Academic CV · Updated August 2026
Étienne Peillard
Associate Professor at IMT Atlantique
I study perception and embodied interaction in Virtual and Augmented Reality, with a particular focus on augmented affordances, body perception, human factors, and cooperation between humans and autonomous systems.
Research profile and projects
Research focus
My research examines how Virtual and Augmented Reality reshape perception, embodiment, and action. I study augmented affordances, body perception, and human factors, and design immersive interfaces that help people understand and cooperate with autonomous systems.
Core themes: spatial and body perception · embodied interaction · augmented affordances · human–autonomous-system cooperation · experimental methods for XR.
Research outputs
Browse the full publication list, consult my Google Scholar profile for citations and indexed records, or access my HAL CV.
Project leadership
- ANR JCJC PAEIAR (2025–2028) — Perception of affordances and embodied interaction in Augmented Reality; project leader, with the University of Western Brittany.
- CEXI-HA — IMT Atlantique’s shared experimental platform for immersive interaction, human factors, and augmented-human research; scientific lead and project manager.
National projects
- ANR ASTRAL (February 2024–2027) — Design, interaction, and perception of avatars in Augmented Reality, with Clarté, Inria Rennes, and Centrale Nantes.
- Perception and Representation of Urban Night Lighting Ambiances in Virtual Reality (2025–2028) — CIFRE PhD project with L’Observatoire de la Nuit, AAU-CRENAU, and Lab-STICC.
- Body Perception and Morphology in Augmented Reality (2024–2027) — PhD project on embodiment, self-body perception, and body-image applications in Augmented Reality, with the University of Western Brittany.
International projects
- AR Perception from Laboratory to Real-World Applications (2025–2028) — Cotutelle PhD with the University of Adelaide, funded through the MSCA COFUND AUFRANDE programme.
- ASPIRE Seamless (2023–2027) — Perceptual continuity between physical reality and Augmented Reality, with the University of Tokyo.
- AI Perceptive Assistance for Deep-Space Rover Teleoperation (2024–2027) — Joint PhD project with the University of Adelaide, funded through the MSCA COFUND SEED programme.
- UniSA / Naval Group PhD project (2024–2027) — 4D narrative visualizations for marine-drone mission reporting.
Research collaborations
Long-term research partnerships and joint supervision across Europe, Asia, and Australia.
- Associate member of the French–Australian laboratory for Human / Autonomous Agents Teaming
- Facilitator of the Interaction working group
- Research framework for joint PhD supervision with Australian partners in AR, human–autonomous systems teaming, deep-space teleoperation, and marine-drone visualization
- Co-supervised Thi Thanh Hoa Tran’s PhD on AR and trust in autonomous systems with Bruce Thomas and James Walsh at the former University of South Australia (2022–2026)
- Joint PhD supervision on 4D narrative visualizations for marine-drone mission reporting with Naval Group (2024–2027)
- Joint internship supervision on digital anthropology with Tobias Loetscher
- Joint supervision of Min Ni’s cotutelle PhD on AR perception and real-world applications through the MSCA COFUND AUFRANDE programme with Tim Chen (2025–2028; initiated at the former University of Adelaide)
- Joint supervision of Nazial Kadir’s PhD on AI-based perceptive assistance for deep-space rover teleoperation with Anna Ma-Wyatt, funded through the MSCA COFUND SEED programme (2024–2027; initiated at the former University of Adelaide)
- Joint doctoral research conducted within the CNRS IRL CROSSING framework
- Research on AR perception and virtual shadows with Yue Liu and Yuan Gao
- Six-month research stay with Yuta Itoh
- Joint PHC Sakura project (2021–2023)
- Joint supervision of Anthony Le Gourriérec’s CIFRE PhD on the perception and representation of urban night lighting in Virtual Reality with Nicolas Houel and Myriam Servières (2025–2028)
- Research on spatial perception and urban digital models with Myriam Servières
- CIFRE PhD partnership with Myriam Servières, L’Observatoire de la Nuit, and Lab-STICC (2025–2028)
- Long-standing collaboration with Yuta Itoh (since 2019)
