5 min read by Ankita Atrey
Jens Emil Grønbæk joined Aarhus University (AU) in August 2025 as a Tenure Track Assistant Professor in the Human-Centered Computing section. His core research is focused on Mixed Reality Telepresence and Multimodal Interfaces for distributed team collaboration. At AU, he leads cutting-edge research, combining academic exploration with real-world impact, from shaping features in Microsoft Teams to building futuristic tools that support creative teamwork across distances. He also co-founded the Blended Realities Collective, a team of Human-Computer Interaction researchers distributed across Denmark, Germany, UK, and Australia.
Before joining Aarhus University, he spent a year as an Honorary Guest Researcher at the University of Melbourne, working closely with Professor Eduardo Velloso. This postdoctoral fellowship was supported by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF) as a 2-year project grant. His time in Australia played a key role in translating mixed reality technologies from lab concepts into real-world tools for hybrid collaboration. The experience also helped shape the foundation for the Blended Living Lab, a major research initiative he now leads to explore how emerging technologies can support creative teamwork across distributed environments.
Jens Emil earned his PhD in May 2020 from Aarhus University and Microsoft Research, under the supervision of Marianne Graves Petersen, Peter Gall Krogh, and Kenton O’Hara. His doctoral research focused on next-generation interfaces for collaboration, blending academic inquiry with industrial applications, particularly in how technology can support creative, spatial, and hybrid work. During his PhD, he completed two major internships with Microsoft Research. In the first, he worked on Project Wellington, where he designed, developed, and evaluated proximity-based interaction features for a Microsoft collaboration app, elements that later informed Microsoft Teams’ companion mode. In the second, he developed augmented reality solutions for enterprise video-mediated collaboration, a project that won an award in a global Microsoft Hackathon Executive Challenge and resulted in a patent.
Sharing about his current research, he explains:
“Now, as an assistant professor starting my lab, I focus on mixed reality for distributed team collaboration. One major project I’m developing is what I call the ‘Blended Living Lab’. It addresses a frustration many researchers share: collaboration studies often happen in artificial, controlled settings that don’t reflect everyday work.”
“The goal is to build tools for everyday use, and we start with ourselves as a distributed team of researchers, spread across Australia, Denmark, Germany, and the UK. By using the tools in our own workflows, we can better understand adoption barriers and refine the designs. It’s a kind of social experiment to uncover the practical realities of using mixed reality in distributed work.”
Discussing the challenges and long-term vision, he adds:
“There are three major challenges I see in this research:
First, mixed reality enhances collaboration within physical spaces, but people often occupy different rooms with varying layouts. How can we design shared surfaces that make sense across these diverse environments? We have begun exploring this with a system called Blended Whiteboard and through design workshops with collaboration facilitators.
Second, there is no workflow integration – and switching between video calls and mixed reality remains awkward.
And third, driving early adoption. It’s one thing for us to use the tools in our lab, but convincing external teams to change their habits is challenging. People are used to Zoom and Teams; they may not love them, but they get the job done.
“The goal isn’t just to build new tech, it’s to understand where mixed reality truly adds value in the modern workplace. I believe it can support a more flexible, spatial form of collaboration that’s great for creativity. I often reference Star Wars-style hologram meetings not because we can build them today, but because they help illustrate what’s possible. My next experiment is about finding realistic ways to simulate that experience using today’s tech.”
On the broader impact, he says:
“Take LEGO, for example. They work with physical prototypes, which are hard to share remotely. Mixed reality offers new ways to support that kind of spatial, creative teamwork. But to get there, we must design for the real world, not just lab demos.”
“The broader social impact lies in making hybrid work more physically engaging. By blending distributed spaces, we’re not just improving communication, we’re enabling the experience of being together in space across distance.”
Asked whether there are teaching, student, or industry opportunities connected to this work, he says:
“I’m launching a new course called Mixed Reality User Experience next spring. It’s a rebrand of the previous Augmented Reality course and part of the Human-Centered Computing specialization at the master’s level. We train students to design interactions that include 3D avatars and spatial tools, such as virtual painting on the real world – the same kinds of systems we’re developing in the lab.”
“I also have ongoing collaborations with Microsoft and Google on AI-enhanced meeting solutions. Through these connections, there are great internship and research opportunities for students.”
Sharing about his life outside work, he smiles:
“I play the drums and started a band at the CS department. We played at our Christmas party last year, and there are more gigs ahead. I also love spending time with my two boys and my wife, with a third baby on the way. We enjoy traveling and hiking together, a passion that started during our time together in Australia.”
