Roberto B. Figueroa Jr.

Associate Professor of Information Technology

Dean, Faculty of Information and Communication Studies

Roberto B. Figueroa Jr. is the Dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication Studies (FICS) at the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), where he also serves as Lab Head of the Immersive Spatial Technologies and Realities Laboratory (ISTaR Labs). He leads the Immersive Open Pedagogies Program, a pioneering initiative that explores the integration of virtual reality, spatial computing, and metaverse platforms into open and distance e-learning. His research and leadership focus on expanding access to education and fostering global collaboration through immersive technologies, digital humanities, and intercultural communication. He is the program chair of the Mixed, Augmented, and Virtual Realities Special Interest Group (MAVR-SIG) of the Japan Association of Language Teaching (JALT) and is one of the recipients of the 2021 Michele Steel Best of JALT Award. He is one of the pioneering Filipino members of the Metaverse Academic Nexus for Global Opportunities (MANGOs) initiative and one of the managing editors of the International Journal for Educational Media and Technology. He is a Transpacific Bridge Fellow at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS), where he actively coordinates and implements various Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) activities as well as faculty, staff, and student exchanges between UPOU and TUFS. He is also an affiliate faculty of the Department of Computer Science, College of Science, UP Cebu, where his lab hosts interns who are interested in developing immersive applications for sustainable development.  He is an affiliate and fellow of the UP Intelligent Systems Center, the UP Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, the National College of Public Administration and Governance, UP Diliman, and the Interdisciplinary Studies Center for Integrated Natural Resources and Environment Management, UPLB.