- ASPIRE Seamless project on perceptual continuity between physical reality and AR (2023–2027)
- Co-organized NII Shonan Meeting No. 242 — Seamless Reality (June 2026)
Teaching
- Head of the Front track in the FIL apprenticeship program, coordinating nine teaching units across the three-year curriculum
- Teaching Virtual Reality (about 60 hours in 2026–2027) in the DAPI department on the Nantes campus
- Supporting students through project supervision, tutoring, and participation in juries and defenses
- Co-led the RVSI engineering track and the RVRA teaching unit in the SIIA Master’s program, a track within UBO’s Master’s in Computer Science jointly accredited by UBO, ENIB, and IMT Atlantique
- Annual teaching: about 95 hours in the RV/RVSI engineering track, 25 hours in the SIIA Master’s program, and 15 hours of first-year HCI
- Led six teaching units; supervised about five project groups a year (four to seven students per group), as well as interns and apprentices
- Delivered lectures and practicals in algorithmics, computer vision, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality
- Supervised industrial and application projects in the Virtual Reality major
- Invited to deliver a one-day Augmented Reality course in École Polytechnique’s AI and Advanced Visual Computing Master’s program (2020)
Detailed teaching portfolio (2017–present)
IMT Atlantique · Engineering programs
Since August 2026 · Nantes
FIL apprenticeship program
Head of the Front track in the Formation Ingénieur Logiciel (FIL) apprenticeship program.
Responsibilities for teaching units (UE)
| Year | Teaching units |
|---|---|
| First year | IHMInteraction homme-machine (Human–Computer Interaction) |
| Second year | Applis mobilesDéveloppement d’applications mobiles (Mobile application development) GFXInfographie et rendu 3D (Computer graphics and 3D rendering) Web devDéveloppement web avancé (Advanced web development) |
| Third year | Projet front-backProjet de développement Front-end / Back-end (Front-end / Back-end development project) (co-responsible) Clients légersDéveloppement de clients légers (Lightweight client development) RXProgrammation réactive (Reactive programming) UXDevOpsExpérience utilisateur, DevOps et interactions avancées (User experience, DevOps and advanced interactions) Ergonomie cognitiveErgonomie cognitive et facteurs humains (Cognitive ergonomics and human factors) |
Teaching, supervision and juries
- Around 60 hours of Virtual Reality teaching in the 2026–2027 academic year.
- Academic follow-up for FIL students completing their end-of-study projects, and participation in all intermediate defenses for FIP students (three cohorts of about 30 students across the three-year program).
- For the standard engineering program (FISE), jury member for second- and third-year end-of-study internship defenses.
- Supervision of FISE project groups: company projects in the second year, and complex projects (ProCom) in the third year.
IMT Atlantique · Engineering and Master’s programs
December 2020 – July 2026 · Brest
- Co-responsible for the RVSI track and the RVRA teaching unit in the SIIA Master’s program, a track within UBO’s Master’s in Computer Science jointly accredited by UBO, ENIB, and IMT Atlantique.
Responsibilities for teaching units (UE)
- RVRA – Réalité Virtuelle & Réalité Augmentée (Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality; co-responsible, 2022–2026)
- ECoTI – Enjeux et Conception pour les Technologies Immersives (Challenges and Design for Immersive Technologies; responsible, 2024–2026)
- FHEES – Facteurs Humains et Études Expérimentales (Human Factors and Experimental Studies; responsible, 2024–2026)
- LogIHM – Interaction Homme-Machine en Réalité Virtuelle (Human–Computer Interaction in Virtual Reality; co-responsible, 2021–2023)
- TERV – Techniques et Enjeux de la Réalité Virtuelle (Techniques and Challenges of Virtual Reality; co-responsible, 2021–2023)
- RAUG – Vision par Ordinateur et Réalité Augmentée (Computer Vision and Augmented Reality; responsible, 2021–2023)
Main teaching areas (2020–2026)
- Virtual and Augmented Reality: RVRA in the SIIA Master’s program (about 25 hours/year); TERV, LogIHM, and RAUG in the IHM/RVSI engineering track (about 95 hours/year); advanced Mixed-Reality projects.
