Biography
Markus Santoso holds a Ph.D. from Dongseo University, South Korea. His area of specialization focuses on the creative and scientific exploration of immersive technologies—including Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and the Metaverse—to facilitate users in acquiring skills and/or knowledge. He graduated in 2013 and subsequently continued his research in Erfurt, Germany, as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Fraunhofer IDMT under a funding scheme from the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM). Admission to this competitive fellowship required selection from a global pool of over 300 Ph.D. holders, with only 24 applicants accepted. As an ERCIM fellow, Dr. Santoso had the opportunity to collaborate with other leading European research institutes. He served as a research intern at INRIA MimeTIC in Rennes, France, focusing on VR, and at VTT in Espoo, Finland, conducting AR-related research.
Following this, Dr. Santoso pursued a second postdoctoral position with the LINDSAY Virtual Human Lab at the University of Calgary, Canada. He was awarded the Eyes High Postdoctoral Fellowship and worked on the implementation of AR/MR for human anatomy illustration, medical education, and computational physiology. In addition to his academic pursuits, Dr. Santoso gained industry experience through various AR/VR-related startups. His roles included Hololens Developer at Wellness Computation in Calgary, Canada, and Head of the Licensing and Gamification Department at Octagon Studio.
In July 2018, Dr. Santoso began his tenure-track appointment at the University of Florida. Upon joining UF, he expanded his research to include clinical applications of AR/VR. During his first three years, he focused on utilizing Extended Reality (XR) technologies to support individuals with Parkinson’s disease and Tourette syndrome, broadening his research scope to include human locomotion and balance. Additionally, he developed social VR platforms aimed at enhancing online learning experiences. More recently, Dr. Santoso has collaborated with faculty in dentistry to initiate applied AR/VR research for skill and knowledge acquisition in the dental field. Examples include a VR simulation for dental implant training and an AI-enhanced virtual standardized patient designed to improve dental students’ communication skills.
His research has also expanded to include other emerging technologies such as decentralized virtual experiences through blockchain integration and artificial intelligence (AI). In the area of blockchain, he has explored intersections between Web3, cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and Play-to-Earn (P2E) models as part of his immersive technology research. To support these endeavors, Dr. Santoso is involved with the UF Blockchain Lab as Co-Principal Investigator. The lab received multi-year funding totaling $2,079,861 from the Algorand Foundation. Through this project, Dr. Santoso has gained valuable experience with the Algorand blockchain network, including its development tools such as the AlgoKit SDK, and has participated in the Algorand hackathon.