Professorial Faculty
Technical University of Munich

Prof. Dr. Johanna Pirker

Professorship

N-Dimensional User Experience

School

TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology

Contact Details

Business card at TUMonline

Academic Career and Research Areas

Johanna Pirker (*1988) conducts research at the intersection of artificial intelligence, virtual worlds, games, virtual and augmented reality, and human-computer interaction. Her work focuses on the development of interactive, adaptive, and immersive systems and their application in education, science, therapy, and industry. In particular, she explores the potential of games and virtual environments as tools for learning, simulation, and innovation.

Johanna Pirker studied Software Engineering at the Technische Universität Graz and completed a research stay at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during her studies. After earning her PhD in computer science with a focus on immersive worlds, she established a research group on games and immersive technologies in Graz. Further positions took her to ETH Zürich and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Since 2025, she has been Professor of N-Dimensional User Experience at the Technische Universität München.

Awards

  • Hedy Lamarr Prize (2021)
  • Käthe Leichter Prize (2020)
  • Women in Tech Award by Futurezone (2019)
  • Styrian Science Award “Digitalization in Science” (2019)
  • Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe, Science & Healthcare (2018)

Key Publications (all publications)

 Pirker, J. (2025). The Game is On: Wie Gaming unsere Welt revolutioniert. ecoWing.

Abstract

Glawogger, F., Holly, M., Stang, J. T., Schumm, H., Lang, F., Criscione, E., ... & Pirker, J. (2025, August). VRTeaching: a tool for virtual reality remote lectures. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 10, p. 1608151). Frontiers Media SA.

Abstract

Drachen, A., Pirker, J., & Nacke, L. E. (2025). The Future of Games in Society (Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop 25102). Dagstuhl Reports, 15(3), 39-55.

Abstract

Pirker, J., Steinmaurer, A., & Karakas, A. (2021, June). Beyond gaming: The potential of twitch for online learning and teaching. In Proceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1 (pp. 74-80).

Abstract

Pirker, J., Lesjak, I., Parger, M., & Gütl, C. (2017, September). An educational physics laboratory in mobile versus room scale virtual reality-a comparative study. In Online Engineering & Internet of Things: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation REV 2017, held 15-17 March 2017, Columbia University, New York, USA (pp. 1029-1043). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Abstract

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