- Human factors and experimental methods: perception and cognition in XR, experimental-study design, scientific methodology, and use of the CEXI-HA platform.
- Human–Computer Interaction and computer science: first-year HCI (about 15 hours/year), databases and interface design, and general computer-science teaching.
- Immersive visualization technologies: VR displays, modern visualization techniques, and 3D interactive systems.
- Project-based learning: about five groups per year (four to seven students per group) across engineering, Master’s, company-sponsored, interdisciplinary psychology–computer-science, and research projects.
Additional pedagogical activities
- Regular jury member for first-, second-, and third-year project and internship defenses.
- School and methodology tutor for engineering projects, including company-sponsored projects.
- Supervision of Master’s projects, research projects, and interdisciplinary experimental studies.
- Academic tutor for FIP apprentices and company-based student projects.
École Centrale de Nantes · Engineering program
September 2017 – June 2020 · Nantes
- First-year program (equivalent to L3)
- ALGPR — algorithm and programming: practicals, 2017–2019, 18 hours/year.
- Supervision of industrial projects: 2017–2020, two project groups/year.
- Second- and third-year Virtual Reality major (equivalent to M1–M2)
- VSION — computer vision and augmented reality: practicals, 2017–2020, 28 hours/year.
- Introduction to 3D software (Unity): practicals, 2018–2020, 6 hours/year.
- COARV — advanced knowledge in virtual reality: practicals and project supervision, 2018–2020, 22 hours/year.
- Supervision of application projects: 2017–2020, approximately 15 projects in total.
École Polytechnique · Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Visual Computing Master’s program
February 2020 · Palaiseau
One-day intervention (six hours of lectures and practicals) dedicated to Augmented Reality, as part of the “Virtual / Augmented Reality & 3D Interactions” major.
Student mentoring and supervision
Doctoral supervision centered on perception, interaction, and human–computer collaboration in Virtual and Augmented Reality.
PhD students
Seven ongoing co-supervisions across France and Australia; the Australian collaborations are developed within the CNRS IRL CROSSING framework.
Kingsley Stephens
CNRS IRL CROSSING · France–Australia4D narrative visualizations for marine-drone mission reporting
Juri Yoneyama
Perception and interaction with real and virtual hands and objects in Augmented Reality
Nazial Kadir
CNRS IRL CROSSING · France–AustraliaAI perceptive assistance during teleoperations of rovers in deep space
Marie-Cécile Léculier
Study of body perception and morphology in Augmented Reality
Min Ni
CNRS IRL CROSSING · France–AustraliaEnhancing perceptual and cognitive processes in AR studies for real-world applications
Anthony Le Gourriérec
Perception and representation of urban night-lighting ambiances in Virtual Reality
Yutaro Tanaka
Perception of affordances and embodied interaction in Augmented Reality
Completed PhDs
Three co-supervised theses defended since 2024.
Aymeric Hénard
Perception and comprehension of robot swarms through human perception and localized visualizations
Julien Cauquis
Optimizing sensory feedback and manual-interaction efficiency within XR experiments
Thi Thanh Hoa Tran
CNRS IRL CROSSING · France–AustraliaBuilding confidence in autonomous vehicles through AR visualization of AI decision-making context
Post-doctoral researchers and research engineers
Research staff supervised across immersive interaction and human factors projects.
