Hoa Vo, assistant professor of interior design in the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design at Indiana University Bloomington, has received an Amazon Research Award through the Build on Trainium program to advance research at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and human-centered design.
Vo’s project explores how AI can analyze how people move through virtual buildings to better understand occupant behavior—insights that could help architects and designers create more intuitive, efficient, and engaging spaces before construction begins. By using AWS Trainium AI chips—hardware designed to accelerate machine learning—the research aims to make large-scale behavioral modeling faster, more accurate, and more sustainable.
This award provides AWS credits to support the project’s cloud-based computing needs. Vo’s work contributes to Indiana University’s growing leadership in design technology and applied AI, with potential applications in architecture, museum design, and public-space planning.
“Understanding how people naturally navigate spaces allows us to design buildings that feel more intuitive and welcoming,” Vo said. “Support from Amazon Research Awards and Build on Trainium makes it possible to study these patterns at a scale that was previously out of reach.”
Research reported in this release was supported by an Amazon Research Award, Spring 2025. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not reflect the views of Amazon.
