The VRAI Lab is staffed by researchers and graduate students from the Department of Philosophy, who use cutting-edge technology to solve complex, real-world issues as virtual reality and artificial intelligence become more prominent in industry, research, and culture.
Javier Gomez-Lavin is an assistant professor with the Department of Philosophy at Purdue University whose research lies at the intersection of cognitive science, moral psychology, and philosophy of mind. He is also the director of the Purdue Normativity and Cognitions (PuNCs) Lab.
His interdisciplinary work blends methods from experimental social psychology and analytical philosophy of science to help detail the multifaceted ways that cognition both shapes and is shaped by our social, aesthetic, and moral worlds. Prior to coming to Purdue, Javier was a sessional assistant professor with the Department of Philosophy and Cognitive Science Program at York University in Toronto.
Samantha Ooley is the academic program manager for the Department of Philosophy at Purdue University. She received her Master’s in Philosophy from the former IUPUI, and is currently working on a PhD in Philosophy at Purdue.
Samantha is interested in the connections between game play and learning, and how this connection can improve education. She supports experiential learning opportunities and has been excited to help develop the VRAI Lab for this purpose. She loves to play card and board games, as well as video games. Some of her favorite games are Rummy, Splendor, the Harvest Moon series, and of course, Super Smash Bros.
Bruce Rushing is a post-doctoral fellow with the Department of Philosophy at Purdue University. With a background in machine learning and a PhD in Philosophy from UC Irvine, he brings a unique perspective to AI research, combining rigorous philosophical analysis with practical machine learning applications.
He specializes in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the philosophy of science. His research focuses on developing interpretable and safe AI algorithms, exploring the mutual relevance of machine learning and philosophy of science, and investigating Frank Ramsey's theories on scientific reasoning under uncertainty.
James Day is a PhD student with the Department of Philosophy at Purdue University, specializing in philosophy of law and applied ethics. He currently serves as a research assistant for the VRAI Lab.
His research focuses on criminal punishment, particularly consequentialist models of punishment, and the Hart-Fuller debate and its implications for legal positivism and legal realism. His recent studies concern group agency and group cognition, asking whether groups can exhibit functionally similar (or identical) processes to those described by computational theories of cognition.
Troy Seagraves is recognized for his contributions to the development and management of the VRAI Lab at Purdue University. Troy Seagraves is currently a visiting instructor in Purdue's Cornerstone Program for Integrated Liberal Arts. He received his PhD in Philosophy from Purdue University in 2024.
His work focuses on rational options, virtues related to our imperfections, and their intersection—notably, how intrapersonal conflicts within one's intellectual virtues might make it the case that one has multiple rationally available doxastic attitudes given some evidence. Recently, his work unpacks the vices sitting behind self-hatred and perfectionism. In his teaching, Troy regularly uses insights into the latter to prepare students to more virtuously respond to failure.