Princeton & TU Berlin – Nuclear Disarmament VR Simulation
Research collaboration developing immersive VR simulation for nuclear disarmament scenarios. Demonstrates expertise in UX for high-stakes contexts and establishes credibility within prestigious academic partnerships.
Academic Partnership
Collaboration with two world-renowned research institutions
High-stakes UX
Interface design for critical decision-making scenarios
Policy Technology
Technology bridging complex policy and public understanding
Project Media
VR Simulation Demo
Project Gallery
Project Overview
The Challenge
The primary goal of the project was to further develop effective modes of interaction between the participants of a virtual inspection exercise in the environment of a Nuclear Dismantlement facility. The specific focus is on how we can incorporate gameplay elements, including “cheating scenarios” and unexpected events (“curveballs”) to enhance the gameplay and immersiveness of the VR experience.
The project was a research and development of a scenario that can incorporate attention techniques to confuse one of the parties. The nature of such a scenario, suggest two parties with (sometimes) opposite interests and implied distrust (e.g. Russia and the United States). The project was to create a scenario, construct locations in a virtual environment from existing models and interaction as well as implement Non-Playable-Characters (NPCs).
The Solution
We built a role‑based VR inspection exercise that operationalizes dismantlement protocols and injects controlled “cheating scenarios” via a rules engine. Inspectors and Host State operate under time pressure, incomplete information and constrained comms, while timeline‑ or performance‑triggered events (sensor anomalies, sudden route changes, missing paperwork) deliberately split attention and stress‑test adherence.
The environment uses existing facility models with interactive props and NPCs (cooperative/neutral/obstructive). An inspector toolkit (checklists, camera, counters, seal verifier) balances Host State controls (access, pacing, diversions). All actions are instrumented for debrief scoring, and a scenario editor tunes difficulty and event frequency.