Post-doctoral researchers
2- Marie Jarrell
- Anjara Nobby Rakotoarivelo
Research engineers
4- Jérémie Donjat
- Pierre Fayol
- Aymeric Hénard Current
- Julien Ganne Current
Master's students22 research placements · 2021–2026
| Year | Student | Period |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Guyllian Gomez | Jan. – Jul. |
| 2022 | Lucas Bernin | Jan. – Jul. |
| Hugo Da Maïa | Apr. – Aug. | |
| Daniel Ledoussal | May – Jun. | |
| 2023 | Nolwenn Paluet | Mar. – Aug. |
| Clément Jézéquel | Mar. – Aug. | |
| Ambre Daigremont | Apr. – Jul. | |
| 2024 | Georges Simbe | Jan. – Apr. |
| Taha Lamine | Feb. – Aug. | |
| Marie-Cécile Léculier | Feb. – Jun. | |
| Clémence Cunin | Mar. – Aug. | |
| Lory Somphonphakdy | Apr. – Aug. | |
| Lucas Thomesse | Apr. – Sep. | |
| 2025 | Lilas Privateer | Mar. – Aug. |
| Titouan Aline | Mar. – Aug. | |
| Ewan Durand | Mar. – May | |
| Gauthier Bertram | Apr. – Sep. | |
| Yutaro Tanaka | May – Oct. | |
| 2026 | Guilhem Mas | Feb. – Aug. |
| Ewan Durand | Apr. – Sep. | |
| Efflam Rol | Apr. – Aug. | |
| Samuel Lallemand | Apr. – Aug. |
Academic service and research community
Reviewing
International conferences
- IEEE VR – IEEE Virtual Reality Conference
- Reviewer for the conference since 2020
- Member of the Program Committee since 2021
- IEEE ISMAR - IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality
- Reviewer for the conference since 2019
- Member of the Program Committee since 2020
- ICAT EGVE - International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistence & Eurographics Symposium on Virtual Environments
- Member of the Program Committee since 2022
- ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST)
- Member of the Program Committee in 2022, 2025, and 2026
- ACM Symposium on Applied Perception (SAP)
- Member of the Program Committee in 2025 and 2026
- Member of the Best Paper Committee in 2026
- CoG 2020 – IEEE Conference of Games 2020
- External reviewer for SIGGRAPH 2026 posters
Journals
- Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments
- IEEE TVCG – Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
- Computers & Graphics
- ACM Transactions on Applied Perception
- Frontiers in Virtual Reality
Conference organization
- Member of the organizing committee of ISMAR 2017
- Organizer of IEEE Workshop on Perceptual and Cognitive Issues in xR (PERCxR) from 2020 to 2022 (held during IEEE VR and IEEE ISMAR conferences)
- Member of the organizing committee of IEEE VR 2023
- Tutorial Chair for IEEE VR 2025 and 2026
- Organizer of the Seamless Reality workshop at IEEE VR 2024, 2025, and 2026 and IEEE ISMAR 2025
NII Shonan Meeting No. 242 — Seamless Reality
I co-organized NII Shonan Meeting No. 242 — Seamless Reality, held at the Shonan Village Center, Japan, from June 1 to 4, 2026. The other organizers were Yuta Itoh (Institute of Science Tokyo), Takefumi Hiraki (University of Tsukuba), Yuichi Hiroi (Cluster Metaverse Lab), and Jean-Marie Normand (Centrale Nantes).
The international seminar brought together researchers in Augmented Reality, Human–Computer Interaction, human augmentation, and cognitive science. It examined how cognitive and behavioral changes developed in virtual environments can transfer seamlessly to the physical world, with a focus on high-presence VR/AR systems, perception-based design, embodiment, shape-changing and haptic interaction, and the societal implications of Seamless Reality.
Scientific community responsibilities
- Facilitator of the Interaction working group within the CNRS IRL CROSSING
- Communications and website officer for the GDR IG-RV until 2026
Institutional roles, outreach and interests
Outreach and valorization
Pint of Science 2018 — Nantes
Outreach intervention on perceptual biases in virtual and augmented displays.
Innovatives SHS 2019
Presentation of the laboratory’s project Coraulis (Observation center in augmented reality and sound immersion site) at the annual CNRS (French National Research Agency) humanities exhibition.
