We are very grateful to have received the Excellence Award at the Learning Innovation Grand Prix. To our surprise, this is our second consecutive year receiving this award. We are truly honored. Thank you to all the judges for selecting our research from among so many excellent entries. Furthermore, we were also selected as a Best Full Paper Nominee at ICLEA 2026… we are very grateful for this as well. This research is led by Principal Investigator Dr. Xuewang Geng, a graduate of the Yamada Lab and currently an Associate Professor at Sojo University. It is a joint research project with Dr. Li Chen of Osaka Kyoiku University and Dr. Eto of Seinan Jo Gakuin University. Dr. Geng and Dr. Chen hold doctoral degrees, and Dr. Eto holds a master’s degree, all from the Yamada Lab (laughs). It is a joy to be able to conduct joint research with our graduates as fellow researchers.

The title is “VR Health Consultation Training System Using Generative AI Child Avatars to Replicate the Rapport-Building Process.” Specifically, this is a learning support system that integrates generative AI-based modeling with a VR environment, aimed at training school nurses. We use VR to recreate situations that are often considered difficult to replicate, select three common patterns of mental health issues faced by students, and generate responses to statements made by students in the school nurse training program based on models tailored to each pattern, which are then delivered by avatars using TTS.

We calculate rapport values based on each turn, gaze, and physical distance. Since building rapport with students is an extremely important part of the job in any situation, we believe this is highly effective for initial training. The feedback from students has been excellent, and we look forward to continuing our research and making further improvements to develop this into an even better project. This work will be presented at HCI International 2026.

Thank you for your continued support.