Project summary

	Project no.: PN-IV-PCB-RO-MD-2024-0130; Contract no.: 14PCBROMD/2025
	Principal Investigators: Radu-Daniel Vatavu (University of Suceava, Romania) and Andrei Braicov (Ion Creanga State Pedagogical University of Chisinau, Republic of Moldova)
	Funded by UEFISCDI, Romania
	Funding scheme: PNCDI IV - P5.8 - European and International Cooperation
	Running period: September 2025 - August 2027 (24 months)

Abstract

Our physical environments have become increasingly complex through the integration of computer technology in virtually all aspects of modern life, turning concepts such as extended reality (XR) into practical experiences. One consequence of this computational transformation is that living in a computerized world requires a distinctive set of cognitive abilities for problem solving, which needs to capitalize on the core nature of the computers driving this transformation. In this project, we examine the new paradigm of extended thinking, denoting a distictive set of cognitive abilities needed in emerging XR worlds. Beyond critical thinking, limited to physical-world operation, and computational thinking, limited to algorithmic-like reasoning in the physical world integrating computers, extended thinking addresses experiential dimensions of presence in realities extending the physical world.

Objectives

Our specific objectives are:

1. Formalize the new concept of extended thinking for cognitive augmentation abilities in XR worlds by exploring relevant dimensions of XR technology, human factors, and skill learning theory.
2. Design and development of software technology for extended thinking through dedicated software applications implementing the superimposition of interactive experiences in XR with various modalities.
3. Evaluation of extended thinking with dedicated metrics of user experience.
4. Building and communicating research expertise in extended thinking.

Team

University of Suceava, Romania	Ion Creanga State Pedagogical University of Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
Prof. Radu-Daniel Vatavu, Principal Investigator  Laura-Bianca Bilius, Postdoctoral Researcher  Mihail Terenti, Postdoctoral Researcher	Prof. Andrei Braicov, Principal Investigator  Tatiana Veverita, Senior Researcher  Ivan Budanaev, Senior Researcher  Ilona Popovici, Postdoctoral Researcher  Tudor Bumbu, Postdoctoral Researcher  Alexandru Bibic, PhD student  Ilie Musinschi, PhD student

The research activities are conducted in the Machine Intelligence and Information Visualization (MintViz) Research Laboratory of the MANSiD Research Center (Romania) and at the Ion Creanga State Pedagogical University of Chisinau (Republic of Moldova).

Publications

Project reports (in Romanian)

Media, Communication, and Outreach

• October 24, 2025. Press release at the Ion Creanga State Pedagogical University of Chisinau (in Romanian: UPSC și Universitatea "Ștefan cel Mare" din Suceava au lansat un proiect de cercetare privind tehnologiile XR pentru augmentarea cognitivă)
• September 26, 2025. European Researchers' Night, Suceava