Administrative responsibilities
IMT Atlantique
Nantes campus — since August 2026
- Responsible for the Front track of the FIL apprenticeship program and its associated teaching units
Brest campus — 2021–2026
- Scientific lead and project manager for the CEXI-HA platform (Centre d’EXpérimentation en Interaction et Humain Augmenté)
- Co-deputy for teaching in the Computer Science department (2023–2026)
- Co-responsible for the RVSI track and the RVRA teaching unit (2022–2026)
Centrale Nantes
- Student representative on the Board of Studies (2014-2016)
- PhD Student representative on the Board of Directors (2018-2019)
- PhD Student representative on the Scientific Council (2019-2020)
AAU Lab.
- Member of the Laboratory Council (2019-2020)
Personal interests
- Fencing
- Go (instructor for the French federation and president of the Brest club)
- Travels
- Photos (my Flickr profile)
Professional experience
- Associate Professor in the DAPI department on the Nantes campus
- Member of the PACCE team at LS2N (UMR CNRS 6004)
- Member of the INUIT team at Lab-STICC (UMR CNRS 6285)
- Research and teaching in Virtual and Augmented Reality, Human-Computer Interaction, and experimental methods
- Scientific leadership and development of the CEXI-HA experimental platform
Earlier professional and research experience (2015–2020)
Doctoral contract · Centrale Nantes / Inria
September 2017 – November 2020 · Nantes / Rennes
Perception and Interaction in Augmented Reality
Hybrid team, Inria Rennes / AAU-CRENAU, École Centrale de Nantes.
Final-year internship · CLARTE
April – September 2017 · Laval
CLARTE is a technology resource center specializing in Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and emerging technologies.
Development of an industrial and collaborative application in Virtual and Augmented Reality.
Research project · Centrale Nantes
September 2016 – March 2017 · Nantes
Influence of the disparity between accommodation and vergence in the perception of augmented reality environments.
Bibliographic research, design and realization of experiments, and writing of scientific documents.
Research project · Network “Usages des Patrimoines Numérisés” (UDPN), Université Paris 13
January – February 2016 · Nantes / Paris
Modeling and simulation of heritage: for a critical evaluation of digital applications.
Interviews with curators and heads of communication at cultural institutions, followed by analysis and preparation of a report on the use of digital technologies in French museums.
Interdisciplinary research project · Université de Nantes / LS2N
October – December 2015 · Nantes
- Experimentation with new methods of cultural mediation.
- Development of interactive AR applications based on a 3D environment and a corpus of archive images.
- In-situ interfacing of archive data during visits to the Mauduit salons, a major cultural venue in Nantes.
Second-year internship · LS2N
April – September 2015 · Nantes
- Development of Augmented Reality applications to enhance technical or heritage objects.
- Participation in the exhibition “Planetary Travel” at La Cité des Congrès de Nantes.
Training and Qualifications
Title: Toward a Characterization of Perceptual Biases in Mixed Reality: A Study of Factors Inducing Distance Misperception
Thesis carried out in the AAU Crenau (Nantes) and Inria (Rennes) labs.
Defended in Nantes on November 24, 2020. Read the thesis overview.
Supervision:
- Guillaume Moreau, École Centrale de Nantes
- Ferran Argelaguet, Inria Rennes
- Jean-Marie Normand, École Centrale de Nantes
Jury:
- Victoria INTERRANTE, University of Minnesota
- Jean-Louis VERCHER, CNRS
- Sarah CREEM-REGEHR, University of Utah
- Valérie GYSELINCK, Gustave Eiffel University
- Anatole LÉCUYER, Inria Rennes
Highly selective French Engineering School conferring a diploma equivalent to a Master’s degree.
- First year: Training as a general engineer, core curriculum.
- Second year: Major: Virtual Reality
- Third year: Gap year
- Development of digital applications for heritage (8 months)
- Advanced go practice during a trip to Japan (6 months).
- Fourth year: Research Major.
