Introduction
By Peter Corcoran, University of Galway
IEEE Metaverse Newsletter, 2025
The past six months have confirmed what many of us sensed when we originally launched this newsletter: the Metaverse conversation is accelerating, expanding well beyond the XR community and into the core of networking, standards, civic innovation, and the creative arts. In this second issue of the Metaverse Newsletter we showcase that breadth—highlighting new IEEE standards work, flagship events, and a sweeping “Metaverse 2025 Snapshot” of the latest peer-reviewed research—to help you navigate where the field is heading next.
Standards: Building the Common Fabric
Commercial success in any emerging technology depends on solid, open standards, and IEEE is moving quickly. The newly formed Digital Content Technology Standards Committee already stewards 13 active projects, from sensor/actuator interfaces (P2888.x) to motion-to-photon latency and privacy-preserving avatar interaction (P3079.x), plus the first Metaverse Ecosystem Reference Model (P3422). Together these projects tackle everything from holographic visualization to carbon-aware digital twins—laying the technical rails on which tomorrow’s interoperable Metaverse will run. Read more.
Events: Where Ideas Become Communities
- Imagine the Citiverse (Tampere, Finland, 27-28 May 2025) exemplifies how forward-thinking cities are blending digital twins, AI-driven urban services, and community co-design to create human-centric virtual-physical hybrids. Tampere’s 2040 vision positions the “Citiverse” as the next evolution of the smart city, prioritizing quality of life, climate action, and inclusive governance. Read more.
- IEEE ISEMV 2025 (Honolulu, Hawaii, 19-20 Oct 2025, co-located with ICCV) invites researchers and industry leaders to explore “Where Virtual Meets Reality,” spanning XR, AI, 5G/6G, blockchain, and the ethics of immersive worlds. Paper submissions and demo proposals are now open. Read more.
- The Musical Metaverse is gaining its own cadence. Europe’s new MUSMET project is tackling ultra-low-latency, multisensory XR performance platforms, while the 2nd IEEE Workshop on the Musical Metaverse (L’Aquila, Italy, 30 October 2025) and related audio challenges will run alongside IEEE International Symposium on the Internet of Sounds 2025. Travel grants for PhD students are available. Read more.
Research Spotlight: Metaverse 2025 Snapshot
This issue debuts a curated digest of more than 150 recent IEEE publications spanning communications, computing, AI, security, sustainability, and user experience. A few trends stand out:
- 6G & Edge Intelligence. From queue-aware task off-loading in air-ground MEC networks to URLLC‐capable STAR-RIS architectures, researchers are aligning next-generation wireless with immersive requirements.
- Digital-Twin–Driven Sustainability. New standards and surveys on carbon-aware twins and industrial metaverse applications underline the shift from hype to measurable impact.
- Generative AI Everywhere. Diffusion-based reinforcement learning optimises resource allocation; large language models script dynamic virtual objects; transformer-powered intrusion detection secures IoT gateways.
- Trust, Privacy, and Ethics. Continuous avatar authentication, privacy-preserving federated learning, NFT-backed industrial twins, and quantum-resistant security frameworks signal a maturing focus on responsible design.
A complete, thematically indexed list appears later in the newsletter—your quick path to the latest breakthroughs across 20 IEEE periodicals and dozens of conferences. Read more.
Looking Ahead
In less than a year we have moved from debating “What is the Metaverse?” to engineering how it will be networked, secured, governed, and experienced. IEEE members are at the centre of that shift—drafting standards, publishing foundational research, and convening global forums.
We hope this issue sparks new collaborations and helps you situate your own work in the larger tapestry. As always, we welcome feedback and submissions for future editions—whether technical deep dives, policy perspectives, artistic explorations, or reports from the field. Let’s continue to build a Metaverse that is open, inclusive, and worthy of the many communities it aims to serve.
On behalf of the editorial team, thank you for reading, and enjoy Issue #2!
Peter Corcoran, Galway, Ireland
