{"id":12,"date":"2018-01-30T12:38:14","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T16:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/michael-villano\/?page_id=12"},"modified":"2026-10-09T11:52:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T15:52:22","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/michael-villano\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Dr. Mike Villano is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology where he provides research computing consultative services in all phases of the research software development life cycle: feasibility studies, requirements gathering and analysis, software architecture and user interface design, implementation (coding in more than 20 computer languages\/environments), testing\/calibration, deployment and maintenance. He collaborates with faculty, graduate students and undergraduate research assistants to facilitate and promote effective and efficient use and integration of research computing resources and audio\/video technologies within their labs, the department and the university.<\/p>\n

Dr. Villano conducts research utilizing a wide application of VR and 3D and 2D video game technology to a variety of business, health and social issues. Current projects include investigating moral decision-making of drone pilots in a simulated 3D game environment and utilizing VR for the study of proxemics (personal space) and human-robotic interaction. Dr. Villano is a Co-Director of the Virtual Reality Laboratory where he developed a VR simulation of an on-campus building atrium to study VR acrophobia exposure therapy, a shopping mall for the study of prospective memory and a virtual boardroom to study corporate strategic decision-making.<\/p>\n

Prior to returning to the academic environment, Dr. Villano conducted research and development for various industries in e-commerce, web-based electronic performance support systems, human-computer interaction, ergonomics and computer-based simulation and training.<\/p>\n

Research and Teaching Interests<\/strong><\/p>\n

Virtual Reality and 3D Video Game Development, Simulations for Moral Dilemmas and Business Strategy, Human-Robotic Interaction, Human-Computer Interaction<\/p>\n

Mentoring Statement<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a mentor, I strive provide graduate and undergraduate students with opportunities to develop both technical and professional skills while carrying out our research projects. I try to treat students as colleagues and collaborators and offer beneficial and constructive feedback on their work.<\/p>\n

Degrees<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ph.D., Experimental Psychology, New York University
M. A., Experimental Psychology, New York University
B. A., Psychology; Certificate in Computer Applications (CAPP) , University of Notre Dame<\/p>\n

Representative Publications<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.P.A.V. Zelderen, T.C. Masters-Waage, S.J. Affinito, A. Bekbergenova, K. Cowan, T. Hartmann, M.M. Hausfeld, A. Jolink, J.J. Korbel, T. Lynn, L. Renier, D.P. Singh, S. Wu, D. Banakou, A. Bayro, T. Bosse, E. Derous, D. Draschkow, K.A. Ferguson, T. Fritz, D. Gomez-Zara, C. Hauser, V.F. He, L.C. Howe, D. Jain, Z. Kinias, Y.X. Lukic, J.I. Menges, A. Mortezapour, A. Nagaraj, C.H. Park, S. Persky, M. Remund, D.R. Sanchez, M. Schellaert, S. Streuber, E. Vigan\u00f2, M. Villano,<\/strong> W. Vleugels, M. Zank, & T.D. Hubbard, (2026) Creating common virtual ground: Protocols to democratize open VR research<\/em>, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 123 (26) e2524991123, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.2524991123<\/a><\/p>\n

Parra, D., Brockmole, J. R, Villano, M. A, Jensen, R. M, & Radvansky, G. A. (2025). Event Structure and the Experience of Viewing Art. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society<\/em>, 47. Retrieved from https:\/\/escholarship.org\/uc\/item\/6ds4j54g<\/p>\n

Marczak-Czajka A., Redgrave T., Mitchef M., Villano M.<\/b> and Czajka A. (2024) Assessment of human emotional reactions to visual stimuli \u201cdeep-dreamed\u201d by artificial neural networks. Front. Psychol. 15:1509392. doi: 10.3389\/fpsyg.2024.1509392<\/p>\n

Hubbard, T.D., Aliberti, D. & Villano, M.<\/strong> (2022) Crossing the Uncanny Valley: Understanding Board Gender Composition Using Virtual Reality Simulations. Presented paper at the Strategic Management Society\u2019s Special Conference. Milan, Italy.<\/p>\n

Mujica, A., Crowell, C., Villano, M.<\/strong>, & Uddin, K. (2022). Addiction by design: some Dimensions and Challenges of Excessive Social Media Use. Medical Research Archives<\/em>, 10(2). doi:10.18103\/mra.v10i2.2677<\/p>\n

Christen M, Narvaez D, Zenk JD, Villano M<\/strong>, Crowell CR, Moore DR. Trolley dilemma in the sky: Context matters when civilians and cadets make remotely piloted aircraft decisions. PLoS One<\/em>. 2021;16(3):e0247273. PMCID: PMC7987167.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Mike Villano is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology where he provides research computing consultative services in all phases of the research software development life cycle: feasibility studies, requirements gathering and analysis, software architecture and user interface design, implementation (coding in more than 20 computer languages\/environments), testing\/calibration, deployment and maintenance. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2484,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/michael-villano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/michael-villano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/michael-villano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/michael-villano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2484"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/michael-villano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/michael-villano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/michael-villano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions\/56"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/michael-villano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}