Barry Silverstein ’84 believes that in the not-too-distant future, the main way people interact with computers on a daily basis will be through augmented reality. After serving as the senior director of optics and display research at Meta Reality Labs Research since 2017, the University of Rochester optics alumnus says academia has a critical role to play in guiding that future and that there is no better university to lead it than his alma mater.
“The University of Rochester is uniquely equipped with the technological and humanistic pieces to make extended reality—AR and VR combined with artificial intelligence—useful, productive, and valuable for humanity,” says Silverstein. “Pulling together those pieces is something that I’ve dreamed about for more than a decade.”
Silverstein will pursue that vision after stepping down from Meta to serve as director of URochester’s Center for Extended Reality (CXR), a transdisciplinary center focused on artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, and everything in between. Established over the summer as part of Boundless Possibility, the University’s 2030 strategic plan, CXR will serve as a hub to connect the University’s experts in optics, computing, data science, neuroscience, education, the humanities, and other related fields to focus on advancing augmented and virtual reality.
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