium on Project Approaches in Engineering Education, 2016
Multi-projector VR systems Luciano P. Soares, Alberto Raposo, Joaquim Jorge, Bruno Araujo, Miguel Dias, Felipe Carvalho Proceedings 23rd Conference on Graphics Patterns and Images Tutorials Sibgrapi T 2010, 2010
EnViron: An integrated VR tool for engineering projects Ismael H. F. dos Santos, Alberto Raposo, Luciano P. Soares, Eduardo T. L. Corseuil, Gustavo N. Wagner, Paulo I. N. Santos, Rodrigo de Toledo, Marcelo Gattass Proceedings of the 2008 12th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design Cscwd, 2008
PC clusters for virtual reality B. Raffin, L. Soares, Tao Ni, R. Ball, G.S. Schmidt, M.A. Livingston, O.G. Staadt, R. May Proceedings IEEE Virtual Reality, 2006
Virtual hang-gliding over Rio de Janeiro Luciano P. Soares, Leonardo Nomura, Marcio C. Cabral, Mario Nagamura, Roseli D. Lopes, Marcelo K. Zuffo ACM SIGGRAPH 2005 Emerging Technologies SIGGRAPH 2005, 2005
JINX: An X3D browser for VR immersive simulation based on clusters of commodity computers Web3d Symposium Proceedings, 2004
RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
Enhancing Capstone Program Workflow: A Case Study on a Platform for Managing Academic-Industry Projects RC Ferrao, LP Soares arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.20120 , 2026 2026
ERUPT: An Open Toolkit for Interfacing with Robot Motion Planners in Extended Reality I Ngui, C McBeth, A Santos, G He, KJ Mimnaugh, JD Motes, L Soares, ... arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.02464 , 2025 2025
cultureAI: Democratizando o Acesso a Museus com Large Language Models e Visualizações Imersivas Baseadas em Gaussian Splatting G Valentim, M Giovanna, C André, L Soares, F Ayres Simpósio de Realidade Virtual e Aumentada (SVR), 99-102 , 2025 2025
Visual Effects for 3D Gaussian Splatting in Extended Reality AC Santos, LP Soares 2025 27th Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality (SVR), 118-127 , 2025 2025
AI-Driven Responsive GUI for XR: Context-Aware Visual Adaptation AC Santos, PB Barão, RMA Lima, LP Soares 2025 27th Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality (SVR), 202-211 , 2025 2025
Automated Formative Feedback for Short-form Writing: An LLM-Driven Approach and Adoption Analysis TF Tavares, LP Soares 2025 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), 1-8 , 2025 2025
Extended Reality System for Robotic Learning from Human Demonstration I Ngui, C McBeth, G He, AC Santos, L Soares, M Morales, NM Amato 2025 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and … , 2025 2025 Citations: 2
Shared Reconstructed Environments in Extended Reality AV Tavernaro, MF Sant’Ana, HM Marti, JGCF Almeida, LP Soares Proceedings of the 26th Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality, 161-167 , 2024 2024
Augmented reality support for oncological neurosurgery ACC de Freitas, BMC e Silva, BR Bernardino, GM Boriero, MTO Barbosa, ... Proceedings of the 26th Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality, 252-256 , 2024 2024 Citations: 1
Machine learning applied to locomotion in virtual reality FK Sakabe, FJ Ayres, LP Soares Proceedings of the 26th Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality, 134-139 , 2024 2024 Citations: 2
Machine Learning aplicado a locomoção na Realidade Virtual FK Sakabe 2023
Machine Learning aplicado a locomoção na Realidade Virtual LP Soares, FK Sakabe 2023
Spatial Ambient Remapping HF Rocha, GB Braga, PLC Braga, VG Eller, LP Soares Proceedings of the 24th Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality, 115-124 , 2022 2022
Augmented reality system as an auxiliary method in oncological neurosurgery based on an anatomical model ACC Freitas, BR Bernardino, GM Boriero, LP Soares 2022
Reconstrução de ambientes físicos em tempo real para mundo digitais AV Tavernaro, HM Marti, JG Almeida, MF Sant’Ana, LP Soares 2022
Reconstrução de ambientes físicos em tempo real para mundo digitais LP Soares, FR Miranda, L Silva, AV Tavernaro, HM Marti, JG Almeida, ... 2022
