Professor and Researcher
School of Architecture and Urban Planning SARUP
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM
Director of Extender Reality and Immersive Technologies
(HPI) Historic Preservation Institute SARUP – UWM
Master Art Teacher at SETON Catholic Schools
Director and Founder of PLURIS XR and AMEIRA
Expert in XR

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Gabriela Bustos has embraced her competencies as an architectural designer and artist, having lived in Milwaukee since 2011. Gabriela’s degrees with honors include a bachelor’s degree in architecture with a
Summa Cum Laude award, an honorable and publishing mention in a Magister Scientiarum in Informatics in Architecture, and an honorable and publishing mention Doctorate in Architecture at the University of Zulia, Venezuela (LUZ). Gabriela’s emphasis and passion center on digital technology through extended reality. She was a professor and a researcher at The University of Zulia (LUZ) from 1999 to 2015. Her research emphasizes implementing virtual reality during the architecture design process in studio teaching. She led, designed, and implemented digital programs of virtual reality at the School of Architecture and Design, University of Zulia (Maracaibo, Venezuela). She served as the Director of the Master of Informatics in Architecture Program, Coordinator and Chair of Digital Art at the Contemporary Art Museum of Zulia, Venezuela, from 2008-2011, and she was the Director of Interactive Architecture in the Digital Design Program and Virtual Reality and Interactivity Mention at FAD - LUZ 2009 2011. Her awards include the honor of best research at Ibero-American Society of Digital Graphics (SiGraDi) in 2002; she was elected by vote to be part of the International Executive Committee of SiGraDi (2010-2014); and was SiGraDi Coordinator of Communications (2012-2014). Gabriela’s achievements are recognized with numerous awards, including second place in research nationwide productivity in Venezuela, the “Program of Stimulus to Innovation and Investigation, Level C” award (2011-2013), and the award for Pedagogical Innovation Contest and the Ministry of Education of the Government of Chile, research project applied in the classroom, 1st place winner of the UTEM 2021, Metropolitan Technological University, UTEM and Ministry of Education, Santiago, Chile. Gabriela continues to share her knowledge since she has been teaching art to Catholic schools in Milwaukee since 2015. Gabriela has left her imprint in research by discovering the implications of the design teaching-learning process, concretely in
architectural and interior design, using Digital Technology through virtual reality and interactive multiuser living worlds in architectural design studios. Gabriela continued researching architectural design and assisted with XR as a studio professor at SARUP UWM (2018 present). Gabriela founded the first VR elective at SARUP UWM and PLURIS XR Mentoring and Consulting Team. Gabriela directed the virtual version of the Solar Shrine Project by Antwane Lee in Burning Man 2020 and the Virtual Campus of SARUP 2020.