Holographic Conversational Agents for Education

Holographic Conversational Agents for Education | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Holographic Conversational Agents for Education Ronnie Gohel, Sara Saravi, Yanning Yang, Firat Batmaz, Parisa Derakhshan, and 5 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8006853/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Conversational agents in universities are mostly screen-based and lack the presence needed for confident, back-and-forth teaching. We introduce life-sized, AI-powered Holographic Conversational Agents (HCAs) that run on Proto displays and portray Ada Lovelace and Averroes for use in education and public engagement. The paper makes three contributions. First, it sets out a documented, reproducible pipeline that takes still or video assets to an interactive, source-grounded, safety-checked avatar suitable for live education. Second, it details an EDI-informed persona design, pairing a woman in computing with a non-Western scholar, with deliberate choices about voice, accent and knowledge sources to support inclusive engagement. Third, it reports a mixed-methods evaluation with staff and students in real settings, showing strong perceived usefulness, engagement and social presence, with clear intent to reuse in classes and exhibitions. Results confirmed high perceived value, across 51 participants, 85.7% of all ratings were positive; Engagement averaged 4.31/5 (85.3% positive) and recommendation 4.37/5 with 88.2% rating 4–5. We close with practical guidance for building new subject-specific HCAs from the pipeline and deployment notes for classrooms, labs and galleries, positioning life-sized holography as a viable format for authoritative, dialogic teaching with historical figures. Holographic conversational agents Life-sized holography Embodied AI Historical personas Social presence GLAM Equity diversity and inclusion (EDI) Proto display Public engagement Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8006853","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":539353842,"identity":"bf700ec6-6951-4f20-90f4-403f4f114184","order_by":0,"name":"Ronnie Gohel","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Loughborough University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ronnie","middleName":"","lastName":"Gohel","suffix":""},{"id":539353843,"identity":"1efc2689-2e69-4838-827d-f2e84f1c5f64","order_by":1,"name":"Sara 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We introduce life-sized, AI-powered Holographic Conversational Agents (HCAs) that run on Proto displays and portray Ada Lovelace and Averroes for use in education and public engagement. The paper makes three contributions. First, it sets out a documented, reproducible pipeline that takes still or video assets to an interactive, source-grounded, safety-checked avatar suitable for live education. Second, it details an EDI-informed persona design, pairing a woman in computing with a non-Western scholar, with deliberate choices about voice, accent and knowledge sources to support inclusive engagement. Third, it reports a mixed-methods evaluation with staff and students in real settings, showing strong perceived usefulness, engagement and social presence, with clear intent to reuse in classes and exhibitions. Results confirmed high perceived value, across 51 participants, 85.7\\% of all ratings were positive; Engagement averaged 4.31/5 (85.3\\% positive) and recommendation 4.37/5 with 88.2\\% rating 4–5. 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