Augmented reality system as an auxiliary method in oncological neurosurgery based on an anatomical model LP Soares, PPR Amaral, RIG Silva, ACC Freitas, BMC Silva, ... 2022
Reconhecimento e Extração de Marcas em Vídeos de Partidas de Futebol RIG Silva, LP Soares, FJ Ayres, JFM Cruz, G Noal, JPMJ Meirelles 2022
Pc clusters for virtual reality B Raffin, L Soares, T Ni, R Ball, GS Schmidt, MA Livingston, OG Staadt, ... IEEE Virtual Reality Conference (VR 2006), 215-222 , 2006 2006 Citations: 57
Environ: integrating VR and CAD in engineering projects A Raposo, I Santos, L Soares, G Wagner, E Corseuil, M Gattass IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 29 (6), 91-95 , 2009 2009 Citations: 53
JINX: an X3D browser for VR immersive simulation based on clusters of commodity computers LP Soares, MK Zuffo Proceedings of the ninth international conference on 3D Web technology, 79-86 , 2004 2004 Citations: 39
v-Glove: A 3D virtual touch interface P Gallotti, A Raposo, L Soares 2011 XIII Symposium on Virtual Reality, 242-251 , 2011 2011 Citations: 37
Caverna digital-sistema de multiprojeção estereoscopico baseado em aglomerados de pcs para aplicações imersivas em realidade virtual JA Zuffo, LP Soares, MK Zuffo, RD Lopes IV Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality , 2001 2001 Citations: 35
A collaborative virtual reality oil and gas workflow IHF dos Santos, LP Soares, F Carvalho, A Raposo International Journal of Virtual Reality 11 (1), 1-13 , 2012 2012 Citations: 29
Designing a highly immersive interactive environment: The virtual mine LP Soares, F Pires, R Varela, R Bastos, N Carvalho, F Gaspar, MS Dias Computer Graphics Forum 29 (6), 1756-1769 , 2010 2010 Citations: 22
Parallel adaptive octree carving for real-time 3d modeling L Soares, C Ménier, B Raffin, JL Roch 2007 IEEE Virtual Reality Conference, 273-274 , 2007 2007 Citations: 22
Virtual hang-gliding over rio de janeiro LP Soares, L Nomura, MC Cabral, M Nagamura, RD Lopes, MK Zuffo ACM SIGGRAPH 2005 Emerging technologies on-SIGGRAPH'05 , 2005 2005 Citations: 21
Commodity clusters for immersive projection environments P Augerat, C Goudeseune, H Kaczmarski, B Raffin, B Schaeffer, ... Proceedings of ACM SIGGRAPH 02, Course 47 , 2002 2002 Citations: 20
Simulation training in oil platforms I Santos, P Dam, P Arantes, A Raposo, L Soares 2016 XVIII symposium on virtual and augmented reality (SVR), 47-53 , 2016 2016 Citations: 18
PC clusters for virtual reality. LP Soares, B Raffin, JA Jorge Int. J. Virtual Real. 7 (1), 67-80 , 2008 2008 Citations: 18
Work stealing for time-constrained octree exploration: Application to real-time 3d modeling LP Soares, C Ménier, B Raffin, JL Roch Eurographics 2008 Symposium on Parallel Graphics and Visualization (EGPGV'08 … , 2007 2007 Citations: 14
Audience-audio immersion experiences in the caverna digital RRA Faria, LF Thomaz, L Soares, BT Santos, MK Zuffo, JA Zuffo Proceedings of the10th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Music, Belo Horizonte … , 2005 2005 Citations: 14
Collaborative 3d visualization on large screen displays D Mendes, M Sousa, B Araújo, A Ferreira, H Noronha, P Campos, ... ACM , 2013 2013 Citations: 12
A collaborative VR visualization environment for offshore engineering projects IHF dos Santos, LP Soares, F Carvalho, A Raposo Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Virtual Reality … , 2011 2011 Citations: 12
Sistemas Avançados de Realidade Virtual L Soares, M Cabral, M Zuffo Fundamentos e tecnologia de realidade virtual e aumentada, 51-58 , 2006 2006 Citations: 11
Synchronization and data sharing library for PC clusters MP GUIMARÃES, BB Gnecco, M Cabral, L SOARES, M Zuffo Workshop on Commodity Clusters for Virtual Reality-VR-CLuster 3 , 2003 2003 Citations: 11
Designing a mobile collaborative system for navigating and reviewing oil industry cad models H Noronha, P Campos, J Jorge, B Araújo, L Soares, A Raposo 2012 Citations: 10
A virtual touch interaction device for immersive applications PG Rodrigues, AB Raposo, LP Soares International Journal of Virtual Reality 10 (4), 1-10 , 2011 2011 Citations: 9
