Maria Gorlatova

Sternberg Family Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr. Gorlatova's research goal is to advance computing systems that operate reliably in complex open-world environments and in close interaction with people, drawing on an in-depth understanding of human perception, attention, needs, and behavior. Her current focus is on safe and robust augmented reality (AR) and human-centered spatial AI. 

 

Dr. Gorlatova earned her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, and her M.Sc. and B.Sc. (Summa Cum Laude) degrees in Electrical Engineering from University of Ottawa, Canada. She has several years of industry experience, where she had been affiliated with Telcordia Technologies, IBM, and D. E. Shaw Research. She came to Duke from Princeton University, where she held the positions of an Associate Research Scholar in the Electrical Engineering Department and an Associate Director of the Princeton EDGE Lab. 

Dr. Gorlatova received multiple awards including the NSF CAREER Award, the DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA), the DARPA Director’s Fellowship, the IEEE ISMAR 2025 Best Paper Award, the IEEE Communications Society Award for Advances in Communications, and research awards from Meta, Cisco, and IBM. She served as the TPC Co-chair of ACM/IEEE IPSN 2023, the General Co-Chair of the 2025 NSF Workshop on Networking and Systems Challenges in Immersive Computing, and the TPC Co-chair of ACM/IEEE SenSys 2025.

Appointments and Affiliations

  • Sternberg Family Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

Contact Information

Education

  • B.S. University of Ottawa (Canada), 2004
  • M.S. University of Ottawa (Canada), 2007
  • Ph.D. Columbia University, 2013
  • Princeton University, 2018

Research Interests

Dr. Gorlatova's lab works on safe and robust augmented reality (AR), human-centered spatial AI, and the scientific and computer systems foundations of next-generation extended reality (XR) and immersive AI. Specific research directions include robust environmental and user-state awareness, runtime assessment and monitoring, adaptive operation in changing real-world conditions, edge AI, embedded sensing, wireless communications, and real-time system evaluation, as well as applications of spatial AI and XR in healthcare and human-robot collaboration (HRC). 

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

  • DARPA Director’s Fellowship Award. DARPA. 2025
  • DARPA Young Faculty Award. DARPA. 2023
  • National Science Foundation CAREER Award. National Science Foundation (NSF). 2021
  • Best Research Artifact Award. IEEE IPSN. 2020
  • N2 Women Rising Star. Networking Networking Women (N2Women). 2019
  • Young Author Best Paper Award. IEEE Communications Society. 2016
  • Jury Award for Outstanding Achievement in Communications. Columbia University Electrical Engineering Department. 2013
  • Anita Borg USA Fellowship. Google. 2012
  • Award for Advances in Communications. IEEE Communications Society. 2011
  • Best Student Demonstration Award. ACM SenSys. 2011
  • Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate CGS-D Scholarship. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Canada. 2008
  • Presidential Fellowship. Columbia University. 2008

Courses Taught

  • EGR 393: Research Projects in Engineering
  • ECE 899: Special Readings in Electrical Engineering
  • ECE 891: Internship
  • ECE 654: Edge Computing
  • ECE 494: Projects in Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • ECE 493: Projects in Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • ECE 392: Projects in Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • ECE 391: Projects in Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • ECE 356: Computer Network Architecture
  • ECE 292: Projects in Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • ECE 291: Projects in Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • COMPSCI 564: Edge Computing
  • COMPSCI 394: Research Independent Study
  • COMPSCI 393: Research Independent Study
  • COMPSCI 391: Independent Study
  • COMPSCI 356: Computer Network Architecture
  • CMAC 491: Computational Media, Arts and Culture Independent Study

In the News

Representative Publications

  • Eom, S., M. Gorlatova, C. Zhao, and R. Beams. “Evaluation of marker-based medical image registration using augmented reality head-mounted display.” Frontiers in Virtual Reality 7 (September 4, 2026): 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2026.1854896.
  • Eom, Sangjun, Tianyi Hu, Wenyi Xu, Liheng Zou, Ernesto Escobar, Gabriel Streisfeld, Anna Mall, Bradi Granger, and Maria Gorlatova. “Rhythms of Recovery: Patient-Centered Virtual Reality Exergame for Physical Rehabilitation in the Intensive Care Unit.” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 32, no. 5 (May 2026): 3679–89. https://doi.org/10.1109/tvcg.2026.3680730.
  • Fronk, C., H. Ye, M. Pajic, and M. Gorlatova. “Demo: Control the ARmada: LMM Coordination for Multi-Robot AR-HRC.” In Hotmobile 2026 Proceedings of the 2026 ACM 27th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, 174, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1145/3789514.3796258.
  • Ye, H., T. Hu, and M. Gorlatova. “No Guide, No Cheat: Detecting Smart Glasses via AR Optical Signatures.” In Hotmobile 2026 Proceedings of the 2026 ACM 27th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, 91–96, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1145/3789514.3792055.
  • Eom, S., T. Ma, M. Pajic, M. Gorlatova, and M. Hadziahmetovic. “LIO-VisionAR: Intelligence-enabled augmented reality guidance for laser indirect ophthalmoscope-based retinal laser therapy.” Intelligence Based Medicine 13 (March 1, 2026). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibmed.2026.100353.