Dr Kaja Antlej is a Slovenian-born, Australia-based designer, researcher and educator working at the intersection of human-centred design, immersive extended reality, human space exploration and digital heritage/virtual museums. She is a Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design at Deakin University’s School of Engineering, based across Geelong and Melbourne, and Co-founder and Co-lead of the Human-Centric Technologies Lab. Her research explores how immersive and emerging technologies can improve human wellbeing, cultural engagement and quality of life in space and challenging environments on Earth. Her wider interests include human–AI collaboration, sensory engagement, inclusive design, healthy ageing, futures thinking and the transfer of space-related research into healthcare and other sectors. Kaja has established professional and academic connections across the space sectors in in Australia, Japan, US, Europe and Slovenia. She is Chair Emeritus and Strategic Initiatives Director of the Melbourne Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), a member of the International Astronautical Federation’s (IAF) Committee for the Cultural Utilisation of Space (ITACCUS) and an alumna of the International Space University (ISU; SHSSP21). She is also engaged with the Designers in Space Community (DiSC) and is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST). Her Slovenian affiliations include the Slovenian Australian Academic Association (SAAA; co-founder and past president), the Association of Slovenes Educated Abroad (VTIS; member), ASEF (mentor), and her alma mater, the University of Ljubljana.

ASEF Junior Fellows may contribute to projects involving:

• Extended reality (XR; VR/AR/MR) for wellbeing in isolation on Earth and in space, including immersive experiences for astronauts, people in isolated and confined environments, intensive-care patients and older adults;
• Human-centred design for humans in space, examining how habitats, interfaces, activities and emerging technologies can support astronauts’ physical, psychological, social and cultural needs;
• Virtual museums and digital heritage, including virtual and mixed-reality exhibitions, interactive storytelling and accessible engagement with cultural collections;
• Culturally meaningful and nature-based immersive experiences;
• Futures thinking and design for extreme environments.

Students are also welcome to bring their own VR prototypes for further development and testing with users in Australia. Projects may involve research design, user-experience evaluation, usability testing and the collection and analysis of qualitative, quantitative or physiological data.

Kaja has mentored ASEF Junior Fellows and students from design, engineering, heritage, tourism, healthcare and related disciplines. Her mentoring approach is interdisciplinary, collaborative and project-based. She supports mentees in defining research questions, selecting suitable methods, developing and testing prototypes, conducting user studies, preparing publications and presentations, and building international academic and professional networks.