Arpana Nandakumar

Innovation, for me, isn’t just about new tools or shiny tech. It’s about asking bold questions no matter how insane they sound. What if boring tasks could be play? What if digital spaces could ease real-world problems?

As an R&D associate through MediaCity Immersive Technologies Innovation Hub (MITIH) and DreamLab, I’ve worked with incredible minds, from game studios to education startups, building XR tools that explore new technology while using it for good. I helped bridge the workflow gap between Unreal Engine and Apple VisionOS and supported companies in their research pipelines.

The project that changed everything for me was Parkio, the world’s first mixed reality parkour game. Imagine Mario in your living room; it turned fitness into adventure and play into presence. Created with four collaborators worldwide, it won runner-up at the Global XR Hackathon in Istanbul, and we presented it at AWE XR in Austria.

My heart lies in healthcare. At Sheffield Hallam’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre, I co-developed Planet Wellbeing, an immersive XR world designed to reduce loneliness in older adults. My personal project, Mindfulness Adventure, invites neurodivergent users to find calm through interactive therapy.

These are my quiet revolutions, proof that immersive media can unite empathy, design and accessibility as human essentials.

Arpana is an emerging innovator from DreamLab’s MediaCity Immersive Technologies accelerator, a core collaborator in its growth toward independence and a success story in her own right. Technically skilled, agile and driven by the social potential of Createch, she has found her voice as an educator, canvassador and grassroots pioneer. Arpana champions immersive technology for community education and social impact, inspiring the next generation of creators.

Dr Derek Hales

University of Salford

 

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