Jalynn Nicoly's Website

JALYNN BLU NICOLY

Human-Computer Interaction Researcher

I am a Ph.D. Student at the University of Colorado Boulder, where I research how neurological signals can be used to enhance and adapt virtual and augmented reality environments.
I completed my undergraduate studies at Colorado State University, beginning with a background in Psychology before transitioning to Computer Science to better understand the intersection of human behavior and technology.
I currently am a Graduate Instructor for Introduction to Coding in C++ at the University of Colorado Boulder, where I have spent the last two semesters teaching students foundational programming.
I have developed six years of experience working across several research labs and industries, focusing on practical applications of human-computer interaction.

Keywords: Human-Computer Interaction, Brain-Computer Interfaces, Neuroadaptive Systems, Virtual & Augmented Reality

SHINELab
System-Human Interaction with NIRS and EEG Lab: My current research lab starting May 2024 preparing me for my Ph.D. alongside Leanne Hirshfield. This lab introduced me to the world of brain signal measuring devices, completing multiple phases of an Office of Naval Research project and developing an ongoing brain-computer interface.
NUILab
Natural User Interaction Lab: My undergraduate lab led by Francisco Ortega setting me up for a successful career introducing me to virtual and augmented reality in various projects. Here, I was placed on over five research projects, graduating from my Bachelors as a first author with an ACM SAP 2024 paper.
AIRLab
Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Lab: Participating in Distribute Research Experience for Undergraduates (DREU) introduced me to Angelique Taylor's Cornell Tech lab. Here I developed an augmented reality application for healthcare workers, pursuing how to improve team dynamics within resuscitation procedures.
Memory Lab
Memory and Metacognition Lab: Under the mentorship of Matthew Rhodes, I started as a research assistant as early as my second semester of university. This lab was held in the Psychology department of Colorado State University, where I was first exposed to running research studies and gained insight into what it would mean to be a graduate student.

Publications

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Nicoly, J. B. (2025, October). Towards seamless interaction: Neuroadaptive virtual reality interfaces for target selection. In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (pp. 745-748). https://doi.org/10.1145/3716553.3750827.
Pharmer, R. L., Wickens, C. D., Plabst, L., Clegg, B. A., Hirshfield, L. M., Lewis, J. E., Nicoly, J. B., Spencer, C. A., & Ortega, F. R. (2025). The Impact of Simple, Brief, and Adaptive Instructions within Virtual Reality Training: Components of Cognitive Load Theory in an Assembly Task. arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.20943. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2507.20943.
Spencer, C. A., Nicoly, J. B., Plabst, L., Pharmer, R. L., Wickens, C. D., Ortega, F., ... & Hirshfield, L. (2025, September). Investigating Cognitive Engagement from Training to Application Under Varied Workload Manipulations in Virtual Reality. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting (Vol. 69, No. 1, pp. 1435-1440). Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.1177/10711813251363210.
Taylor, A., Tanjim, T., Cao, H., Nicoly, J. B., Segal, J. I., George, J. S., ... & Lee, H. R. (2025). Co-designing augmented reality tools for high-stakes clinical teamwork. arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.17295. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2502.17295.
Ortega, F. R., Interrante, V., Lotemplio, S., Masters, R., Nicoly, J., Borhani, Z., ... & Zielasko, D. (2024). Enhancing Well-Being Through Positive Technology: VR Forest Bathing. https://doi.org/10.1145/3670406.
Nicoly, J. B., Masters, R., Gaddy, V., Interrante, V., & Ortega, F. (2024). The restorative influence of virtual reality environment design. ACM Symposium on Applied Perception 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3675231.3675244.
Masters, R., Nicoly, J., Gaddy, V., Interrante, V., & Ortega, F. (2024). The impact of nature realism on the restorative quality of virtual reality forest bathing. ACM Transactions on Applied Perception 2024, 17(2). https://doi.org/10.1145/3670406.