The Sensory-Friendly Spaces Initiative is an emerging, cross-campus effort to make ASU a more welcoming environment for neurodivergent individuals and anyone who benefits from lower-stimulation, more predictable experiences. This initiative is grounded in both research and lived experience. It aims to address physical spaces, event environments, and potentially digital experiences—supporting sensory regulation, reducing overwhelm, and…

The Arolla–NewsWell project was a three- to six-week R&D sprint led by Next Lab in collaboration with NewsWell, focused on exploring digital-to-print publishing workflows using WordPress and Adobe InDesign. The goal was to assess whether NewsWell’s original AWS-based prototype—featuring AI-assisted copy trimming, image handling, and single-page InDesign exports—could be replicated using existing WordPress tools, ideally…

In a partnership with Mayo Clinic, a team of Next Lab student workers are creating a virtual reality training simulation for medical students to practice diagnosing strokes. This proof-of-concept features hyper-realistic 3D models of medical patients that are able to be directly interacted with using VR hand-tracking controls and voice-recognition. Using the National Institutes of…

The Maricopa County Digital Storytelling project, featured on the AZ-1 web portal, highlights the impact of broadband internet access on education, business, and wellness in Maricopa County, Arizona. It shares stories of community members benefiting from having broadband access, such as telehealth and 5G technology for startups. This initiative is part of the university’s efforts…

Next Lab’s Betel–NextACT project features an immersive virtual experience exploring utopian and dystopian climate change futures, paired with a booklet of sustainability-focused drama-based lesson plans for K-12 educators to encourage the younger generation and beyond to grow their eco-consciousness and make personal commitments to zero-waste. NextACT was born from a partnership between multiple ASU-affiliated organizations…

Next Lab is collaborating with the Institute for Digital Inclusion and Access (IDIA) to create and facilitate lessons and activities in emerging tech literacy, game design, worldbuilding, and more to community members of all ages. To bring emerging technology education to community members across the Arizona valley, Next Lab has partnered with the Institute for…

Edge AI introduces a transformative AI solution to expand access to educational resources for remote and underserved communities. The project empowers learners in areas with limited internet and power infrastructure by developing an AI system capable of offline functionality on low-powered devices. The solution uses privacy-centric approaches to operate independently, ensuring user data remains secure…